A senior community rabbi has suggested that all Jewish community workers and volunteers apply for a police Working with Children Check, regardless of whether or not they directly supervise children

Speaking in the wake of child abuse allegations at Yeshivah College in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, the immediate past president of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria, rabbi at Jewish Care and Victoria Police chaplain, said that all community workers should get a Working with Children Check, including synagogue board members and synagogue staff. Rabbi Kluwgant suggested that parents even ask to see a Working with Children Check before employing a bar mitzvah teacher for their son. Rabbi Kluwgant conceded, though, that the police checks might not be enough. “The sad reality is that the abuser could very well be the kind man next door, a close friend we take out for lunch, or indeed a trusted official who no-one would believe to be a predator,” he said.