1^st February 2013
ECAJ President, Dr Danny Lamm, and Executive Director, Peter Wertheim, said today that they were “appalled and dismayed” by comments made earlier this week by American Rabbi Manis Friedman. In a video-taped interview posted on YouTube and since removed, Rabbi Friedman ques­tioned whether sexual abuse is a big averah (sin) and sought to minimise the damage done to victims of child abuse.
Lamm and Wertheim said:

These state­ments are breath-taking in their ignorance and insens­it­iv­ity. Rabbi Friedman should publicly retract them and apologise without delay. His views are com­pletely at variance with pre­vail­ing rab­bin­ic­al opinion in Australia.
We endorse the statement of Rabbi Moshe Gutnick on behalf of the Organ­isa­tion of Rabbis of Aus­tralasia (ORA) con­demning Rabbi Friedman’s comments as utterly incorrect and poten­tially causing further harm to victims of child sexual abuse.

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