Day 6: Abuse victim loses scholarship
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Day 6: Abuse victim loses scholarship

February 9, 2015, 7:47 pm Edit
Rabbi Avrohom Glick.
Rabbi Avrohom Glick.

A VICTIM has told the Royal Commission that he lost his Yeshivah scholarship and was effectively kicked out of the school when he told Rabbi Avrohom Glick (pictured) that he was sexually abused by David Cyprys.

The victim, who is not from Melbourne and is known as AVR to protect his identity, was raped by Cyprys five times in the early 1990s.

He said that he didn’t reveal his abuse to his mother because she had leukaemia at the time he was very unwell.

“I was embarrassed.

“My mum was sick and alone and interstate.

“I was worried about her.”

But when he was struggling to cope one day a friend found him  crying in the playground.

The friend took him home and AVR disclosed his abuse.

The friend’s mum then called AVR’s mum and she instantly flew to Melbourne and called Rabbi Groner that night.

The next day AVR and his mother went to Yeshiva because he wanted to stay at the school but wanted to know what they would do about Cyprys.

“Rabbi Glick said my scholarship had been cancelled.

“From that time Rabbi Glick and Yeshivah did not want me.

“They did not offer to help me or provide me with counselling.”

AVR struggled to speak as he explained that his mother, who stop treatment for her leukaemia while she helped him, died in 1995 and he has always wondered if her time in Melbourne shortened her life.

Rabbi Yossi Feldman also continued his testimony at the Royal Commission today (Monday).

It was revealed that:

  • He called victim Manny Waks a “phony victim” in 2011.
  • He said that too much media attention can lead to “fake victims” coming forward.
  • If he could lobby government he would ask for leniency for abusers that have shown that they haven’t offended for 20 years after the offence.
  • He was unhappy in 2013 that convicted child abuser Daniel ‘Gug’ Hayman was arrested for child sexual abuse that occurred in the 1980s because he allegedly hadn’t abused anyone for more than 20 years. “I was worried he would end up in jail for many years,” he said.
  • In 2011 he put forward a view, during an internal discussion between rabbis, that a victim of child sexual abuse doesn’t know if the perpetrator will reoffend and therefore must go to a rabbi, and not the police.

By Joshua Levi

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