Multifaith child safety push

A Melbourne screening of Surviving Malka Leifer has brought together more than 35 leaders from multicultural, multifaith and ethno-specific organisations behind a joint commitment to child safety, in what organisers describe as the start of a national movement.

The roundtable was hosted by the Australian Childhood Foundation on June 25, following a morning screening of the documentary, and was facilitated by Settlement Council of Australia chief executive Maria Dimopoulos. Twenty organisations have endorsed the resulting statement, among them the Islamic Council of Victoria, the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights, the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Geelong and the Salvation Army.

Dassi Erlich, who with her sisters Nicole Meyer and Elly Sapper pursued justice against former Adass Israel School principal Malka Leifer, said the day exceeded her expectations.

“We had people in that room who in no other setting would have potentially sat down together,” she said. “It was such a dream come true to actually see these incredible 35 to 40 leaders sitting in a room together.”

Erlich, who is youth and family programs manager at Pathways Melbourne, said the issues raised were far from unique to the Jewish community.

“It might be a Jewish story, but this is a story that happens in every single community, every single faith, every single part of the world,” she said. “This is not something that’s isolated in any way to the Jewish community. Every single person has a responsibility to ensure that this doesn’t happen in their own community.”

The endorsed statement says that across many cultures and faith traditions runs a shared belief that children are precious, that communities carry a collective responsibility to protect them, and that silence can never outweigh justice.

Erlich said organisations had already begun sharing practical knowledge, pointing to a conversation in which another community asked how Pathways had established its safe housing program.

Not every invitation was accepted. “There were some people that were invited to this roundtable that did not feel that this was a space that they wanted to be in, but for the most part it was very, very well received,” she said. She described a sense of desire and hunger for the work among those who attended.

Further roundtables are planned around Australia, with next steps to be shaped by what emerges from them.

“We’re going to be very much guided by what learnings we actually gather,” Erlich said. The statement closes with an invitation to other communities: “Our table will continue to grow.”