Rabbi Pinchus Feldman OAM (born 1944) is the first Chabad shaliach ("emissary") of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement in New South Wales, Australia.
[citation needed] The Lubavicher Rebbe sent a letter to the congregation saying, "you are fortunate to have chosen Rabbi Pinchus to serve as the rav and rosh yeshiva of your community, for he is from among the finest students of Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch,” (Igros Kodesh vol.
[citation needed] In 2002, he received the Medal of the Order of Australia, for service to the Jewish community of New South Wales, particularly through the development of spiritual, educational and welfare facilities.
[9] Feldman responded that the allegations were false and that my consistent position throughout nearly five decades of spiritual leadership of Yeshiva has always been to refer cases of abuse to the appropriate authorities.
[11][12][10] Elsewhere in his testimony Feldman stated that he did not tell police he knew an alleged child sexual abuser was planning to leave the country because he “did not know there was any such obligation".
No one should ever have to suffer in any way, shape or form, particularly children, the most treasured members of our society and the ones who need our protection most.” And he continued, “we give you our solemn commitment that absolutely everything in our power is being done and will continue to be done to ensure that others don't ever go through the same suffering.” Concluding that, “In my decades of leading Yeshiva in Sydney, whenever such matters have arisen and allegations of any form of abuse have come to my attention, I have always counselled to involve the appropriate Government authorities.
[16] The chair of Tzedek, an organisation dedicated to justice for abuse survivors, Manny Waks personally disagreed and called on Feldman to resign immediately.
[17] The Australian Jewish News called the revelations at the Royal Commission at the Sydney and Melbourne Yeshiva centres "Our darkest week" as a community.
"[20] In 2003, the centre faced closure with massive debts, when several donors and parents stepped in to save the Yeshiva School,[21] which was renamed Keser Torah College (KTC).
[23] The dispute between Yeshiva and KTC was finally resolved and a settlement reached whereby Feldman would not open a rival educational facility for 18 months to allow the school to establish itself,[24] however Feldman was later taken to court for breaching the terms of the settlement, eventually legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW were dismissed upon the request of both parties saying "the parties have agreed to leave all outstanding grievances in the past and to move forward in a spirit of friendship".
[28][29] Following the notice to vacate, Feldman's son, Yossi sent a letter to Triguboff calling him "the first Jew to close a shul since the Nazis", and threatened to remove all their property including Sefer Torahs, and books so they would be unable to function as a synagogue.