New Yeshivah COM pledges to engage with community

YESHIVAH’S new interim Committee of Management (COM) is “100 per cent” behind the school’s principal Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler.

During a wide-ranging interview with The AJN this week the interim COM, which was appointed by Yeshivah’s trustees on Sunday and will only stay on for six months, said its top priorities are improving communication and engaging with the community, compensation for victims of child sexual abuse, the management of the school and major capital works that need to be commenced.

Earlier this year, teachers cancelled classes amid reports that Rabbi Smukler would be leaving the school following a clash with the former COM.

However, Leah Balter, one of the new members of the committee, told The AJN this week, “We are 100 per cent behind Rabbi Smukler.”

Rabbi Faivish Pink, who was the headmaster of Manchester’s Jewish Grammar School from 1976-2011, and Genia Janover, who served as Bialik College principal for 20 years, have been appointed as educational advisers to support Rabbi Smukler.

“We are really fortunate to have Genia and Rabbi Pink because Rabbi Smukler, I would say, has been running the school alone for the last year, and I think he would welcome the support of a committee of people to help him whenever he needs or wants it,” Balter said.

A former ANZ Bank chief of staff and current vice-president of Jewish Care, Balter is joined on the interim COM by ANZ’s in-house senior lawyer Yechiel Belfer, accountant Yossi Franck, conflict resolution expert Joel Gerschman, former Deloitte partner Craig Goldberg, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre’s director of corporate development Shmuley Goldberg, Telstra senior engineer Raphael Goodman and Kesser Torah College president Meir Moss.

The committee met officially on Monday night as a board for the first time and discussed one of the most important issues – compensation for victims of child sexual abuse.

“We appointed Yechiel, to understand where the cases are up to in terms of victims and he will report back in the next week or two,” Balter said.

“We have also asked for a report on the progress of the establishment of a victims of abuse scheme, and we will have to make big decisions in the next two weeks regarding the scheme.”

Balter said the interim COM hopes to set up the scheme quickly with a simple process for victims, which will be based on advice from the Royal Commission.

Both Balter and Craig Goldberg said that the biggest challenge facing the interim COM is community engagement.

“The community has been crying out to be a part of this place and a part of the change, so we have offered to meet with all the different stakeholders,” Goldberg said.

“We want to bring the community along with us and include them, because we have nothing to hide and want to remain honest and open so everyone is engaged in the process.”

Part of that process is a meeting this weekend with the Parents and Friends of Yeshivah Melbourne (PFYM) group, which was set up in the wake of the Royal Commission and claims to represent more than 400 families from the Yeshivah community.

“We want to hear what they have to say, and we want to speak to them and work together with them because I can’t imagine we are so far apart in our views on the way the school should be,” Goldberg said.

The PFYM told The AJN this week they believe the process of the appointment of the new COM was flawed because there was no community consultation.

“This has caused much community angst,” the PFYM said in a statement.

“However, now that the COM is appointed, we will seek to work with them to encourage them to uphold the values we believe are essential for this community to heal and move forward.

“If the COM is to be effective, it will need to be informed of the depth, breadth and extent of the community response to what has transpired in the past and present.”

At the end of the year Yeshivah’s trustees and the COM will step down and a new board is expected to be elected by the community.

JOSHUA LEVI

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