Pinchus Feldman

Feldman, was born in 1944, the son of Rabbi and Rebbetzin Menachem Mendel Feldman, the longtime rabbi of Congregation Shearis Yisroel, Baltimore. In 1964, he was sent as a shliach by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to New South Wales, Australia,[1] where he married Pnina Gutnick, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Gutnick. He is the brother-in-law of commodities magnate Joseph Gutnick and rabbis Mordechai and Moshe Gutnick.

In 1968, Rabbi Schneerson encouraged him to accept the leadership of Yeshiva Centre.

According to academic Avrum Erlich, Feldman established a minor dynasty in Australia as Schneerson's original emissary to Sydney, Australia.

Feldman built the community in Sydney from practically nothing, and he, his sons, and his sons-in-law now control many of the city’s Orthodox, and not just Chabad, synagogues. This situation is mirrored in many other communities worldwide.[2]

In 1995, Feldman received the Community service award from Premier John Fahey, for outstanding community services.

In 2002, he received the Medal of the Order of Australia, for service to the Jewish community of New South Wales, particularly through the development of spiritual, educational and welfare facilities. [3]

In 2008, Feldman was honoured by the Organisation of Rabbis of Australia (ORA), as the longest serving communal rabbi in Australia. He was given the title 'Patron of ORA'.[4]

In February 2015, Feldman gave testimony before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The hearing was focused on Chabad Institutions in Australia, which had been widely accused of tolerating and covering up child sexual abuse.

In his testimony, Yeshiva spiritual leader Feldman said he did not tell police he knew an alleged child sexual abuser was planning to leave the country because Rabbi Feldman “did not know there was any such obligation".[5] Feldman told the commission the Jewish rules regarding of mesirah, which prohibit Jews from informing on other Jews to civil authorities did not apply in Australia, a democratic country,[6] however there are other sources where Feldman defends mesirah.[7]

Feldman and the Yeshiva centre reviewed their child protection policies in 2011,[8] but when quizzed about it at the Royal Commission, he was completely unaware of the details of the policy and could not answer any of the questions put to him.[9][10] The centre includes a school and a mikveh, where children and adults were often naked in the same room.

In the review of the child protection policy it was claimed that no one had come forward with any allegations against the Yeshiva Centre,[8] although it later emerged in the Royal Commission that there had been a number of instances where children had come forward to report abuse and were ignored. One such instance, a girl was sent to live with an alleged abuser by the rabbinic leadership shortly after it had been revealed that he abused several young boys. The girl involved alleged that the abuser, Daniel Hayman, would walk around the house naked and behave inappropriately around her.[11] When the boys in that case reported the incidents to the leadership of the centre he was told "I do not believe you, you made it all up".[12] In another instance it was alleged that Feldman told an abuse victim "it shouldn’t happen, and [you the victim] should take steps to avoid it".[1]

In spite of the many failures of leadership, Feldman refused to step down from any of his positions since he claimed that "Rabbi Pinchus Feldman has not been the subject of even the slightest negative finding by the Royal Commission of impropriety or misbehaviour in personal, official or public office" and that finding is a "badge of honour".[13] Many including survivor advocate Manny Waks disagreed and called on Feldman to resign immediately.[7]

Feldman's wife was later required to appologise to Waks for an email that called him "vile" and called on him to "just get over it [the abuse]".[14]

Feldman has faced significant legal trouble, some to do with his financial mismanagement of the Yeshiva Centre.

In 2003, the centre faced closure with massive debts, when several donors and parents stepped in to save the Yeshiva School,[15] which was renamed Keser Torah College (KTC). The school was sold to the new group and Feldman no longer had an interest in it.[16] In 2011 the Feldman returned to court to fight a $500,000 tax bill from the sale of the school in 2003.[17]

The dispute between Yeshiva and KTC was finally resolved and a settlement reached whereby Feldman would not open a rival educational facility for 18 months to allow the school to establish itself,[18] however Feldman was later taken to court for breaching the terms of the settlement.[19]

Eventually the Yeshiva Centre itself was purchased by businessman Harry Triguboff, in order to save it from closure, and to cover the centres debts.[20] Later Triguboff demanded that Feldman vacate the premises in order to install Dovid Slavin as the head rabbi of the centre.[21] Feldman took Triguboff to court to prevent this, but judge decided in Triguboff's favour, and Feldman was forced to leave the premises.[22][23]

Following the notice to vacate, Feldman's son, Yossi sent a letter to Triguboff calling him "the first Jew to close a shul since the Nazis" and other slurs, and threatened to remove all the Sefer Torahs, and books so they would be unable to function as a synagogue.[24] Feldman eventually distanced himself from his son's letter almost four weeks later.[25]

Feldman and his wife fought an AVO that was granted to Dovid Slavin, the new director of the Yeshiva centre, after Feldman's wife, Pnina allegedly spat Coca-Cola at Slavin at a wedding. The AVO prevented the members of the Feldman family from setting foot onto the Yeshiva property.[26]

Feldman was also sued by Shabsi Tayar, who claimed that Feldman had not repaid a $1 million loan, and failed to pay him over a considerable time. The courts decided against Feldman and ordered him to pay $1.6 million to Tayar.[27]

• Antisemitic attacks against Rabbi Feldman
• Rabbis must pay $1.6 million