right" to get involved. Following his testimony at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2015, Kluwgant sent a highly inflammatory text message about Zephaniah Waks, a father of a victim, to the editor of the Australian Jewish News (AJN), which was subsequently published. The text read:Zephaniah Waks is killing us. Zephaniah is attacking Chabad. He is a lunatic on the fringe, guilty of neglecting his own children. Where was he when all this happened?The AJN journalist who published the text was fired, but following significant pressure Kluwgant was forced to resign from all communal roles. The resignation was more significant because two other rabbis from that community were forced to resign as a result of the Royal Commission at the same time, Yossef Feldman and Avrohom Glick, Kluwgant's uncle. Kluwgant was later appointed as principal of the Adass Israel school, following that school's own sex abuse scandal involving their former principal, Malka Leifer. Following an outcry in both the Adass and wider Jewish communities, the offer of the role was withdrawn. Other controversies In 2010, Kluwgant led a delegation of rabbis to meet with Australian Attorney General, Robert McClelland to discuss counterterrorism. The JCCV, the peak Jewish body in Victoria criticised the move, because they claimed that the rabbis had over reached, and it was not their role to be involved in these discussions. In 2013, he wrote a letter attempting to establish the Chabad rabbi in Canberra as "the rabbi of Canberra", even though the established community had their own rabbi at the time. In 2014, he welcomed the former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar to Australia. The intention was to establish a list (or registry) for the verification of Jewish status, and that all Orthodox marriages in Australia should be controlled centrally by the Sydney Beth Din and the Melbourne Beth Din. In 2017, Kluwgant sued Phillip Weinberg, a spokesman for victims, for allegedly vilifying him to the Adass secretary, alleging that this caused him to lose the position. See also Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Yeshiva Centre Sexual abuse incidents at Adass Israel School, Melbourne Rabbinical Council of Victoria Melbourne Beth Din References Australian Orthodox rabbis 1968 births Living people