Melbourne Beth Din

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The Melbourne Beth Din (MBD) is an Orthodox / Chassidi c Jewish court in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Located in Caulfield North, Victoria, it rules mostly on divorces and conversions although it does rule on other matters as well.

Contents

History

The MBD has existed in various iterations. The first Beth Din was set up with the assistance of Moses Rintel, who later served as the head of the Beth Din. This was the first Beth Din in the British Empire outside of London. [1]

There were a series of Melbourne rabbis who served on the Beth Din, including:

Having been re-established in 1961 after communication with the Sydney Beth Din, [8] the Beth Din had a series of long standing chairmen, beginning with Isaac Rapaport [9] and Sholem Gutnick. [10] Under Gutnick's leadership, the Beth Din was accused of nepotism, lack of transparency and financial irregularities in what was described as a "one-man operation". [11] Gutnick would appoint judges without consulting other rabbis in the community, despite the protests of the communal rabbinate. [11] Following Gutnick's tenure, the Beth Din was closed down and restructured under the joint control of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) and the Council of Orthodox Synagogue of Victoria (COSV), [12] [11] [13] and Mordechai Gutnick was appointed senior judge. [13]

In 2017, the MBD conducted a wide-ranging review of its procedures that included rabbis currently sitting on the Beth Din, other communal rabbis, and lay people. [14]

Conversions

One of the roles of the MBD is to oversee Orthodox conversions to Judaism. This process is often mired in controversy, with London at times overruling the decisions of the Australian Beth Din, [15] [16] and the topic causing tension between Joseph Abrahams and his community, forcing the rabbi to briefly resign his post. [4] This difficulty in conversion in the early days of the settlement of Australia led to many Jews marrying non-Jews and assimilating into Australian culture. [17] Today many of the conversions performed are done for marriage or due to Jewish ancestry. [18] [19]

Today, the process of converting internationally is mired in controversy and politics especially in Israel. [20] [21] In this environment, the MBD is one of the few internationally recognised conversion programs. [22] However, the program regularly takes several years, and requires extensive examinations before the Beth Din will consider a convert. [19] However, in spite of this most Orthodox synagogues in Melbourne will direct conversion candidates to the MBD. [23]

In recent years a number of conversion courts have been set up independently of the MBD. These have been run by rabbis Yaron Gottlieb, [24] Meir Rabi, [25] and the Ark Centre. [26]

The conversions performed by the Ark Centre caused some controversy when MBD rejected all their conversions, although they offered a path to conversion for those who were converted through the Ark. It is unclear what the status of the converts who did not take up the path to conversion. [27] This decision was a rejection of Rabbi Yisrael Rosen who oversaw the conversions [26] from Israel, and in opposition to the Halacha, and a longstanding convention in Orthodoxy. [28] [29] [30]

Divorces

The other main focus of the MBD is in the area of divorces. In Jewish law a divorce can be vetoed by either side (but the consequences are more serious for the woman) there are a number of instances of both the man and the woman refusing to give the bill of divorce (gett). [31] The MBD have a number of ways of dealing with this, including a pre-nuptial agreement, although this agreement in Australia is more of a guide and is not binding in any way on the two parties in the event of a divorce. [32]

The MBD deal with about 40 divorces per annum, [33] and have at times needed to rule in cases of agunah, or gett refusal. In a landmark case, the Victorian Magistrates Court ruled that gett refusal constitutes psychological and emotional abuse, [34] [35] however there are limits on this and there is danger that any law to try and force one party to provide a gett could run foul of the Australian constitution. [31]

While the Beth Din have tried to ease the suffering, they are very conservative in their interpretation of Halacha, [36] and their procedures can cause cases to extend a lot longer than necessary. [32] [11]

Other rulings

The MBD has made a number of rulings over the years. An earlier ruling was made by the Beth Din during the tenure of Rabbi Brodie against communally organised ball sports on Shabbat. [37]

More recently the MBD has made strong statements against same sex marriage, [38] and against the establishment of an eruv. [39]

The Beth Din at times have attempted to establish a civil tribunal, [40] but these attempts have thus far failed. Despite this the MBD have called for all Jews to approach them and have strongly discouraged people from going to the secular courts. [41]

They are also attempting to create a register of who is a Jew for the purposes of marriage within the Orthodox community. [42]

Alternative courts

There are a number of religious courts that claim jurisdiction in Victoria besides the MBD. The Progressive movement and Conservative movement [43] each maintain a Beth Din, as does the Haredi Adass Yisrael community. [44]

In addition to these there are a number of ad hoc Orthodox conversion courts.

