Rabbi Joseph Gutnick. Photo: AJN file
NAOMI LEVIN
ONE of Melbourne Chabad’s most influential figures, Joseph Gutnick, has signed a petition challenging the Yeshivah Centre’s leadership.
Rabbi Gutnick is among a group of Yeshivah members calling on the leadership to remove a controversial sign at the back of the synagogue.
These members want to see the centre, led by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner -– the son-in-law of the late Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner -– be run more along the lines of a democracy.
The sign has the words to a short prayer known as Yechi. Yechi has been recited for centuries, but recently has been hijacked by the more messianic Chabadniks to signify the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson as the Messiah.
“I feel very strongly that it should be removed,” Rabbi Gutnick told The AJN.
The Yechi sign has been up in the synagogue for a number of years with little controversy, but the matter came to a head last month when Rabbi Telsner ostracised the “Moshiach Men” from Melbourne’s Chabad community.
The group comprises a few families who are convinced the Lubavitcher Rebbe is the Messiah and are vocal in spreading their message. The Moshiach Men raised the ire of the Chabad community when they circulated footage of themselves feasting on a fast day, claiming that because the Messiah had come, the fast was no longer necessary.
“[These men] started at the Yeshivah and this sign is part of it,” said Rabbi Gutnick, who has held a seat at the shul for 18 years.
“The Rebbe’s greatness is not depicted in this sign, it comes from the amount of Chabad Houses and Jewish schools … that sign takes the Rebbe’s great work and puts it into a slogan.”
The petition has been circulated by Yeshivah shul members Yudi New and Menachem Vorchheimer.
Vorchheimer told The AJN he believes the sign, and its associated fringe supporters, are “divisive and damaging” to the Yeshivah Centre.
When asked if he thought the petition would work, Vorchheimer replied: “In a democracy it would work, but the Yeshivah Centre has been hijacked.”
The current Yeshivah leadership was not elected, rather it includes men believed to have been appointed by Rabbi Groner before his death.
The group comprises Rabbi Binyomin Cohen, Rabbi Avrohom Glick, Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Groner, Shmuel Gurewicz, Rabbi Telsner and Rabbi Shimshon Yurkowicz.
The Rebbe was a great man but he died and therefore was not the mashiach, He may have been the best candidate for the Mashiach post but we may not have been worthy. Time to move on chabadnicks. Time to work on promoting his legacy rather than waiting for his ‘return’.