Waks calls for the Sydney Beth Din rabbis to resign
Child sexual abuse advocate Manny Waks has called the four rabbis found guilty of contempt of courts to resign immediately.
Manny ‘waks
Waks stated on behalf of his advocacy organisation in Israel Kol vOz : “As victims and survivors of child sexual abuse who have suffered because of the actions of rabbis who preferred to deal with our abusers internally, rather than through the appropriate secular authorities, it is untenable to have a Rabbinate led by people who have been found guilty of contempt of court. How can anyone take seriously their calls to report child sexual abuse allegations to authorities when they themselves do not respect such authorities?
Having been promised a Rabbinate that would be accountable and would speak up when other rabbis acted badly, it is unacceptable to witness other rabbis remaining silent once more. As members of the Jewish community, it is unimaginable that once again, we find ourselves embarrassed and ashamed by the actions of rabbis, especially Rabbi Gutnick, Australia’s most senior rabbi by virtue of his position notwithstanding Rabbi Gutnick’s powerful world-first formal apology on behalf of the Orthodox Rabbinate to survivors of child sexual abuse and his other work in this area.
We unequivocally call on Rabbis Gutnick, Ulman, Chriqui and Langer to immediately resign from the RCANZ. We call on Jewish community leaders to condemn and distance our community from the Orthodox Rabbinate. And we call on the rabbis of the RCANZ, the RCNSW and the Rabbinical Council of Victoria to apologise to the Jewish community and disband their organisations, which once again, have brought shame on us all.”
Rabbis Moshe Gutnick, Yehoram Ulman, Michael Chriqui and Eli Schlanger had appealed to the NSW Supreme Court of Appeals last week to overturn a guilty verdict against them by Justice Sackar in the Supreme Court last year on a charge of contempt of court.
The rabbis had summoned an orthodox member of the Sydney community to appear before the Beth Din on a commercial dispute.
When the businessman refused, the Beth Din threatened religious sanctions. The matter was brought to the Supreme Court which found the rabbis of the Beth Din of contempt of court and were fined $50,000 and costs.
The rabbis appealed the verdict which was upheld by 2–1 by a panel of three judges, but the fines were halved.
Capital W for Waks under the photo of Manny.
Anyhow keep the good work Manny to hunt down the filthy degenerate child abusers.
Absolutely they should resign. If not they need to be removed. Leaders must be of good character and respected by the community. These men lost that status long ago. Well overdue for the community to act.