According to
Michael Broyde, there are many different opinions among 20th-century rabbis as to the extent and circumstances
mesirah is still valid in modern times.
Hershel Schachter concurred, stating that abuse cases should be reported in full to the civil authorities. According to
The Times of Israel and a
Channel 4 investigation, the concept of
mesirah was used by a
Haredi Jewish leader to protect community members investigated for
child molestation from police investigation.
Australia The
mesirah doctrine came under intense public scrutiny in Australia in early 2015 as a result of evidence given to the
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse relating to an alleged long-running and systematic cover-up of child sexual abuse and the institutional protection of perpetrators at the exclusive Melbourne boys' school
Yeshiva College. On 28 January 2015 Fairfax Media reported secret tape recordings and emails had been disclosed, which revealed that members of Australia's Orthodox Jewish community who assisted police investigations into alleged child sexual abuse were pressured to remain silent on the matter. Criminal barrister Alex Lewenberg was alleged to have been "disappointed", and to have berated a Jew who had been a victim of a Jewish sex offender and whom he subsequently regarded as a
mossur for breaking with
mesirah tradition. Lewenberg was subsequently found guilty of professional misconduct. In February 2015, Zephaniah Waks, an adherent of the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic
Chabad sect in Melbourne, Australia, testified in front of the Royal Commission. He stated that following his discovery that one of his sons had been sexually abused by David Kramer, a teacher at their school, Yeshiva College, he confronted the school's principal, Abraham Glick and demanded that Kramer be sacked. Waks told of his shock when he learned a few days later that Kramer was still working at the school. He again confronted Glick, who then claimed that Kramer had admitted his guilt "because he wanted to be caught", but that the school could not dismiss him because, as Glick claimed, Kramer was at risk of self-harm. Waks also told the Commission that despite his anger, he felt constrained from going to the authorities: He added that the concept of
mesirah prevented Chabad members from going to secular authorities: Giving evidence to the Commission on the day before his father,
Menachem (Manny) Waks, one of three children from the Waks family who were sexually abused by staff at Yeshiva College, testified that after breaking
mesirah by going public about his abuse, he and his family had been ostracised by rabbinical leaders, shunned by his community and subjected to a sustained campaign of abuse, intimidation and threats, which eventually forced Waks to leave Australia with his wife and children. He also testified about how members of the Chabad community had pressured him to abandon his advocacy: Counsel Assisting the commission then asked Waks how he felt having been accused of being an informer: In December 2017, the Commission's final report included a recommendation to Jewish institutions:
Israel Rabbinic courts in Israel have issued writs calling for
social exclusion of Jews bringing legal issues to Israel's civil courts.
United States Mesirah has been cited as one of the main reasons for the gross underreporting of
sexual abuse cases in Brooklyn's Haredi community. It has been used to dissuade Jewish auditors from reporting other Jews to the
Internal Revenue Service for
tax fraud. == See also ==