Sydney, Australia – First he refused to go quietly when his synagogue tried to make him redundant.
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Now the intransigent Rabbi Moshe Gutnick refuses to go overseas to have his employment dispute heard by an independent tribunal.
The Bondi Mizrachi Synagogue, which says it can no longer afford Rabbi Gutnick, asked the Supreme Court to send the dispute to the London Beth Din, saying there was nobody in Australia who had the authority to hear the matter and did not have a compromising relationship with the influential clergyman.
But the rabbi says it would be prohibitively expensive to send him, his solicitor and his counsel on business-class tickets to London and accommodate them for five days to have the matter heard.
The court blocked the synagogue from making Rabbi Gutnick redundant last month by granting an injunction against a board vote that was to be held.
Rabbi Gutnick’s part-time job costs the synagogue $80,000 a year, but he says the board does not have the power to sack him because it granted him lifetime tenure. He says his redundancy package is worth more than $1 million.
The London Beth Din has indicated it is willing to hear the matter on June 1.
Yesterday Justice Patricia Bergin adjourned the matter to investigate whether the London group could change its date to accommodate a trip by Rabbi Gutnick from New York, where he will be on June 1 for his daughter’s wedding.
Justice Bergin said the New York trip presented the perfect opportunity for the rabbi to travel to London if the date of the London Beth Din could be set back.
This guy is becoming a real embarrasment to the community. First, he refuses to accept the decision of his olam to terminate his contract because they cannot afford to pay him. Now he refuses to go to London to argue his case. If he doesn’t show up he should lose by default just as if someone does not show up in civil court. He has been given a chance I didn’t believe he deserves but now he demands his appeal be heard on his terms.
sounds like the shul is trying to be unreasonable and blaming him.
he did not say he doesn’t want to go to the beis din. he clearly said that it would be inappropriate for the shul suffering financial issues to make them all go to london from australia (1000s for each ticket). (and if it is he who has to pay, then even more so!)
They couldn’t come up with a more reasonable decision?
Though I have some limited issues with his fighting in this matter, I can understand the he feels he has a contract, and that breaking a contract is just not right.
When one takes on a job like that and negotiates a contract, he bases all his financial decisions, with involve children’s future as well as one’s own, on the terms of that contract. One naturally assumes the other party will keep his end of a contract.
I can also certainly understand his stand on the VERY high cost of making that trip to London.
We are not talking about a Cleveland Rabbi refusing to go to Brooklyn.
We are talking about from Australia to England!!!!
“…. it would be prohibitively expensive to send him, his solicitor and his counsel on business-class tickets to London and accommodate them for five days to have the matter heard. “
That is a resonable objection.
It makes sense for him to ask for a different date when he can afford to go, and not insist on a date he can’t make.
I don’t understand what argument the congregation has. One does not make a person redundant when they have a lifetime contract!!!!! …. unless they person willfully and clearly was in violation of the terms of that contract.
Sure, if he was the rabbi of a shul, and they caught him doing some major avairos, they have a right to sack him. But, …… redundancy due to lack of money????
What does that mean? Does that mean, “We have the money for 16 new programs, but we will pay for them by firing this rabbi and using that $80,000 to pay for these new programs?”
If so, keep your contract folks.
Doesn’t the word of a Jew mean something today? That contract for the rabbi’s life was the kehilla giving the rabbi their word that they will keep him, and that he will never need to look for another job again.
Time to get off my soap box. My wife just walked in.
You are all incorrect. I believe that what he is seeking is that if the shule eventually sells their building (worth millions) he should be paid what is owed to him. As usual everyone here has a knee jerk reaction without thinking or investigating the facts. They do not dispute what is owed to him and he is not asking for the cash now, rather put a lien on the building for money owed to him when/if they sell the shule!
sounds like a chilul hashem
why does a Rabbi, who is a servant of the commuity, need a business class ticket?
Why can’t he get local lawyers?
No disrespect or anything but why not?
Gotta love the need for “business class” tickets!
Why don’t they do it by teleconference?
Although I am generally anti Chabad and would be the first to mock and denigrate the Chabad Rabbi; I am happen to have worked with him and actually know him well. He always flies Business class and he travels regularly for the Sydney Beth Din as their Av Beth Din. It is therefore not unrealistic for the man to expect to travel Business class to London which for all you Americans that think the world revolves around New York is a 24 hour flight with a stop in Asia. Have a little rachmonus.
It’s going to be an interesting case: will a Beth Din order the sale of a shul to pay the rabbi? Because that’s what it boils down to. The shule has no money and their only asset is the property. To pay the rabbi would mean selling the shule, or taking out a huge mortgage which the community could not pay because they don’t have enough members at the moment to even pay the rabbi.
Rabbi Gutnick is an amazing and honorable person and a real mentsh. Its a pity that he has to go through all this when he dedicated himself to go to Australia when it wasn’t so popular and dedicate himself to the Jews of Sydney.
Rabbi Gutnick might be wonderful. But when your congregation doesn’t want you, leave. Get out and get a life elsewhere; they are not the last congregation on earth.
Drop the lawsuit and pick up the phone and get a better job somewhere else. They paid enough already.
Business class? Halevei! Let him travel sardine like the rest of us plebs. I know plenty of people who fly from UK to Oz to visit their kids & they suffer in coach. What a wuss. A little humility here is in order.
Soon there will be no more shules left in Sydney.
I dont understand?
Lets say he wins the case? How is he going to stand in front of his cong. and expect their respect, when they have told him in no uncertain terms “We dont want you here”?
It seems to me that he will be forcing his authority on them when they dont want it. How can that be healthy for a rov and his community????
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease explain.
I think he should make a clause with them that if they sell up, he gets $x, and he should go elseswhere, for his own sake and his own financial peace of mind.
What dya think?
Your all funny, do you know how a shull board works ? it can be 5 machers kicking him out.. why dont they have a referendum of all congregants ?
BS”D I was in Sydney for a year and everybody there really likes and respects Rabbi Gutnick. He is responsible for basically all the kashrus in Sydney (the “KA”) and everybody across the board trusts him. He is also responsible for the Eruv, which everyone trusts. He is a major lamdan and a kind man. He also has a good sense of humor. Good Luck Rabbi Gutnick in your battle!
The Rabbi is no Rachmonas. He is doing very well from his huge Kashrus business that takes up most of his time.! He is only a part time pulpit Rabbi and that is the dispute.
He broke his contract!
The board had to keep him and pay him BUT in return he needed to fulfill his responsibilities as the Rav of the Kehilla. This he stopped doing years ago as he enjoyed the Beis Din and was making Tons of money from his Kashrus businesses. A contract is nothing if he works for other entities instead for the shule that is paying him. Rabbi Gutnick broke the contract.