At our annual con­fer­ence on 26 November 2017, the ECAJ adopted a detailed policy con­cern­ing Child Sexual Abuse, with the backing of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Task Force on Child Pro­tec­tion. That policy can be accessed here.
In March, ECAJ President Anton Block announced the formation of a national working group “to determine what action the ECAJ, its con­stitu­ent and affiliate bodies and other Jewish organ­isa­tions should take in the wake of the recent Report of the Royal Com­mis­sion into Insti­tu­tion­al Responses to Child sexual abuse”.
Now, the ECAJ’s National Working Group has recom­men­ded that the ECAJ do three things:

• Once the National Redress Scheme legis­la­tion is passed, issue to Jewish organ­isa­tions around the country which work with children a ‘Briefing Note and Request for Response’ address­ing their par­ti­cip­a­tion in the National Redress Scheme, their state of com­pli­ance with child pro­tec­tion laws, their com­pli­ance with the specific recom­mend­a­tion of the Royal Com­mis­sion relating to Jewish insti­tu­tions and the issuing of an apology for past wrongs.

• Arrange a panel of gov­ern­ment and other expert later in the year to bring these issues forward for the Jewish community’s knowledge and on-going community education.

• Offer to work with each of the three Jewish organ­isa­tions which were spe­cific­ally iden­ti­fied in the Royal Commission’s report for their historic failings in relation to child pro­tec­tion, in con­sulta­tion with survivors, as they consider all appro­pri­ate action to right past wrongs, including their decision whether to join the National Redress Scheme and issue a public apology.”

Q&A

The following is a question and answer about the ECAJ’s position on the National Redress Scheme for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, updates from the ECAJ’s National Working Group, and our response to other devel­op­ments since the Royal Com­mis­sion’s final report was released:
1. What is ECAJ’s position on the National Redress Scheme for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse coming into effect in all Aus­trali­an states on July 1, 2018, and most of the Royal Commission’s 122 recom­mend­a­tions being adopted by the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment?
The ECAJ and all of its con­stitu­ent organ­isa­tions welcomed the Final Report of the Royal Com­mis­sion into Insti­tu­tion­al Responses to Child Sexual Abuse released on 15 December 2017. The ECAJ has long recog­nised that the Inquiry, its public hearings, findings and recom­mend­a­tions have been of seminal ongoing import­ance for the whole of Aus­trali­an society. The ECAJ called on all Aus­trali­ans and insti­tu­tions to take notice of the recom­mend­a­tions in the Final Report, and fully supports the adoption by the Aus­trali­an Gov­ern­ment of the 122 recom­mend­a­tions in the Final Report. It has called upon all Jewish community organ­isa­tions to pay special regard to recom­mend­a­tion 16.30, and base all their practices of child pro­tec­tion on the explicit recog­ni­tion that halachic concepts of mesirah, moser and loshen hora do not apply to the oblig­a­tion to com­mu­nic­ate and report alleg­a­tions of child sexual abuse, which must be made to the police and the civil author­it­ies.
In addition, the ECAJ and its con­stitu­ent organ­isa­tions have strongly welcomed and fully support the Aus­trali­an Government’s National Redress Scheme for people who have exper­i­enced insti­tu­tion­al child sexual abuse and its sig­ni­fic­ant and major objective to institute a system of redress. The ECAJ has estab­lished a National Working Group to work with all relevant organ­isa­tions in the Jewish community to determine what action the ECAJ, its con­stitu­ent and affiliate bodies and other Jewish organ­isa­tions should take in the wake of the final Report of the Royal Com­mis­sion into Insti­tu­tion­al Responses to Child sexual abuse and the announce­ment of the National Redress scheme. We have liaised with the Jewish survivor group, Tzedek.
2. Please provide a brief update summary of devel­op­ments, and any actions taken so far, by ECAJ’s National Working Group, formed to determine what action the ECAJ, its con­stitu­ent and affiliate bodies and other Jewish organ­isa­tions should take in the wake of the recent Report of the Royal Com­mis­sion into Insti­tu­tion­al Responses to Child sexual abuse.
In recent years, the ECAJ, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and Rabbi Mendel Kastel of Jewish House have done much good work to address the systemic failings that were high­lighted in the Royal Com­mis­sion hearings. This has included workshops and training seminars for both decision makers and staff, and accred­it­a­tion with recog­nised gov­ern­ment agencies for policies and practices. Nothing short of pro­tec­tion at all times for children in the care of Jewish organ­isa­tions is accept­able. Improve­ments in policies and practices have begun to bring about changes in attitudes and culture so as to ensure that any inform­a­tion about a possible incident of abuse is reported to the author­it­ies imme­di­ately, and that there is total community and organ­isa­tion­al backing for victims, their families and sup­port­ers. The ECAJ commends Jewish Care Victoria for its decisive lead­er­ship in joining the National Redress Scheme.
The ECAJ through its National Working Group, mindful that the legis­la­tion estab­lish­ing the scheme is still before the Federal Par­lia­ment, is final­ising a “Briefing Note and Request for Response” to be sent by the ECAJ to Jewish organ­isa­tions around the country which work with children. The “Briefing Note and Request for Response” will be sent as soon as the current Bill is passed by Par­lia­ment. The issues we are working on for the “Briefing Note and Request for Response” include:

• Encour­aging each such organ­isa­tion to par­ti­cip­ate in the National Redress Scheme to deal with any historic claims of child sexual abuse that are made against it. This is of special relevance to the Jewish organ­isa­tions iden­ti­fied in the Royal Commission’s hearings, invest­ig­a­tions and final Report.

