Who Gave You Permission?: the memoir of a child sexual-abuse survivor who fought back by Michael Visontay & Manny Waks

Author:Michael Visontay & Manny Waks [Visontay, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIO000000, SOC060000, REL040070
Publisher: Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Published: 2016-10-03T07:00:00+00:00

The arrests of Cyprys and Kramer, so soon after my public disclosure, rippled out into the broader community. Up till then, the Catholic Church had been the main public focus of institutional child sexual abuse, with a few cases from the Anglican Church and other institutions. The Victorian government had resisted sustained pressure by victims’ advocates to hold an inquiry into the issue, but the publicity and arrests within the Jewish community made it politically easier for them to justify such an inquiry, which it announced in April 2012. It was not a royal commission but a parliamentary inquiry, with more limited terms of reference. It would investigate ‘the processes by which religious and other non-government organisations respond to the criminal abuse of children by personnel within their organisations’. It did not have the power to compel people to give evidence, as a royal commission would have. Still, this was better than no inquiry.

By that stage, in late 2011–early 2012, I had returned to live in Melbourne, along with my family, having been granted a transfer within my government department to a non-executive role that was more concerned with auditing and compliance than with policy. It was the only available departmental job in Melbourne that I was suited to. Despite my initial judgement that being away from the spotlight would make life easier for us, it had become clear that we needed to return to Melbourne to keep on top of events as they unfolded. In Canberra we had neither family nor our closest friends for support. Also, with the avalanche of referrals, media reports, and police liaison, it was impossible to keep living in Canberra and dedicate the time and energy to the genie I had unleashed.

Then there was the task of preparing a submission for the parliamentary inquiry. Until you prepare such a submission, it is hard to imagine how much work it involves. There were several people involved in helping me — including a highly experienced lawyer, a friend and Yeshivah member, on behalf of more than a dozen Yeshivah victims and survivors. They all considered and approved the final version, a feat in itself. As it turned out, the effort we all put in was vindicated. There were several submissions to the inquiry from the Jewish community — from me, the ECAJ, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), and a few others. The inquiry decided to hold hearings into my submission and that from the JCCV.

I deal more specifically with these umbrella leadership organisations’ actions in response to, and attitudes towards, child sexual abuse below (see ‘Unfinished Business’). Here, I would emphasise that both initially showed a repeated failure of leadership, and an inability to grasp the seriousness of the problem within the Jewish community — although the JCCV, to its credit, turned its position around remarkably. In my view, it is one of the genuine success stories of this continuing scandal.

I was blunt in my submission:

No action was taken by these leadership bodies to

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.