Update:
A Jewish student has told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse he was stripped of his scholarship after he reported sex abuse.
The student said he was raped multiple times by security guard, David Cyprys, at Yeshivah school.
Upon reporting the rape, the student said the school did not show him any support, eventually revoking his scholarship.
“I feel Rabbi Glick and Yeshivah did not want me there any more. They did not offer help or counseling. No one at Yeshivah would speak to us or help us,” the victim said.
Last week, the commission heard of the Yeshivah community’s long history of abuse, and the religious code of silence which stifled victims’ reports.
Mamamia previously published…
The role a Jewish code of silence played in the handling of abuse allegations at the Yeshivah centres in Melbourne and Sydney will be examined by the royal commission into child sexual abuse.
Sitting in Melbourne, the inquiry heard senior rabbis within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community linked to the Yeshivah College and Centre in East St Kilda and Bondi would give evidence into their handling of allegations and the treatment of abuse victims and their families.
Part of the examination will focus on the concept of Mesirah, the religious code dictating Jewish people do not report or “hand over” other Jewish people to the authorities.
The inquiry has heard that victims and their families have been criticised and ostracised by the their community to this day.
Counsel assisting the commission Maria Gerace said evidence would be given about abuse perpetrated by three convicted child abusers; David Cyprus, David Kramer and Daniel Hayman, and will look at when Jewish leaders first heard of allegations, and their responses.
The inquiry will also look into the departure of Kramer from Australia days after accusations of abuse were raised with the college.
Kramer is a former teacher from Yeshivah College in Melbourne who served jail terms in both Melbourne and the United States for child abuse.
Cyrpus is serial child abuser currently serving an eight-year jail term in Melbourne.
Hayman received a 19-month suspended sentence for abuse he carried out at Yeshivah Bondi.
The commission heard parents complained about Cyprus to the rabbis at Melbourne’s Yeshivah centre in 1992.
One of Cyprus’s victims told the inquiry he was groomed by Cyprus in the 1980s while a student at the Yeshivah College.
He was abused in the ritual bathhouse and in classrooms.
The inquiry heard when the victim’s mother complained to the then head of the Yeshivah centre, Rabbi Davod Groner, he replied: “I thought we’d fixed him” and told her “he’d take care of it.”
The victim, referred to as AVA, said Cyprus once asked him if he knew of any others boys who were interested “in what we’re doing”.
The abuse was reported to police in 2002.
The inquiry will also examine further allegations of abuse and ongoing investigations.
A version of this post originally appeared on the ABC website and was republished with full permission.
Top Comments
I read from a victim of clergy abuse that in their opinion, paedophiles are drawn to these types of institutions because of the framework that allows them to get away with the abuse, as opposed to the institution turning men into paedophiles. You have to think then why these institutions insist on operating under the same framework.
One Jewish Rabbi and so many priests might be the reason.