Yeshivah Centre under review

July 5, 2015 by J-Wire News Service
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Melbourne’s Yeshivah Centre has announced the formation of a Governance Review Panel and an interim Committee of Management.

Yeshivah-logoThe Yeshivah Centre Governance Review is a group of highly credentialed and eminent individuals which will review the current rules of the Yeshivah Centre Associations, as well as the corporate governance practices and legal structures of the Centre. The Review Panel will then report on the outcome of their review and recommend changes that should be made to ensure that the Yeshivah Centre is appropriately structured and effectively managed. It is anticipated that the Review Panel’s task will be completed within four months.

The only instruction that has been given to the Review Panel is to ensure that any new structure will maintain the Chabad ethos and adherence to our Rebbeim’s teachings.

The Review Panel is comprised of the following members each of whom has agreed to assist in an honorary capacity.

  • Mrs Leah Balter
  • Mr Ray Finkelstein QC
  • Dr Hugo Gold
  • Mr Yosi Loebenstein
  • Mr Marcus Solomon QC

 

Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick has agreed to act as a Rabbinic advisor to this committee.

Yeshivah Centre announce a new Interim Committee of Management and separate Governance Review Panel

The Review Panel will call for community input from all stakeholders.

At the conclusion of their review process, the Review Panel will deliver their recommendations to the Members and the Interim COM (see further).

It is anticipated that the Members will adopt the recommendations of the Review Panel before the end of 2015. This will enable a new Committee of Management to be appointed with effect from the beginning of 2016.

In the interim, The Yeshivah Centre are pleased to announce that a new Committee of Management has been appointed to govern the immediate affairs of Yeshivah Centre until the end of 2015.

This interim Committee is comprised of a broad group of people with particular skill sets to manage Yeshivah Centre’s immediate affairs.

They are:

  • Mrs Leah Balter
  • Mr Yechiel Belfer
  • Mr Yossi Franck
  • Mr Joel Gerschman
  • Mr Craig Goldberg
  • Mr Shmuley Goldberg
  • Mr Raphael Goodman
  • Mr Meir Moss

Committed to proactively engaging with various community stakeholders to better understand its goals for the Yeshivah Centre and the School, as well as its concerns, the Interim CoM is committed to communicating regularly to update everybody on their progress.

In a letter to the Yeshivah Centre community, members said “We feel privileged to be in a position to serve our community and help the Yeshivah Centre through its current challenges and onto strong and vibrant growth.

We recognise the responsibility that this role entails; we are passionate about the Yeshivah Centre and will work tirelessly to serve you over the coming months. We are a diverse group of people with relevant professional skills and backgrounds, and we are confident that we can use this expertise to effectively oversee the management of the Yeshivah Centre and enable you to regain trust in the systems and processes in place and the institution overall.”

With respect to the upcoming Governance Review the CoM have stated that “The scope of our role does not extend to making long-term strategic decisions that haven’t been approved by an elected board.”

The CoM has also stated that its priorities for the remainder of the year, until the AGM, are:

  • Facilitating the implementation of recommendations made by the Governance Review Panel;
  • Working with the Principal of Yeshivah Beth Rivkah Colleges and other heads of school, to best support the running of the schools;
  • Working with the various Yeshivah Centre organisations to best support their programs and ongoing success;
  • Financial Management of the Yeshivah Centre;
  • Responding to the issues raised during the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse noting, that they have already begun to open dialogue with victims of child sex abuse and committed to providing them and their families an open door and support;
  • Facilitating urgent Capital Projects required to accommodate the fast growing numbers of YBR students; initiating longer term projects will be left to a future elected committee; and
  • Establishing necessary sub-committees with oversight of key organisational functions within the Yeshivah Centre. Rabbi Faivish Pink and Mrs Genia Janover have accepted our offer to act in an advisory capacity to the interim COM on educational, school structure and personnel issues.

The Yeshivah Centre want to unequivocally encourage that anyone who has any information regarding any allegations of child sexual abuse whether as a victim/survivor, their family member or friend, staff, volunteers or anyone else to go directly to the police (contact the Moorabbin SOCIT unit on 9556-6124) or for support, to organisations including Tzedek (1300 TZEDEK or 1300 893 335) or “another body that you trust.”

Comments

One Response to “Yeshivah Centre under review”
  1. Avigael Cassel says:

    “….The only instruction that has been given to the Review Panel is to ensure that any new structure will maintain the Chabad ethos and adherence to our Rebbeim’s teachings…”

    This did not work last time, so to place this as the guidelines again is in my opinion gross negligence. It appears that they have not learned at all …..

    I also note that individuals who have accusations against them are still operating in positions of authority. Very disappointing and needs further outside intervention to correct …..

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