Reform Judaism has announced it has commissioned an independent review into its safeguarding processes after admitting "some members of our community share their view that people may not have come forward to report concerns".
In a statement, the umbrella organisation’s Board of Trustees said they "take extremely seriously" the suggestion that "we may have fallen below the standard expected of us".
Reaffirming a commitment to have "the highest possible standards" on safeguarding, there is an admission that the Reform Judaism community "is not immune" from instances of "abuse in all its varieties and forms".
The statement adds: "Abuse is not limited to sexual abuse of children and young people but can occur at all levels and during all types of interaction with members .. and all those that relate to us and each other."
Reform stated they had commissioned the review in light of their recent statement made to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
They said their participation in the investigation, which took a wider look into safeguarding in religious organisations and settings, was voluntary.
Reform also said they wished to thank those who had come forward "publicly and privately" to express concerns about past incidents within their own organisation and added they recognised "this is not always easy to do".
They added: "We are restating our policy following media reports before in relation to the late Lord Janner, the father of our Senior Rabbi and other matters relating to our wider community.’’
Stressing how staff at Reform had "worked hard" to put in place appropriate safeguarding policies and procedures, the statement accepted there was a need to improve these measures.
"Our response to criticism is not to ignore it but to address it,’’ it added.
Pledging to update its members with the progress and details of the independent review, Reform said their safeguarding review was initiated before Simon Myerson QC’s call for a wider-ranging communal investigation, made in this week’s JC.
The JC also revealed how the Home Office had completed a separate report into the Charedi community as part of a wider probe into child abuse.
In her statement to the IICSA, Rabbi Janner-Klausner said the movement had "not received complaints of child sexual abuse within Reform Judaism in the last 10 years.’’
She added that the movement had received complaints about a rabbi a few years ago from staff and former staff of one synagogue "regarding management concerns which we now deem as also including safeguarding concerns but not child abuse".
