Leader of Melbourne School Resigns Amid Scandal

Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner, longtime senior rabbi of the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne, Australia, has announced that he is stepping down from his post, following accusations that he did not do enough in the wake of the child abuse scandal that rocked the institution in recent years.

In a letter to the community, Rabbi Telsner said he endorses the Yeshivah Centre’s “values, policies and message of continued support and compassion for victims of CSA, their families and all of the community.”

He said that Elul is a time to reflect on ones values and behaviours as we prepare to herald in the New Year.

“I recognise that my conduct towards victims and their families did not demonstrate these values or behaviour to the extent necessary of a Rabbi in my position,” Rabbi Telsner said.

“Accordingly, I have decided to stand down from my position as Rabbi at the Yeshivah Centre, effective immediately.”

The following is the letter he sent in its entirety, followed by a letter signed by the school’s administrative body

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30 Comments

  • Top guy!

    Such sad news!:(
    Rabbi Telsner is such a good man,this is just awful
    We wish him every hatzlocha, together with his good wife Miraim
    The fact that he acknowledged and apologised publicly should have been more than enough, it didn’t need to come to this
    He will be very very sorely missed by all

  • old timer

    well I think other Rabbonim need to take warning. Chabad communities around the world are fed up with the current leadership. Anash work hard everyday to support Rabbonim and all they get is criticism, sarcasm, separatism, and dictatorship. We support the Rabbonim and shluchim we are entitled with some respect. Thank you

    • Yitz

      Rubbish!
      It’s a few activists who are forcing their view on the community.

      I am certain that the Melbourne community was pressured into this – this is not what they want.

  • Lies from the committee of Management

    Why is this not on Rabbi Telsner’s latter head? Why is there no signature? Resigned or fired?

  • sp

    sexual abuse is old fashioned too. Its been around since the beginning. But its not OK. IF he didn’t act responsibly, then he is right to step down.
    I personally would rather have a kid who is missing information which can always be learned, as opposed to CHAS VE SHOLOM one who is molested which tortures them for a lifetime. Lets get to pragmatics here.

  • We The People

    Gone are the when the Rabbis were the leaders. Now, we are the leaders!
    I am happy about this change in mentality because there are also other things I would like to change in Judaism. We the people have the power!

  • I hang my head in shame

    In Melbourne we are a ship without a captain. Worse still we are allowing disgruntled people who have lost their way to run our once beautiful community.True those that were abused had their lives ruined but that does not give them any right to destroy an ir vem b”yisroel..
    Nobody doubts or condones the abuse but their behavoir today is horriffic! They have one goal to destroy Yeshiva Center!.. I wish them peace in their personal lives but let us be!!

  • Educator

    Rabbi Telsner served the community well. It seems that now he is the punching bag (AKA so’ir l’azozel) for others’ deficiencies and also to satisfy the “victims” looking for someone’s blood. VERY SAD!!!

  • A sad day for the Melbourne Community

    Everyone overseas reads this article thinking it all had to do with the “Abuse Scandal”.
    Well, in fact as a member of Anash in Melbourne let me straighten up the facts.
    The facts are that the old board and the new board of management never respected Rabbi Telsner.
    The treated him as an employee and not as a Rov, they gave him headaches and heartaches from the minute Rabbi Groner A”h passed away over 5 years ago.
    Rabbi Telsner has suffered terribly in their hands and gone through much agony.
    Instead of the new committee of management making the right change for Yeshivah and finally stepping up to back their Rov, they came and made things worse.
    Shame on the Yeshivah Committee.
    Shame to Chabad of Melbourne for loosing such an iconic leader.
    Rabbi Telsner – the community is saddened by this decision.
    Please know that we value you and respect you and are hopeful that you may still Cary on to be our Rov.

  • moishe

    NOTE very carefully worded: “stepped down”. not “fired”, didn’t “resign”

  • Melbournian

    Rabbi Telsner has been pressured to resign. It is so wrong for laymen to decide and pressure a Rov to resign because of a few individuals with agenda. There is a major petition going around in Melbourne to have him reinstated.
    Justice has been served for the victims by locking up the perpetrators and I fully support that. However for the Yeshivah to allow them to try to bring down the Rebbe’s Mosdos one person at a time until… that is going too far.

  • Melbourne mispallel

    It is very sad that R Telsner had to resign but he needed to take responsibility for his actions. He has been extremely disparaging towards victims of child abuse to the extent that it could not be ignored any more. Despite him being a Talmid Chochom he has consistently acted in a way which brings discredit to all Rabbis and especially Chabad Rabbis in Melbourne.

