Therefore there is absolutely no basis to the statement attributed to a Perth rabbi (“Manny Waks pays the price for speaking about sexual abuse in an Orthodox Jewish community”, The Australian, May 18) that "95% of Australian rabbis prefer child sexual abuse be dealt with internally".
The denial:
For Immediate Release
RCV re-affirms: All cases of child abuse must be reported to the Police
The Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV), the largest State Rabbinic body in Australia, has stated on numerous occasions that all cases of child abuse must be reported immediately to the Police. The Council’s resolution to this effect was adopted by the Rabbis of Victoria unanimously and bears the name of each Rabbi.
Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, President of the RCV said that for several years now the RCV has been contributing to the fight against child sexual abuse. "The RCV's widely publicised position that any and all cases of child abuse must be reported immediately to the Police and relevant authorities has appeared numerous times in Jewish and wider Australian media", said Rabbi Kluwgant.
Therefore there is absolutely no basis to the statement attributed to a Perth rabbi (“Manny Waks pays the price for speaking about sexual abuse in an Orthodox Jewish community”, The Australian, May 18) that "95% of Australian rabbis prefer child sexual abuse be dealt with internally".
We look forward to a full and swift retraction by those responsible for this erroneous claim.
Rabbi James Kennard
Secretary
Who is the unnamed "Perth rabbi?"
Dovid Freilich, who was the president of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia when the Melbourne Chabad Yeshivah College child sexual abuse scandal erupted.
Freilich resigned from the ORA after his call for full cooperation with the police investigation caused members of the organization to attack him as advocating mesirah, informing on a Jew to non-Jewish authorities – a violation of Jewish law if it applied to reporting alleged pedophiles.
"I was castigated by other rabbis. They don't talk to me anymore. I regard it as a compliment... The law of the land is the law of the land," Freilich said, rejecting the idea that child sexual abuse victims should report the abuse to rabbis rather than police.
Knowing that the RCV's unnamed Perth rabbi is Freilich and knowing what he actually alleges makes the RCV's demand for an apology ring more than a bit hollow.
[Hat Tip: BeenThereDoneThat.]