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Moshe Gutnick

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Moshe D. Gutnick is an Orthodox rabbi and a member of the ultra Orthodox Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Gutnick is a member of the Beth Din (rabbinical court) in Sydney, Australia; he is an authority on Halacha (Jewish law). Gutnick is currently (2018) President of the Rabbinical Council of Australia and NZ. He formerly served as the rabbi of the Mizrachi synagogue in Sydney.

NSW Kashrut Authority

Gutnick is the Rabbinic Administrator of the Kashrut Authority of Australia and New Zealand, the most widely known kosher authority in Sydney.

The Kashrut Authority was established in 1990 as a merger of the kashrut departments of the Yeshiva and Sydney Beth Din. It comprised all the Rabbis of the Beth Din and the Yeshiva as well as lay membership.  The first chairman was Mr Sam Fisher AM. It ushered in an era of peace and unity within the Jewish community.

Gutnick has been responsible for the enhancement of kashrut standards throughout the community and has gained international recognition for that work.

He has been outspoken on many issues associated with Kashrut and the community including defending Shechita ( Jewish ritual slaughter) to the broader community.

Gutnick has also been public in his condemnation of the Jewish Media, for their willingness to accept advertising from non-kosher caterers, even though the majority of their readership are secular. He felt that as part of the Jewish community and out of respect for the Orthodox they should refuse such adverts.

In 2014 the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies set up an inquiry into kashrut in Sydney. The Kashrut Authority were of the view that the inquiry was biased and had a predetermined outcome. It therefore refused to participate. In 2015 the inquiry published its report which was critical of the KA. The KA published a full rebuttal of the conclusions of the report which it strongly challenged. An alternate organisation called Community Kashrut was set up in Sydney. To date (2018) not one KA licensee has joined Community Kashrut. The only licensees they have aquired has been through the adoption of standards not acceptabe to the KA. For example the KA only allows kosher caterers who cater kosher and whose businesses observe Shabbat. CK has licensed caterers that also operate non kosher .

Royal Commission

Gutnick was called in early 2015 to testify before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It was there that he said, "I believe the cover-ups and bullying and intimidation that has gone on ... represents the antithesis of the teachings of Chabad and Judaism and orthodoxy."[1] He acknowledged that the Orthodox Chabad community in Australia was guilty of covering up sex crimes committed in the community and pressuring victims and their families not to report the crimes to the police. Gutnick said that people reporting abuse were ostracized mosers (“informers”). He said “a culture of cover-up, often couched in religious terms, pervaded our thinking and our actions.” He claimed that rabbis in these situations had misused their power, and that anyone who insists a child sexual abuse victim should go first to a rabbi rather than the police is not doing so out of religious reasons but trying to “hush it up, to cover it up, to prevent the victim from finding redress. There is no doubt at all: Mesirah [‘informing’] has no application whatsoever to instances of child sexual abuse. To use mesirah in this way is an abomination.” Gutnick also lamented that there was no formal training for rabbis on how to handle reported abuse. Manny Waks, an advocate for victims, said, “Today, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick restored my faith in ultra-Orthodox Judaism. For the first time ever the reform that is so critical seems much closer. Thank you Rabbi Gutnick. Hopefully the rest of the Orthodox Rabbinate will now follow suit. What an incredible day for justice.”[2]

Dispute with Mizrachi synagogue

Gutnick was the rabbi at the Mizrachi synagogue in North Bondi from 1987 to 2009. After seeing their numbers fall, the synagogue tried a number of ways to change the situation. This included an ill-fated attempt to merge with the Great Synagogue.[3] The synagogue then decided to make Gutnick redundant since his wages were becoming a financial burden on the synagogue and they could no longer pay them. Gutnick argued that the dismissal of a  Rabbi could only be via a Jewish Court and succesfully obtained an injunction from the NSW Supreme Court preventing his dismissal pending the ruling of a Beth Din.