  • Chaim

    Putting aside whether it was right or wrong or happy or sad for Rabbi Telsner to leave, I am in such dismay over the committee of management. There is not the slightest sign of “thank you” to Rabbi Telsner in their letter. Once more, their platform is that they listen to the viewpoints of the community, and yet one of their first moves was to make a major decision without community consultation. Interesting.

  • The Poet Who Knows It.

    Never judge people from afar
    How things look are not how they are
    Don’t judge when you don’t really know
    Cuz no one knows who’ll be next to go

    WE NEED MOSHIACH NOW

  • Amazed

    I’m amazed at some comments here, most from people who live nowhere near Melbourne but yet still capable of judging Rabbi Telsner’s actions without having a clue. “Unlawful”? Really what about him resigning (whether there was pressure from the COM or not) makes it unlawful? The fact is he had to go, the longer he stayed as Rabbi of the Yeshivah Centre, the worse him being there made it for the entire Yeshivah Centre. Maybe now the school and shul can try to gain back the respect it used to have.

  • Chabad

    Chabad’s Top Rabbi Was Allegedly Forced To Resign By New Lay Leaders After Attacking Abuse Victims
    Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Telsner Royal CommissionThe spiritual head of Melbourne’s [Chabad] Yeshivah centre faced intense pressure from [lay] leaders of the ultra-orthodox [sic; should read: Chabad] Jewish community to quit to avoid embarrassment at a sex abuse royal commission hearing scheduled for later this month.

    The Australian reports:

    The spiritual head of Melbourne’s [Chabad] Yeshivah centre faced intense pressure from [lay] leaders of the ultra-orthodox [sic; should read: Chabad] Jewish community to quit to avoid embarrassment at a sex abuse royal commission hearing scheduled for later this month. [September 17]

    Rabbi Zvi Telsner, who told the commission in February that pedophiles and homosexuals could be “cured”, finally stood down earlier this week and apologised to victims of sexual abuse after it was revealed he bullied and berated an abuse victim last Thursday during a conversation about the centre’s leadership.

    Rabbi Telsner allegedly ­kicked the victim out of a meeting and attacked other victims as “crazy” or “garbage” and out to destroy the community.

    The Australian has been told Rabbi Telsner was ordered to quit, a claim denied by the centre.

    The latest allegations appalled some of the new members of the interim management of the Yeshivah Centre, which lies at the heart of the tight-knit community, who were bought in to replace the old board following shocking allegations of sexual abuse and cover-ups at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

    An interim board member, Craig Goldberg, denied that Rabbi Telsner had been pushed and said he was a “strong man” who made the decision himself after accepting he had done the wrong thing. Parties to the royal commission are expected to ­appear again on September 17

  • dovid

    the rabbi always helped/helps any one who needs help ,
    look at his house/ shabbos table a man a zadik
    melbourne needs him

    lets all make sure he stays on, the new board have no idea
    shame all those who signed that letter, go back to your shulls don’t under mine us

    we all need rabbi telzner shlita

  • melbourne

    The most shocking was the way “our” ICM handled this. That / those letters… really???? Was that necessary, to be so demeaning and insensitive. What was gained? After ‘R’ Telsners’ letter, could it not have just been left alone, or a simple letter informing of the resignation. FULL STOP. No, they decided to pour salt on the festering wound and turn the knife a few more times for last kicks. Shame on all of you that were involved or put your name to such a letter.
    We didnt see any such admissions or finger pointing letters from any other COM members that had to step down, imagine the long list of evils many of them would have had to confess to. Oh no, we let them slip out quietly, and they only went in their own best interests, just in time.
    I will assume that the ICM are most likely on marching orders from their puppet masters N.B and M.M, but if they are not comfortable with they way in which this was handled, why sign your names on such an ugly document? And if they are comfortable with it, then, this is just more of the same, as we had all suspected may be the case, until the last behind the scene dictators fall.
    Can’t wait to see NB’s viduy letter, publicly confessing and apologising for all her wrongdoings in her years of employment. SURE.
    As another commenter said, they wanted him out from the beginning. And the same would be true of any Rabbi that is “too frum” for them, or not ready to be their bendable puppet.
    They have chosen Gluckowsky as their “Rabbinic consultant”.. ie. we will call you when we need you and ignore you as we wish, and you can’t do much about it. Or better, we just won’t ask; we’ll decide on our own.
    The people pulling the strings for the last 10years are CORRUPT and close to zero yiras shamayim, to put it nicely. Most of them are BH gone, but we are still waiting for the last few to leave us in peace. Although they have now imported 2 interstate “genius” to ‘save us’ ie. complicate our problems.