Australian Jewish Lawyer Suspended from Practice for Rebuking CSA victim

SYDNEY Australia — A Melbourne attorney who said “Jewish people should not assist police investigating another Jewish person” has been banned from practice for 15 months for rebuking a victim of child sexual abuse who cooperated with police.

Alex Lewenberg made the comments twice in 2011 while representing a now-convicted child sex abuser, David Cyprys, who is serving a prison sentence after being found guilty of raping one boy and molesting eight others while employed at the Melbourne Yeshivah Centre and College.

Lewenberg made the comment in court for a bail hearing and in a telephone conversation with an abuse victim who was secretly recorded.

The judgment delivered Tuesday by Judge Pamela Jenkins at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal contained the contents of a written apology from Lewenberg to the victim known only as AVB, in which Lewenberg wrote: “I apologize to you for what I said and I deeply regret the real hurt and harm those words have caused you.”

Lewenberg was also ordered to pay court costs of more than $55,000 to the Legal Services commissioner who prosecuted the case.

In imposing the ban on practicing law, Jenkins noted it was the fifth time Lewenberg had faced disciplinary action and said the apology “fell short of any expression of genuine remorse.” She also ordered Lewenberg to complete a legal education course in ethics and professional responsibility.

In her judgment, Jenkins said Lewenberg had spoken to the victim’s foster parent “expressing his disappointment” in the victim’s conduct.

The ban becomes effective on June 1.

Australia's Top Rabbi Resigns After Giving Evidence at Sex Abuse Royal Commission

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant steps down after commission hears 

he called the father of three abused sons a ‘lunatic’

 Abuse victim Manny Waks said Kluwgant should resign from all his positions
Manny Waks: I'm the 'troublemaker' who blew the whistle on Jewish abuse scandal

The most senior rabbi in Australia has resigned, days after appearing before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, the president of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia, stepped down on Monday morning, the immediate past president, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, confirmed.

Child sexual abuse victims said Kluwgant’s position was untenable after the commission heard on Friday that he had called the father of three sons who were sexually abused a “lunatic” who was guilty of “killing” the Orthodox Jewish Chabad community within which his sons had been violated.

Zephaniah Waks told the commission how he and his family were ostracised and bullied by religious leaders after speaking out about the abuse within Chabad’s Yeshivah centre headquarters in Melbourne.

The commission heard that as Waks was giving his evidence, Kluwgant sent a text message to the editor of the Australian Jewish News that read: “Zephaniah is killing us.

“He is a lunatic on the fringe, guilty of neglect of his own children,” it said. “Where was he when all this was happening?”

Waks’s son Manny, who was abused within the centre, said Kluwgant’s resignation was welcome.

“I hope this is his first step towards educating himself about child sexual abuse and that he can contribute towards being a part of the solution to it from now on,” Waks said.

Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant

“But he is unfit to hold any leadership position. As he holds several high-profile positions within the Yeshivah community, I feel he should resign from them all.”

Kluwgant’s resignation is the second to result from the hearings. The director of the Sydney Yeshivah centre, Rabbi Yosef Feldman, resigned last week, after offending child sex abuse victims and members of the Jewish community during his evidence.

Since 2013, the commission has been investigating how institutions such as schools, churches, sports clubs and government organisations have responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse.

The past fortnight of hearings was the first time the orthodox Yeshivah centres had come under its scrutiny. The Yeshivah centres in New South Wales and Victoria run schools, religious activities and youth programs. Failures to address child sexual abuse within the centres were highlighted before the commission at Melbourne’s county court.

Rabbi Has 'No Recollection' of Stripping Child Sex Abuse Victim of Scholarship

Rabbi Abraham Glick tells royal commission he could not even remember the student attending the school

Yesterday, I reported that two of Sydney, Australia's Yeshiva Centre's leading Rabbis received special honours, in spite of their apparent involvement in covering up pedophile activities in the centre. One of the Rabbis resigned the following week after giving testimony at Australia's Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

The other Rabbi, Abraham Glick, testified today before the commission. Rabbi Glick's testimony was not very helpful, however, as he could not recall anything about anything, particularly if it might incriminate himself or anyone else in the centre.

I'm having trouble rectifying Rabbi Glick's convenient lack of memory with a leader, teacher, and holy man of God.

