Pinchus Feldman
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Rabbi Pinchus Feldman OAM (born 1945) is the Chabad Chief Rabbi and first shaliach ("emissary") of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement in New South Wales, Australia.
In 1968, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, sent Rabbi Pinchus and Rebbetzin Pnina Feldman to establish Chabad Lubavitch in Sydney. From its campus in Flood Street, Bondi, the Yeshiva Centre offers its services to the community.
The Yeshiva Gedola Rabbinical College of Sydney has been operating since 1986 as a Jewish accredited tertiary education facility in Australia. The College attracts a large number of international students. It provides training for high school graduates and mature age students in higher religious studies according to traditional Judaism. The course qualifies students for a Diploma of Talmudic Studies and rabbinic ordination. The students of the Rabbinical College of Sydney support Sydney’s Jewish community as religious functionaries and communal workers. Students devote many hours each week to community service, assisting in most of Sydney’s Synagogues. Other outreach programs include huge outdoor Chanukah celebrations, ongoing youth activities and camps, parades, model matzah bakeries, shofar factories, home and hospital visits, Purim parties and Pesach seders.The students work closely with the Jewish day schools as well as the Board of Jewish Education providing hands-on programs for Jewish private and public school students.
Torah classes for men and women are given at the Yeshiva Centre during the course of the week. Men may learn classical Jewish texts one on one with a rabbinical student at any time of the day or night. The Yeshiva Centre is one of over 120 Chabad centres worldwide that provide Jewish Learning Institute courses. The JLI courses provide the essentials of Jewish literacy in a series of eight week courses. International experts in the fields of adult education and traditional Jewish learning prepare each course.
Yeshiva's Woman of Valour organisation offers large-scale educational and social functions for women, which have featured some fine and inspiring guest speakers.
Young Adult Chabad offers Jewish young adults an array of social, religious and educational activities. Programs include a weekly Friday night service and dinner, activities at university campuses, courses, lectures, holiday retreats and festive gatherings. At all the major Jewish Festivals exciting events are created to enable young adults to feel good celebrating their heritage.
In addition to its spiritual role, The Yeshiva strives to benefit people in a very tangible physical way. The Yeshiva Welfare Fund is a tax-deductible charity that provides the opportunity for people to financially assist others in need, while respecting the privacy of both the giver and the receiver. Other humanitarian projects include the “Gift of Life” bone marrow drive to assist Leukaemia patients.
The Yeshiva Centre has played an integral role in the establishment of essential community organisations such as the NSW Kashrut Authority and the Jewish House Crisis Centre. The Centre's alumni and associates hold the pulpits of the majority of Orthodox synagogues in Sydney. They play important roles in the Rabbinical Council of New South Wales and the Sydney Beth Din (religious court). Yeshiva-ordained Rabbis serve as chaplains within the broader community. They are attached to the NSW Ambulance Service, Police, Corrective Sevices, Australian Defence Force and Sydney International Airport.
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[edit] Biography
Feldman, a Kohen, was born in 1945, the son of Rabbi and Rebbetzin Menachem Mendel Feldman, the long time rabbi of Congregation Shearis Yisroel, Baltimore. In 1964, at the age of 19, he became the first shliach sent by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson to New South Wales, Australia,[citation needed] where he married Pnina Gutnick, the daughter of Rabbi Chaim Gutnick. He is the brother-in-law of commodities magnate Joseph Gutnick.
In 1968, Rabbi Schneerson encouraged him to accept the leadership of Yeshiva Centre and to receive rabbinic ordination (smicha) from many Rabbis. The level of ordination he received was smicha yadin yadin, the highest form of ordination.[citation needed]
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 Habad, synagogues. This situation is mirrored in many other communities worldwide.[1] | ” |
[edit] Awards
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. [2]
[edit] See also
- Rabbi Yossi Feldman
[edit] References
- ^ The Messiah of Brooklyn: Understanding Lubavitch Hasidim Past and Present, M. Avrum Ehrlich, ch17. note 16, KTAV Publishing, ISBN 0881258369
- ^ Queen's Birthday honours list