• Seeking con­firm­a­tion from the organ­isa­tion that it has in place clear and fully doc­u­mented and under­stood child pro­tec­tion policies and processes for imple­ment­a­tion, which comply with legal and reg­u­lat­ory standards, including a process for con­duct­ing regular external, inde­pend­ent com­pli­ance audits; and in par­tic­u­lar providing support and coun­selling for victims of abuse and their families. In addition, relevant peak bodies in the States and Ter­rit­or­ies will be requested to provide ongoing education, workshops and training for staff, paid and volunteer, in organ­isa­tions which work with children, and to build on the excellent work already under­taken and to ensure that on an ongoing basis those working with children are kept apprised of their legal respons­ib­il­it­ies and ways to meet them.

• Seeking specific con­firm­a­tion from the organ­isa­tion that its “complaint handling policies expli­citly state that the halachic (Jewish religious law) concepts of mesirah, moser and loshon horo do not apply to the com­mu­nic­a­tion and reporting of alleg­a­tions of child sexual abuse to police and other civil author­it­ies”, as recom­men­ded by the Royal Com­mis­sion in its final report.

• In the case of Yeshivah Melbourne, Adass Israel School Inc, and Yeshiva Sydney, call on each organ­isa­tion to publish an apology to survivors for failing to protect them from abuse, failing to act on com­plaints of abuse, and other matters that have emerged from the Royal Com­mis­sion hearings and other legal pro­ceed­ings. The ECAJ notes with concern that each of these three Jewish organ­isa­tions, which were spe­cific­ally iden­ti­fied in the Royal Commission’s report for their historic failings in relation to child pro­tec­tion, are not affil­i­ated with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies or the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and, as such, do not have any formal links with the ECAJ. Despite this, we offer our full support to these organ­isa­tions in con­sulta­tion with survivors as they consider all appro­pri­ate action to right past wrongs, including their decision whether to join the National Redress Scheme.

3. Does ECAJ’s National Working Group hope, and expect, that all Jewish communal organ­isa­tions involved in the care or super­vi­sion of children sign up to the National Redress Scheme? And so far, have as many of these organ­isa­tions committed to joining the scheme as ECAJ would have hoped for by this stage, with the National Redress Scheme com­men­cing on July 1, 2018?
The ECAJ has welcomed the National Redress scheme, and has attended gov­ern­ment briefings about the redress scheme and has now written to key officials in the DSS asking for an official outline of the respons­ib­il­it­ies of a lone Non-Gov­ern­ment Insti­tu­tion (NGI) which sub­scribes to the National Redress Scheme.
It must be recog­nised that the National Redress Scheme Bill and Rules are complex instru­ments. The major Churches, for example, each engaged teams of lawyers to advise them about whether to opt into the scheme before doing so. For an NGI con­sid­er­ing whether to opt in to the Scheme as a lone insti­tu­tion, some official guidance would be useful, before it seeks legal advice. It would be espe­cially useful for the ECAJ in calling on relevant insti­tu­tions in the Jewish community to par­ti­cip­ate in the Scheme.
The ECAJ will actively encourage all relevant Jewish organ­isa­tions to opt into the Scheme, subject to their own legal advice, and will seek the provision of inform­a­tion from the gov­ern­ment to facil­it­ate their opting in. The ECAJ, while a roof body, exercises no control over other organ­isa­tions, or over members of the community. Its role is coordin­a­tion by consensus and it usually arrives at positions as a result of input from its con­stitu­ent and affiliate organ­isa­tions and the organ­isa­tions and com­munit­ies they represent, some 200 Jewish organ­isa­tions across Australia. It is on this basis that the ECAJ offers the community lead­er­ship and advice which is generally followed.
4. Does ECAJ welcome Prime Minister Malcolm Turn­bull’s announce­ment of a National Apology to survivors of child sexual abuse to be held on October 22 this year?
The ECAJ strongly welcomes Prime Minister Malcolm Turn­bull’s announce­ment of a National Apology to survivors of child sexual abuse. It would be expected that relevant Jewish insti­tu­tions will have pre­vi­ously published their apology to survivors of child sexual abuse and the Jewish peak bodies will endorse the Prime Minister’s official apology.
Addi­tion­al inform­a­tion
Emeritus Professor Bettina Cass, as Chair of the ECAJ National Working Group, met with the NSW Depart­ment of Premier and Cabinet’s Task Force estab­lished to respond to the Final Report of the Royal Com­mis­sion into Insti­tu­tion­al Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Rep­res­ent­at­ives from the Depart­ment of Premier and Cabinet, Depart­ment of Justice, Depart­ment of Families and Community Services and the NSW Children’s Guardian were at the meeting and updated her about the NSW Government’s approach to respond­ing to the Final Report of the Royal Com­mis­sion and the details of the National Redress Scheme. Professor Cass informed the meeting about the ongoing work and future plans for child pro­tec­tion being under­taken by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Task Force on Child Pro­tec­tion and the ECAJ National Working Group estab­lished to develop a nation-wide response in the Jewish community to the recom­mend­a­tions of the Royal Com­mis­sion. The meeting was extremely positive and dis­cus­sion ensued about arranging a Panel of gov­ern­ment and other experts later in the year to assist the Jewish community’s knowledge about the National Redress Scheme, and related issues, and for on-going community education.