Reporter
Melbourne
Sydney-based Rabbi Yosef Feldman has resigned from the board of Sydney’s Yeshiva Centre.Source: Supplied
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’s Yeshiva Centre, but may continue to preside over a local synagogue.
Rabbi Yosef Feldman, the rabbinical director at Yeshiva in Bondi and son of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad movement’s spiritual head in NSW, provoked outrage in the Jewish community with his evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse this month, including that he did not know it was illegal for a man to touch a child’s genitals when he dealt with an abuse complaint in 2002.
Following calls from several Jewish bodies for Rabbi Feldman to be stripped of his authority, the Yeshiva Centre said yesterday he had resigned as a director on its board of management.
Yeshiva spokesman Rabbi Eli Feldman — the brother of Rabbi Yosef Feldman — told The Australian the resignation did not preclude his brother from any future paid or unpaid role with the Yeshiva Centre and its associated entities. Rabbi Yosef Feldman is also presiding rabbi at the Southern Sydney Synagogue. The synagogue did not respond when asked if he would remain in the role.
In 2011, Rabbi Feldman resigned as president of the NSW Rabbinical Council amid public controversy about some of his email comments relating to child sexual abuse.
He resumed the position a short time later.
In a statement, Rabbi Feldman said yesterday 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”.
“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,” he said.
His resignation came as managers of Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre revealed they had decided not to intervene when complaints were raised against a rabbi who had preached against Jews speaking out on child sexual abuse without permission.
Zephaniah Waks — father of three boys who were abused at Yeshivah — asked the Victoria Police to consider charges against Rabbi Zvi Telsner after the rabbi allegedly told Yeshivah congregants only a rabbi could give permission for secular authorities to be contacted.
Yeshivah’s former management committee chairman Don Wolf told the royal commission the committee did not investigate when there were angry “murmurings” about the sermon because it didn’t intervene in synagogue affairs.
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