Current personnel

Dayanim

Board members

Other roles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conversion to Judaism</span> Religious conversion of non-Jews

Conversion to Judaism is the process by which non-Jews adopt the Jewish religion and become members of the Jewish ethnoreligious community. It thus resembles both conversion to other religions and naturalization. The procedure and requirements for conversion depend on the sponsoring denomination. Furthermore, a conversion done in accordance with one Jewish denomination is not a guarantee of recognition by another denomination. Normally, though not always, the conversions performed by more stringent denominations are recognized by less stringent ones, but not the other way around. A formal conversion is also sometimes undertaken by individuals whose Jewish ancestry is questioned or uncertain, even if they were raised Jewish, but may not actually be considered Jews according to traditional Jewish law.

A beth din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel. Today, it is invested with legal powers in a number of religious matters both in Israel and in Jewish communities in the diaspora, where its judgments hold varying degrees of authority in matters specifically related to Jewish religious life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Synagogue</span> Union of British Orthodox Jewish synagogues

The United Synagogue (US) is a union of British Orthodox Jewish synagogues, representing the central Orthodox movement in Judaism. With 62 congregations, comprising 40,000 members, it is the largest synagogue body in Europe. The spiritual leader of the union is the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth – a title that bears some formal recognition by the Crown, even though his rabbinical authority is recognised by only slightly more than half of British Jews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Gutnick</span> Australian businessman

Joseph Isaac "Diamond Joe" Gutnick is an Australian businessman, mining industry entrepreneur and the former president of the Melbourne Football Club (1996-2001). He is also an ordained Orthodox rabbi, and is well known for his philanthropy in the Jewish world. He declared bankruptcy in July 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaim Gutnick</span>

Shneur Chaim (HaKohen) Gutnick, was a prominent Orthodox Jewish Chabad rabbi in Australia. According to the Lubavitcher Rebbe he was the Chief Rabbi of Australia.

The London Beth Din (LBD) is the Ashkenazi Beth Din of the United Synagogue, the largest Ashkenazi synagogal body in London, England. In its capacity as Court of the Chief Rabbi, it is historically the supreme halakhic Authority for Ashkenazim in several Commonwealth countries and additionally is consulted by Basei Din throughout Europe. The current head of the London Beth Din is Dayan Menachem Gelley, who joined the court in 1993 and was appointed to his current position in 2014, succeeding Chanoch Ehrentreu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conference of European Rabbis</span>

The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) is the primary Orthodox rabbinical alliance in Europe. It unites more than 700 religious leaders of the mainstream synagogue communities in Europe. It was founded in 1956 on the initiative of British Chief Rabbi Sir Israel Brodie, in order to revive the vanquished Jewish communities on the European mainland. Brodie was supported by the chief rabbi of France, Jacob Kaplan, the chief rabbi of Amsterdam, Aharon Schuster and the British Sephardic spiritual leader, Hacham Gaon. The first conference took place in 1957 in Amsterdam. As a result of the CER union with the rabbinates of the stronger western European orthodox communities, the vast majority of mainstream communities throughout the continent retained Orthodox affiliation and rabbinical leadership (with the exception of Hungary and Sweden where non-Orthodox groups had a strong prior presence). Even as some major Western European communities were deliberating joining non-Orthodox movements in the post WWII period, the strong rabbinical alliance was successful in ensuring an Orthodox rabbinate and securing the continuity of the orthodox rite even where the larger part of the membership had become secularized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judaism in Australia</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Australian Jews</span> Ethnic and religious group in Australia

Australian Jews, or Jewish Australians, are Jews who are Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia. In the 2021 census there were 99,956 people whom identified Judaism as their religious affiliation and 29,113 Australians who identified as Jewish by ancestry, an increase from 97,355 and 25,716, respectively, from the 2016 census,. The actual number is almost certainly higher, because being a Jew is not just about being religious, but the census data is based on religious affiliation, so secular Jews often feel it would be inaccurate to answer with "Judaism". Also, since the question is optional, many practicing Holocaust survivors and Haredi Jews are believed to prefer not to disclose their religion in the census. By comparison, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz estimated a Jewish-Australian population of 120,000-150,000, while other estimates based on the death rate in the community estimate the size of the community as 250,000. Based on the census data, Jewish citizens make up about 0.4% of the Australian population. The Jewish community of Australia is composed mostly of Ashkenazi Jews, though there are Jews in Australia from many other traditions and levels of religious observance and participation in the Jewish community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mordechai Gutnick</span>

Rabbi Mordechai Zev Gutnick is a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Australia. Gutnick has served as a member of rabbinical courts in Melbourne and Sydney and various Australian rabbinical associations. He is associated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement; he is the eldest son of the late Rabbi Chaim Gutnick.

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The Rabbinical Council of Victoria is a body representing the state's Orthodox rabbis. It was established in 1967. Its primary goals are to provide professional development to its member rabbis, to enhance community participation among members of the Jewish community and to foster positive relations with leaders of other communities. They also have an oversight role of the Melbourne Beth Din.

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