After F.I.M. Pressure - New Mara D'Atra at Mizrachi!

It is exactly one month - to the day - that we posted about Mizrachi's lack of a Mara D'Atra.

Our post caused a huge uproar in Mizrachi, and rightly so. A congregation needs to have a leader. We received a huge amount of "Thank You" emails from members of Mizrachi, who had had enough of the situation. We are proud to have been a major part of the decision to finally act.

Following is a copy of the letter sent out to Mizrachi congregants today:

Rabbi Danny Mirvis - new Mara D'Atra at Mizrachi

The team at FrumInMelbourne wish a hearty congratulations to the new Rabbi, Danny Mirvis! We wish you much success. We hope you do well, especially because of our fundamental role in you getting the gig!

Ben Pekuah: Update From Stephen Bloch

As a follow-up to our post regarding the falling out between Ben Pekuah Meats and Rabbi Meir Rabi we have been contacted by Stephen Bloch, the Managing Director and CEO of AK BK Meats. Following is part of the email he sent us:

Dear FrumInMelbourne,

I refer to your recent entries in relation to Ben Pekuah Meats.

With respect to Rabbi Rabi, the company has no further comments.

In relation to the article which appeared last weekend in The Age, unfortunately it did not reflect the discussions and most of the content and focus which had been agreed when we met with the journalist over very many hours in the preceding weeks. My feeling is that the paper’s editor intervened. In any event, I sent in the attached Letter to the Editor the following day. Unsurprisingly I suppose it has not thus far been published.

I am happy for you to print this entire reply if you so wish.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Bloch

Managing Director & CEO
AK Ben Pekuah Pty Ltd

info@bpmeats.com

Here's the full copy of Stephen's (as yet unpublished) letter to The Age:

Still No Mara D'atra at Mizrachi

It’s now some 14 months  since Rabbi Sprung was for all intents and purposes sent packing from Mizrachi. Yes, there were elections, and yes his contract was up, but the fact remains that Mizrachi did something that shocked frum Australian Jewry.

Source: jewishnews.net.au

While generally speaking  frum Jews do not sack their Rabbis or “let them go”, indeed a position of “Mara D'atra” of a community  is a job for life - there are many halachic responsa to this effect – Mizrachi decided to go about things their own way.

No one is suggesting that Mizrachi did anything illegal as far as secular laws is concerned, but it left a bitter taste in the mouths of many in the frum Jewish community of Melbourne. Even some longstanding members of Mizrachi decided to leave in protest.

Strangely enough Rabbi Sprung does not appear on Mizrachi's "History then and now" page...

 

Source; Mizrachi website

A question that is being asked by many in Mizrachi now, is, “why hasn’t a new candidate for Rav been sourced yet?”.  Mizrachi is the only Orthodox (let alone frum) shul in Melbourne without a Rabbi (other than “Katanga” which apparently voted against ever having a Rabbi – we’ll leave that issue for another day… ). If they don’t make a serious move soon they will get used to not having a Rabbi on their heads and will probably never want one again.

FrumInMelbourne understands that there have been a number of suitable candidates put forward to the board, one outstanding individual in particular who has demonstrated excellent youth outreach success. We cannot and do not confirm that this is the case. Have the Shul members been informed?

Rabbi Sprung is sorely missed.

What’s your opinion? Who do you think Mizrachi should appoint? Do you think Mizrachi should appoint a Rabbi at all?

Are you a current Mizrachi member? Please weigh in in the comment section below.

Stabbing in Melbourne Shul

A shocking thing happened in a Melbourne shul yesterday (Shabbos Parshas Metzorah).

A yid stabbed another yid!

Did you hear that?



A yid stabbed another yid!

Who could ever believe such a thing would ever happen in  Melbourne Shul, especially on a Shabbos???

And the alleged cause of the stabbing? A fight over the herring. The herring! Or was it cake? Depends on which report you choose to believe.

But either way, Yiddish blood was spilt, by a fellow Yid.

From Arutz Sheva:

Stabbed in synagogue - over a piece of cake

A violent altercation erupted over Shabbat in an Australian synagogue, ended in a stabbing. Witnesses say scuffle began over cake.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

Knife attack Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90

A trivial dispute over a dessert dish nearly turned fatal in an Australian synagogue on Saturday.

After an argument broke out between two of the congregants, one attempted to stab the other, only to wound someone else entirely, witnesses told BeHadrei Haredim.

The incident occurred Saturday morning at the Rambam Sephardic synagogue in Melbourne. A groom hosted the synagogue’s Kiddush Rabba after morning prayers, bringing desserts and refreshments in honor of his wedding.

