Principal Helped Confessed Yeshiva Molester David Kramer Flee Australia
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
An American-born teacher who pleaded guilty to child molestation at a Jewish school in Melbourne was assisted in fleeing to Israel by his employer.
In a pre-sentencing hearing at the County Court of Victoria Wednesday, the prosecution argued that David Kramer should receive the maximum sentence of five years in prison when he is sentenced on July 24.
In April, Kramer pleaded guilty to five charges of indecent assault and one charge of committing an indecent act with a minor at Melbourne’s Yeshivah College in the early 1990s. Of the four victims, two now reside in America. Kramer, 52 was extradited from America to Australia last year after he had served a four-year jail sentence for sodomizing a 12-year-old child at a St. Louis synagogue.
Prosecutor Brett Sennett told the court that Rabbi Avrohom Glick, the then-principal of the Chabad-run boys’ school in Melbourne, did not report allegations about Kramer to police because he was “concerned for his welfare.”
Instead, the college paid for Kramer to flee to Israel in 1993 before he returned to America, where he reoffended, the court was told.
Kramer’s attorney, Tim Marsh, attempted to shift blame from his client to the college. “There could have been an investigation, there should have been an investigation but instead there was a cover-up,” he said.
Manny Waks, the head of Tzedek, a support group for Jewish victims of child sex abuse, said outside court the revelations about Rabbi Glick were “absolutely astounding” and called on him to stand down from his current post at the college.
“It’s clear that the Yeshivah leadership cared solely for the welfare of the perpetrator,” he said. “It seems no consideration whatsoever was given to the welfare of the victims. Yeshivah and its leadership need to be held to full account.”
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