Name Moshe Gutnick | ||
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Moshe D. Gutnick is an Orthodox rabbi and a member of the Chabad Hasidic movement. Rabbi Gutnick is a member of the Beth Din (rabbinical court) in Sydney, Australia; he is an authority on Halacha (Jewish law). Gutnick heads the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia. He formerly served as the rabbi of the Mizrachi synagogue in Sydney.
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NSW Kashrut Authority
Requires citation.
Royal Commission
Gutnick was called in early 2015 to testify before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. It was there that he said, "I believe the cover-ups and bullying and intimidation that has gone on ... represents the antithesis of the teachings of Chabad and Judaism and orthodoxy." He acknowledged that the Orthodox Chabad community in Australia was guilty of covering up sex crimes committed in the community and pressuring victims and their families not to report the crimes to the police. Gutnick said that people reporting abuse were ostracized mosers (“informers”). He said “a culture of cover-up, often couched in religious terms, pervaded our thinking and our actions.” He claimed that rabbis in these situations had misused their power, and that anyone who insists a child sexual abuse victim should go first to a rabbi rather than the police is not doing so out of religious reasons but trying to “hush it up, to cover it up, to prevent the victim from finding redress. There is no doubt at all: Mesirah [‘informing’] has no application whatsoever to instances of child sexual abuse. To use mesirah in this way is an abomination.” Gutnick also lamented that there was no formal training for rabbis on how to handle reported abuse. Manny Waks, an advocate for victims, said, “Today, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick restored my faith in ultra-Orthodox Judaism. For the first time ever the reform that is so critical seems much closer. Thank you Rabbi Gutnick. Hopefully the rest of the Orthodox Rabbinate will now follow suit. What an incredible day for justice.”
Activities
Rabbi Gutnick serves as a member of the Sydney Beth Din. He is a former head of the Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia (ORA).