Rabbi Abraham Glick

The former principal of an Orthodox Jewish school said he does not remember removing the scholarship of a student who reported to him that he had been sexually abused.

Rabbi Abraham Glick said he could not even remember the interstate student, identified only to the public as AVR, as having ever attended the school within the Yeshivah religious centre in Melbourne.

Glick appeared before the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse on Thursday after AVR gave evidence on Monday.

AVR told the commission that in 1990 he was repeatedly raped by a security guard at the Yeshivah centre and college in Melbourne, David Cyprys, who in 2013 was convicted and jailed for his crimes.

But when he and his mother reported the abuse to Glick, AVR said his scholarship was stripped from him and he was sent home.

Glick told the commission: “I have no recollection of AVR attending Yeshivah. I do not recall him.”

Counsel assisting the royal commission, Maria Gerace, centre

He conceded it was a “serious mistake” not to report another alleged abuser and teacher, Rabbi David Kramer, to police. Instead the school sent Kramer to Israel after finding out about the abuse allegations against him.

Glick told the commission that at the time he felt if Kramer was found to be guilty, he could simply be extradited from Israel. He denied he had tried to cover up the allegations.

Kramer has since been convicted for child sex offences in the US and Australia.

The commission heard that a victim told Glick about his abuse in 1986 and was sent to see the school’s director, Rabbi Dovid Groner.

Glick said he sent students to Groner for many reasons but he could not recall ever sending someone relating to child sexual abuse.

Groner also never informed him that other child sex abuse complaints had been made by students and their parents, Glick said.

Counsel assisting the commission, Maria Gerace, said it was “truly extraordinary” that Groner, who is now dead, would not have told Glick about students who were being abused in his school and under his care as principal.

“All I can say is Rabbi Groner dealt with many sensitive issues,” Glick said. “He dealt with them in strict confidence. He dealt with them very discreetly. I can’t say why he didn’t tell me other than that.”

Victims have told the commission throughout the course of the hearing that they had told Groner they were being abused, but that Groner never went to police or offered them help.

Glick was asked by Gerace whether he agreed that this failure by Groner to act was a “grave failing”.

Glick responded: “It’s very difficult for me to criticise Rabbi Groner. I just have enormous respect for him. And knowing all the work he did for the community I’m prepared to say if he were alive today he would agree that was a mistake, a big mistake.”

The hearings continue.

Yeshiva Rabbi Receives Award then Resigns After Child Sex Abuse Comments

A RABBI condemned by Jewish leaders for his comments regarding child sex abuse “hype” and the need for pedophiles to receive greater leniency has resigned from the board of Sydney, Australia’s Yeshiva Centre.

This happened just days after controversially receiving an award from Chabad.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman, a rabbinical director at the Yeshiva Centre in Bondi and son of the ultra-orthodox Chabad movement’s spiritual head in NSW, also told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he did not know it was illegal for a man to touch a child’s genitals when he had to deal with an abuse complaint in 2002.

Nor did he seem to know that it was immoral - something he has yet to admit.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman

His evidence to the royal commission provoked a firestorm in the Jewish community, with the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Australia yesterday adding its voice to those calling for Rabbi Feldman to end his pastoral and community involvement.

Call to strip rabbi of all powers

Today the Yeshiva Centre said Rabbi Feldman had resigned his position as a director on its Board of Management, including his administrative responsibilities.

“The Yeshiva Centre thanks Rabbi Yosef Feldman for his years of selfless dedication to the Centre,” it said in a statement. “The Yeshiva Centre reiterates its staunch commitment to protect victims of abuse including full compliance with authorities and legal procedures.”

Yeshiva spokesman Rabbi Eli Feldman, the brother of Rabbi Yosef Feldman, told The Australian that the resignation did not preclude Rabbi Yosef Feldman from any future paid or unpaid role with the Yeshiva Centre and its associated entities, paid or unpaid.

Of course not! The last position he resigned from in controversy, rehired him as soon as the controversy died down. Smoke and mirrors. No genuine acknowledgement of guilt.

Rabbi Yosef Feldman previously resigned a position as president of the NSW Rabbinical Council amid controversy about some of his email comments relating to child sexual abuse.

He resumed the position a short time later.

In a statement released today, Rabbi Yosef Feldman said he apologised to anyone “who may have been embarrassed or ashamed by my views, words, understandings, recordings or emails about child sexual abuse or any other matter.”

