24^th June 2013
The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ), the national peak body of the Jewish community in Australia, is appalled by, and unequi­voc­ally condemns comments attrib­uted to Rabbi Boruch Lesches as reported in The Age (23 June 2013).
The ECAJ reaffirms its public state­ments of 18 July 2011 and 27 November 2012 that:

• child sexual abuse is a crime of the utmost ser­i­ous­ness;
• it is oblig­at­ory to report all alleg­a­tions of sexual abuse to the relevant author­it­ies, and all alleged victims should be encour­aged to come forward and provide the police with any relevant inform­a­tion they may have and do everything to assist the police with their enquiries;
• the families, friends and advisers of those with claims of abuse are encour­aged to support them in every way, for the sake of helping victims to achieve justice and closure and to prevent further harm to other children; and
• there is no place for victims to be ostra­cized or ‘punished’ in any way for coming forward and making a complaint;

and further declares that:

• any sug­ges­tion that young children are in a position to ‘consent’ to sexual abuse is utterly mis­con­ceived and to be deplored;
• racially dis­crim­in­at­ory or vili­fic­at­ory comments of any kind in con­nec­tion with such abuse are unac­cept­able and not to be tolerated.

Contact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Executive Director
phone: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: [email protected]