Here is a screenshot of a post on Facebook during the recent Conference of European Rabbis. In the comments, a representative of the conference stated:

“In custody issues in Europe, it is the secular courts of the countries who decide with whom the children be. Once the courts decide, the Rabbis have no power to change the decision of the court.”

This is both insulting and untrue.

In the custody case of the Schlesinger twins in Vienna, there were official statements submitted to the court by Rabbi Biderman (Chabad), Rabbi Schlomo Hofmeister and the then Chief Rabbi Paul Eisenberg. Furthermore, Rabbi Biderman was communicating with Judge Konstanze Thau by surreptitiously forwarding Beth’s private emails to her while the case was ongoing.

It is well documented that Jewish community Rabbis and leaders can, and do, involve themselves in custody cases as can be seen from this article.

It said in order to win the battles, “we need to have the top lawyers, which means that every case ends up costing hundreds of thousands of pounds”. As of Monday June1, the campaign had raised almost half of its target – £296,000.

The Conference of European Rabbis maintain they have no influence over secular court decisions despite all the evidence of historic interference by Rabbis and senior community members to corrupt the court process and pervert the course of justice in this case.

People are beginning to realise not only how useless these Rabbinic institutions are in times of crisis but rather how dangerous and destructive.

What is the point of institutions such as these if they cannot or will not resolve communal crises? If they are as impotent and ineffectual as they repeatedly claim then let us simply rely on secular authorities under the assurance that there is no Rabbinic interference.

Rabbis certainly have no place interfering in secular judicial matters, using the full weight of their significant influence to favour their own agenda. To simply shrug after they have caused all the damage, with excuses such as they cannot get involved, is just offensive.

We as a community will not recognise any Rabbinic leadership operating in this way.