According to witnesses, an argument suddenly erupted between the groom and a congregant known for having a short temper. The dispute apparently concerned one of the cakes brought by the groom.

“We made Kiddush,” recalled one of the witnesses, “then a verbal confrontation broke out between the two over one of the cakes, to the point where one of [the two] lost control of himself and lost his head, bringing a knife in and stabbing a fellow [congregant] a centimeter from his heart and two centimeters from his lungs.”

Worshippers who saw the man brandishing a knife tried to block him from reaching the groom. In the course of the incident, however, the man stabbed one of the congregants attempting to hold him back.

“The congregant went back to his home to bring a knife; when he came back to the synagogue with the knife, we understood that he intended to stab the groom, so we tried to separate them. In the end, however, the congregant stabbed one of the people trying to separate between the stabber and the groom”.

“It was really a miracle that he [the stabbing victim] survived, he was really saved. I know the people [involved], both the stabber and the victim. We were in total shock; it’s a shame that this happened over food.”

The victim of the stabbing was treated by emergency first responders and transferred to a local hospital.

Police were called to the scene, but were unable to capture the attacker, who fled the synagogue immediately after the incident.

“The stabber is known as a person with a short temper. He has a short fuse. The people have been searching for him ever since he fled the scene of the incident. Even his wife and children don’t know where he is.”

More links:

Jewish Press

The Age

Herald Sun

Channel 7 News

We even made the Israeli Press:

Rabbi Rabi and Ben Pekuah Break Up

Statement on the Ben Pekuah Meats website:

Customer Statement

In April 2016, Ben Pekuah Meats severed ties with its former Rabbi, Meir Gershon Rabi, after a dispute over certification that began in December 2015 between him and Kosher Australia and a number of other international rabbinic and kosher authorities.

The decision to dissociate with Rabbi Meir Gershon Rabi over the unnecessary and damaging disputes has now prompted an urgent global search for an eminent, suitably qualified and experienced rabbi to provide the company the necessary oversight to ensure its meat production

fulfils all requirements under traditional law.

Ben Pekuah Meats is confident it can source the right individual, but stresses this may take some time, and urges consumer and community support and patience as it resolves the problem.

Some questions::

• Some commentators state that the entire concept and idea of "Ben Pekuah" meats is the brainchild of Rabbi Rabi. This is also apparent in the Age article quoted below. Is this the case? 
• If this is the case will "Ben Pekuah Meats" compensate Rabbi Rabi for lost income/patent/trademark?
• Will Rabbi Rabi now branch out on his own and start a new "Ben Pekuah" system?
• How can "Ben Pekuah Meats" be trusted if that not only don't have a Rav HaMachshir whatsoever and the business is mostly owned and operated by non-Jews?
• Now that they've fired Rabbi Rabi, will "Ben Pekuah Meats" publish the letter allegedly written by Rav Chaim Kanievsky about Ben Pekuah?
• And finally, how confident are "Ben Pekuah Meats" that they can ever find a Rabbi willing to support their initiative when even Rabbi Rabi was roundly condemned by just about every Australian Rabbi for saying that this initiative is halachically acceptable?

********

Yesterday (Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Metzorah) The Age ran an article about the Ben Pekuah business.

Short quotes follow:

New herd targets kosher markets, but ruffles feathers in Jewish community

 

Source: theage.com.au

A Victorian business has developed a herd of cattle and a flock of sheep it hopes will make kosher meat more affordable for consumers. 

**

Known as Ben Pekuah, the "ancient ritual breed" allows all of the meat from the animal to be consumed, according to AK Ben Pekuah's managing director, Stephen Bloch.

**

The breeding of Ben Pekuah livestock followed an approach by a Melbourne rabbi to the Victorian Farmers Federation about 10 years ago about establishing a new kosher meat supply chain.

Rabbi Rabi is a well respected frum Jew who was one of the founding members of the world renowned Kollel Beth HaTalmud in Balaclava. He spent over 15 years there being marbitz torah and growing mechayil el choyil. Over the last five or more years he has spent most hours of the day studying torah at the Kollel Beth Yossef which forms an integral part of the Adass Yisroel community and shul complex. He is highly respected there and is often sought after by young Kollel yungerleit to answer their complex questions.

Although many people had halachic differences with Rabi Rabi when it came to matters of Kashrus, he was always regarded as a serious Jew who has brought many wayward Jews back into the fold.

Now that he has been sent on his merry way by the business owners, one wonders whether anyone will take them seriously. Indeed, one could argue that the main reason that Rabbi Rabi was targeted by kosher Australia was because of his insistence that Ben Pekuah is acceptable. "Severing ties" with him out won't make any difference, surely?

Time will tell.