“I have dedicated my life to doing whatever I can to protect and assist all people in need including those who have suffered from any form of abuse, especially children, and it pains me greatly that words that I have expressed have upset victims and their families,” he said.

“In the future I will be more careful with my words, so that they are only a source of pride to the Jewish and General community.

In other words, he will stop speaking the truth and start lying right from the start.

“I commit to undertake formal training and education on how to identify, handle and report abuse allegations.”

Chabad Gave Torah Honors Last Shabbat To Rabbis Accused Of Child Sex Abuse Coverups

Chabad in Melbourne gave Rabbi Avrohom Glick and Rabbi Yosef Feldman aliyot this past Shabbat, even though both have been exposed at the Australian Royal Commission investigating child sex abuse as people who allegedly covered up child sex abuse, enabled it and harassed alleged victims.

Rabbi Yossef Feldman

Rabbi Avrohom Glick

Feldman, in fact, told the commission that he wasn't sure if an adult male touching a child's genitals was criminal and if it needed to be reported to police. (He later clarified this by saying there are different types of touch.)

Feldman also admitted that he had never familiarized himself with Australian law on mandatory reporters and child sex abuse, even though he was a mandatory reporter who was in charge of a yeshiva in which children were molested under his watch. But he got an aliyah after that testimony nonetheless.

The Herald Sun reports:

A JEWISH victim of child sexual abuse was forced to sit and watch at the weekend as Rabbis accused of a widespread cover-up were granted religious honours.

The victim, known only as AVB, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse today that the honours were granted during a shul service at Yeshivah Synagogue.

He said both Rabbi Abraham Glick and Rabbi Yosef Feldman were given the honours in front of the congregation.

Rabbi Glick is yet to give evidence to the commission but has been blamed for failing to handle complaints of child abuse appropriately.

The former Yeshivah College principal still holds one of the most senior positions at the school despite reports he didn’t pass on numerous alleged incidents of sexual abuse to authorities while in charge between 1986 and 2007.

He was in charge of the school when convicted paedophile Rabbi David Kramer was hurriedly shipped to the US after complaints were made by parents alleging serious sexual misconduct in the early 1990s.

This is what happens when your 'religion' becomes your idol and takes your eyes off God. It's true of the Catholic church more-so than any other institution.

Rabbi Feldman sparked widespread criticism yesterday when he made a shocking defence of paedophiles, saying some should be left alone if they have not offended for several decades.

Rabbi Feldman said he didn’t agree that paedophiles who had repented and not reoffended risked jail time if they were prosecuted.

While the men were granted the honours at the weekend victims of abuse have complained that they have been shunned from receiving them since going public with their stories.

AVB said he and his family had been bullied, harrased and vilified for trying to rid the ultra-orthodox Chabad commuity of the sexual abuse scourge.

He said one Rabbi had even referred to him as a ‘moser’, the most offensive term for Jews, referring to one who breaks the rule of Mesirah, informing on Jews to secular authorities.

“We are being victimised. We’re being judged,” he said.

“The foundation is rotten to its core."

“I often wonder whether I made the right decision coming forward.

“I know I need to do what I need to do if we’re going to change things.”

Comparing the child sexual abuse crisis to the Holocaust AVB said Jews needed to learn from the wrongs of the past.

“We will never forget (the Holocaust). That is always etched in our history so it shall never happen again,” he said. “The holocaust was the murder of Jews."

“We’ve heard evidence from multiple rabbis that the perpetration of abuse is a kin to murder."

“We need to accept and hold up that the murdering of children through sexual abuse by our own is also a crime."

“Those individuals need to be, I’m not sure if the word is banished, but they need to be held in that regard as having perpetrated that murder.”

AVB, who was molested by Yeshivah employees Daniel Hayman and David Cyrprys in Melbourne and Sydney, said abuse perpetrated on him was wholly avoidable.

And he said the Yeshivah community continued to rally around his abusers.

Yesterday, Rabbi Feldman, a close friend of Daniel Hayman, admitted being angry when he was charged fearing he would end up in jail.

“Is it just a situation where we punish someone for what they did 40 years ago even though they’ve changed totally? They’re not a threat to society and everything else,” he said.

“Of course according to law you’re supposed to, I never said it shouldn’t be done according to law.

“But I’m certainly not happy about it. I’ve said this again and again. I don't know why this is an issue.”…

Astonishing!