AUSTRALIA
Manny Waks
4/2/2016
It seems that due to the international outcry relating to Chabad International’s outrageous letter, they have now issued a clarification letter (see below), which seems to suggest that they’ve done a massive backflip. They now seem to claim that, contrary to what they initially claimed, they in fact don’t have any power or authority over the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne. Once again it is clear that Chabad Headquarters are just as chaotic and unprofessional as their Melbourne branch.
At the same time, the post-Royal Commission founded group, Parents & Friends of Yeshivah Melbourne (PFYM), must take some responsibility for this. They are absolutely right to try to stop Yeshivah’s Trustees from implementing a governance structure that would see them appoint some of the new board members for up to six years (as well as other issues such as the permanent appointment of Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Groner to the governing body). But they have lost credibility in my eyes due to their endorsement of Chabad International’s intervention, as evidenced by their distribution of its letter. Similarly, their call for Chabad rabbis to have the final say on decision-making as part of their governance proposals is equally ill-advised. The model of governance involving Chabad rabbis at the top has been tried and has failed.
Accordingly, I am now cancelling my membership of PFYM as I cannot, in good conscience, continue to support it.
I would like to reiterate that this is by no means an endorsement of the plans of the current Yeshivah Trustees and the model set out by the Yeshivah Governance Review Panel. The current Trustees cannot be involved in the ongoing leadership of the Centre in any way, shape or form – not now and not in the future. They have proven, time and again, that they are unfit to be involved and they must leave, as they claimed they would.
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