A grieving son is facing up to ten years in prison after being charged with stalking the CEO of Jewish Care Victoria.
Raphael Sztrochlic, whose late father was a resident at Gary Smorgon House, was arrested by Caulfield Police in May following a complaint by Jewish Care CEO Bill Appleby.
Mr Appleby told police Mr Sztrochliz made ‘multiple and vexatious complaints’ about the quality of his father’s care after his wife was made redundant from her receptionist role at the facility.
However, Mr Sztrochliz said he’s been targeted for speaking out about serious flaws at the facility.
“All this is because I spoke the truth and I’m a whistle blower. I said something a lot of people didn’t,” Mr Sztrochliz told A Current Affair.
Mr Sztrochlic’s father Ephraim passed away in February this year, but this stoush started in mid 2019 when Mr Appleby banned Mr Sztrochlic from visiting his dad at Gary Smorgon House for five months.
Mr Appleby claims he and his staff were subjected to anti-Semitic comments from Mr Sztrochlic both in person and on Twitter.
Read the article by Steve Marshall and watch the news report on Channel 9.
[Herewith is the response by JewishCare to its supporters over this fracas:
Dear valued members and supporters,
We are writing to you as one of our most valued supporters to inform you about ongoing media and social media coverage disparaging the work of Jewish Care, our executive team and our staff. With further high-profile negative media coverage due to be broadcast this evening, we felt it important to give you some context about the issues being raised.
We are proud of the care and support we provide for elders at Gary Smorgon House and all our homes and are always responsive to any concerns raised. We do not seek to minimise or disregard legitimate concerns. Issues raised have been investigated internally and externally and where necessary acted on as part of our continuous improvement plan.
Where matters have been referred to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, we have provided full and timely support and cooperation. The concerns referred to the Commission have been properly answered and the matters complained of have been successfully resolved to the satisfaction of the Commission.
Allegations have also been aired via social media from anonymous people over many months. Those comments have been highly offensive, defamatory attacks against individual staff members, management and the Jewish Care board. While untrue, the comments are extremely hurtful to our staff who work tirelessly to support elders and their families in our community.
It is important that you are aware that these complaints and allegations began after the wife of the key individual behind the claims was made redundant by Jewish Care Victoria. The allegations sourced to the disgruntled individual have escalated since we took action to provide a safe environment for our staff. This included being compelled to take the unfortunate and rare step of limiting this person’s access to our home, while continuing to facilitate off-site visiting and contact with their loved one.
Sadly, this 15-month campaign of denigration continues to cause immense stress and anxiety for our staff, elders and others in our community. Ultimately, we may need to consider further legal action to defend our organisation. Currently our focus is on supporting our staff, elders and families. In particular, we want to show our staff how much we respect and value the work they do every day to enrich the lives of the elders for whom we provide care.
Thank you for your support of the Jewish values we uphold in our organisation. This is deeply appreciated by our board, executive and staff.
Susie Ivany OAM – President
Bill Appleby – Chief Executive Officer
