Yossi Feldman is an Australian rabbi. He has been a Rabbi in the Yeshiva Centre and Chabad NSW for the past 32 years. He was the President of the RCNSW for 3 years from 2009-2012 and Rabbi of Southern Sydney Synagogue from 1993-2015
Following the backlash from his appearance at the Royal Commission for sexual abuse claims against other Jewish leaders, Feldman attacked the media saying that their reporting "encourages even people who may not be real victims or may want to be considered heroes". [1]
An editorial in Australian Jewish News called his testimony "our darkest week" as a community and singled out Feldman and his father for particular condemnation. [2] The editorial claimed that it had not seen an improvement in culture from the period when the abuse occurred. Feldman's testimony was widely condemned across the community. [3] He later resigned from his positions. [4]
Feldman threatened to sue news organisations over their reporting of his testimony. The International Business Times withdrew their reporting and apologized. In addition, Australian Jewish News, The Guardian, TheHerald Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Australian, ABC, SBS, The Daily Beast, the Council of Orthodox Synagogues of Australasia, The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies were all threatened with legal action over their reporting. [5] [6] The ABC subsequently clarified the issue with an editors note at end of article. [7]
On 31 January 2020 the judgement by Feldman against Nationwide News, Herald and Weekly Times, the Special Broadcasting Corporation and individual journalists in the Supreme Court of NSW was made for the case heard in May and August 2018. Judgments were made against the plaintiff (Feldman) and defendants’ costs awarded to him. [8]
To see all the details of the testimony and Rabbi Yosef Feldman’s submissions and the Royal Commissions findings see
Feldman was providing a rival kosher certification to the mainstream Kashrut Authority, but resigned from that position following the Royal Commission. [9] When he initially provided the certification the NSW Rabbinical Council voted 18–3 against Feldman. Following this vote Feldman, a former president of the organisation, resigned. [10]
Following financial difficulties, businessman Harry Triguboff purchased the Yeshiva Centre and leased it back to the Feldmans for a peppercorn rent. Triguboff handed control of the organisation to Rabbi Dovid Slavin. [11] Feldman took Triguboff to court where he lost and was forced to vacate the premises. [12] It was later clearly seen as a mistake as the school was closed under Rabbi Slavin for not keeping Government regulations and the Synagogue became just a shadow of its former self.
Feldman's father, Pinchus, is the head of the Sydney Chabad institutions in Sydney since 1968. [13]
Feldman's grandfather, Chaim Gutnick was a high-profile rabbi in Melbourne. He has a number of high-profile uncles, including mining magnate Joseph Gutnick, senior rabbi on the Sydney Beth Din Moshe Gutnick, and the senior rabbi on the Melbourne Beth Din, Mordechai Gutnick. [14] [15] His uncle, Joseph had provided money to the synagogue and was in a legal dispute with the Feldman family when he attempted to sell the synagogue site to developers. [16]
Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch, is a branch of Orthodox Judaism, originating from Eastern Europe and one of the largest Hasidic dynasties. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements. It is one of the largest Hasidic groups as well as one of the largest Jewish religious organizations in the world. Unlike most Haredi groups, which are self-segregating, Chabad mainly operates in the wider world and it caters to secularized Jews.
Yeshivah College, officially Yeshivas Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch, is an independent Orthodox Jewish comprehensive single-sex primary and secondary Jewish day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda East, in Victoria, Australia.
Rabbi Pinchus FeldmanOAM is the first Chabad shaliach ("emissary") of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement in New South Wales, Australia.
Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner was the most senior Chabad rabbi in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and the director of the Yeshivah Centre.
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.
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 Yeshiva College, also known as the Harry O. Triguboff Centre, is a Hasidic Jewish synagogue, learning centre, and library of the Chabad-Lubavitch nusach, located at 36 Flood Street, in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, New South Wales, Australia. The Centre runs various adult and child-based educational programs.
Oholei Torah is the common name of the Lubavitch schools Educational Institute Oholei Menachem and Talmudical Seminary Oholei Torah. The main branches of the school and its administrative offices are located in Brooklyn, New York City.
The Yeshivah Centre is an Orthodox Jewish umbrella organisation in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that serves the needs of the Melbourne Jewish community. It is run by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, until recently, under the direct administration of Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner. Rabbi Zvi Telsner has been brought as the new Dayan of the Centre and Lubavitch community.
Judaism is a minority religion in Australia. 99,956 Australians identified as Jewish in the 2021 census, which accounts for about 0.4% of the population. This is a 9.8% increase in numbers from the 2016 census.
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 who 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 practising 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, which would make them 1% of the population. 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.
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.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a royal commission announced in November 2012 and established in 2013 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report upon responses by institutions to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse in Australia. The establishment of the commission followed revelations of child abusers being moved from place to place instead of their abuse and crimes being reported. There were also revelations that adults failed to try to stop further acts of child abuse. The commission examined the history of abuse in educational institutions, religious groups, sporting organisations, state institutions and youth organisations. The final report of the commission was made public on 15 December 2017.
Rabbi Yosef Yeshaya Braun is an Orthodox rabbi and a member of the Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Braun serves as a member of the Beth Din of Crown Heights, the Bais Din Tzedek of the Jewish community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; he is an authority on Halacha and Hasidic philosophy. Rabbi Braun previously served as the rabbi of the Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.
Moshe D. Gutnick is an Australian Orthodox rabbi, and a member of the ultra Orthodox Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Gutnick is a senior member of the Beth Din in Sydney, Australia. Gutnick is currently President of the Rabbinical Council of Australia and New Zealand. Gutnick is the head of the NSW Kashrut Authority. He formerly served as the rabbi of the Bondi Mizrachi Synagogue in Sydney.
Menachem Leib "Manny" Waks is an Australian activist. He was previously part of the Orthodox Jewish community in Australia and later became known for his activism against child sexual abuse in the Jewish community worldwide. He founded Tzedek, an organisation to fight child sexual abuse in Jewish communities. Waks assisted the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in investigating Melbourne Yeshivah centre of the Orthodox Chabad movement of Judaism on their handling of child sexual abuse cases. After publicising child sexual abuse in the Jewish community in Australia, Waks moved to France.
Yehoram Ulman is a rabbi in Sydney, Australia. He was born in Leningrad, USSR in 1964. He holds a number of senior positions in the Orthodox Jewish community.
The Melbourne Beth Din (MBD) is an Orthodox / Chassidic 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.
Meir Shlomo Kluwgant is an ultra-Orthodox Chabad communal rabbi in Melbourne, Australia. He has held numerous posts including at Jewish Care, chaplain at Victoria Police, and has at various times held the presidency of both the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) and the Organisation of Rabbis of Australia (ORA).