Frum In Melbourne Blog Stats for Last 24 Hours

We thought you, our loyal readers would be interested to see the following stats of our Blog from the last 24 Hours.

We don't collect personal information of any readers, not are we interested. These anonymous stats are automatically collected by the Blog itself.

fruminmelbourne.blogspot.com

Melbourne Hatzala on Australian TV

Further to our article yesterday regarding Hatzala Melbourne's handling of complaints and questions about its Board and Constitutional structure, we received an email from a  reader who complained about our coverage of this “private” issue.

The reader kindly shared a link with us of Melbourne Hatzala being interviewed for a Jewish TV show.

  

In the clip Danny Elbaum, the Operations Manager of Hatzala discusses the founding of Hatzala with Henry Greener of “The Shtick” amongst other Hatzala matters.

"The Shtick" labels itself as "The only Jewish TV show in Australia".

Does Hatzala of Melbourne Have a Constitution?

Chevra Hatzala of Melbourne was founded by members of the community in 1995. Since then it has become famous as a professional and a truly indispensable organisation.

Yet some questions are now being asked about the governance of the organisation, as well as accountability of its members.

FrumInMelbourne has uncovered  a number of emails sent to Hatzala from  a private individual, complaining about the alleged undignified behaviour of a Hatzala responder. FrumInMelbourne wrote to Hatzala Melbourne a fortnight ago asking a number of questions but did not receive a response.

We also wrote  to the community member who made the complaint but have not heard back from him either.

Following is our email to Hatzala  Melbourne, dated 30^th March 2016:

Hi Danny,

We have sighted some emails to Hatzola from <name removed>  regarding requests to dismiss a longstanding responder and requests for information about your constitution. We are writing an article on Hatzola Melbourne and would like your input and feedback.

Questions:

• Can you explain what the allegations are, and what Hatzola has done to satisfy the complainant?
• Does Hatzola have an official complaints policy? If so can you send us a copy or link?
• Does Hatzola have a legal constitution? If so, can you please send us an electronic copy? Preferably in pdf format.
• Has the longstanding member been suspended while an investigation takes place?
• Is Hatzola Melbourne subject to the same rules or regulations and or codes of practice as the Victorian Ambulance paramedics?
• We understand Hatzola has a governing board. If so can you advise us who the members are, and by what process they are elected?
• We understand Hatzola refused to provide a copy of their Constitutions to the public, can you confirm this is the case, and are you aware that other Hatzola organisations do provide their constitutions?

Further discussion:

1. Should people have the right to complain about a Hatzala member’s behaviour when he is not “on the job”?
2. Should Hatzala make their constitution publicly available as many other Hatzala organisations do?
3. Should they provide their constitution when specifically requested to do so by a member of the community?

New School committee at Adass

A new dawn has risen over the Adass Israel School and Mosdos Hachinuch.

Although Board Elections were called, a new committee has been installed by default after Y.Z. Fixler removed himself from contention after a contentious meeting at the house of the Adass Israel's Rabbi Beck. The meeting was attended by all election nominees, as well as a representative member of the Election Committee and Professor Israel Herszberg.

The new committee members are:

• Moshe Benedikt
• Yitzchak Benedikt
• Yumi Friedman
• Moshe Friedman
• Chaim Klein
• Nosan Klein
• Yoili Klein
• Benyomin  Koppel
• Yossi Spigelman
• Arele Strasser
• Avremi Weiszberger

A short outline of the new committee:

·         Moshe Benedikt was in the committee previously. He is also a member of the Adass Chevra Kadisha.

·         Yitzchak Benedikt has been in the committee and the President of the committee for a number of years. He is also a member of the Adass Chevra Kadisha.

·         Moshe Friedman was in the committee previously. He is also a member of the Adass Israel Kehilla committee.

·         Chaim Klein was in the previous committee and is also a member of the Adass Israel Chevra Kadisha.

·         Nosan Klein is a newcomer to the committee. We wish him great success. He is also a member of the Adass Chevra Kadisha.

·         Yoili Klein was in the previous committee.

·         Benyomin Koppel was in the previous committee. He is also a member of the Adass Israel Kehilla committee and the unofficial Rosh Hakohol.

·         Yossi Spigelman (Jnr.) is a newcomer to the committee. We wish him great success.

·         Arele Strasser was in the previous committee. He is also a member of the Adass Israel Kehilla committee

·         Avremi Weiszberger was in the previous committee for some time until he resigned last year for personal reasons.

 We wish the new committee lots of hatzlacha.

We hope and pray that this new Committee use this special opportunity to serve the community with honesty, integrity and heart, and avoid making important decisions based on personal feelings or bias.