The case was taken to the London Beth Din, and Gutnick emerged with a ruling in his favour, and a payout including costs of close to $1 million.[4][5]

Sydney Beth Din

Gutnick serves as a senior member of the Sydney Beth Din.[6] One of the roles of the Beth Din is Jewish divorces and solving gett refusal. Gutnick has been aggressive in his condemnation of the practice of gett refusal, and is a strong supporter of Halachic prenuptial agreements.[7][8]

The Beth Din is also responsible for conversions, and it was revealed that the Sydney Beth Din are one of the few in the world that is approved to perform conversions by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.[9]

While on the Beth Din he has courted controversy including the alleged lack of transparency and refusal to reform the structure of the institution. To date the Beth Din has no formal constitution, with no plans to create one, leading to the accusation of an opaque operating system, and no clear structure for the appointment of judges.[10]

However the Beth Din argues that its constitution is the Code of Jewish Law . To that end The Beth Din,  received two rulings from senior Rabbinic figures, Rabbi Ezra Batsri of Israel and Rabbi Herschel Shachter of NY ,affirming  the jurisdiction of the Beth Din and its appointment procedures.

Gutnick and the Sydney Beth Din have also been before the courts in Australia . After threatening religious sanctions against an individual for refusing a summons to the Beth Din, they were found in contempt as the Judge found that their actions discouraged the parties from going to court. However the Beth Din’s lawyers made a statement that in their view the Judge was wrong and the matter is currently under appeal.

Other activities

Gutnick has taken up the mantle of the head of the Rabbinical Council of Australia and NZ. He is a former head of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia (ORA). After ORA was closed down due to several of its members being forced to resign because of the Royal Commission into Child Sex Abuse and reformed as the Rabbinical Council of Australia and New Zealand, Gutnick was elected in 2018 to lead the new body.[11]

Gutnick has been an outspoken proponent of traditional marriage, and has signed letters to parliament, and written articles affirming this position.[12][13]

Gutnick has also defended Halal certification against its detractors, saying that if that were to be said about kosher it would be considered anti-Semitic, and it was an attack on religious rights.[14]

If a link could be found between Halal funding and terrorism, the parties should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but otherwise Muslims should be free to practice their religion.

See also

References

  1. ^ Rabbi Moshe Gutnick tells Royal Commission into child sex abuse that 'Jews must report sex abuse' The Age, 5 Feb 2015
  2. ^ In national abuse probe, leading Australian rabbi decries Orthodox community’s ‘cover-up culture’ The Jerusalem Post, 4 February 2015,
  3. ^ Knox, Malcolm (2009-04-04). "'Redundant' rabbi stays put and appeals to a higher power". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  4. ^ Line, Chabad On. "Rabbi Gutnick Wins Din Torah". collive. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  5. ^ "- COSV". COSV. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  6. ^ "bethdin". bethdin. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  7. ^ Josephs, Allison. "Historic Backing Of Halachic Prenup By Haredi Rabbis | Jew in the City". jewinthecity.com. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  8. ^ Line, Chabad On. "Will the Halachic Prenup Catch On". collive. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  9. ^ "Recognized Rabbinical Courts for Conversion -ITIM". www.itim.org.il. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  10. ^ "Challenge for the Rabbinate". J-Wire. 2015-02-26. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  11. ^ "Taking the helm of RCANZ - The Australian Jewish News". The Australian Jewish News. 2017-12-04. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  12. ^ "Rabbis say "No" to same sex marriage | J-Wire". Aleph Melbourne. 2013-10-30. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  13. ^ Gutnick, Rabbi Moshe (2017-09-18). "As an Orthodox rabbi I will be voting no but it is not a vote against love". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  14. ^ Mannix, Liam (2015-04-25). "Senior Rabbi Moshe Gutnick says anti-halal campaign 'ignorant and prejudiced'". Brisbane Times. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
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