24th March 2000
Two other Sydney Jewish leaders have also been invited to front the five
senior rabbis who form the Beth Din - literally the "house of judgment" -
in a dispute over the acceptance of homosexuality which has split the community.
On one side are conservative rabbis who believe homosexuality is a sin. On
the other are a Who's Who of community leaders, including three judges and
eight university professors, who have come out in public support of a more
tolerant, inclusive policy.
The views of Orthodox Jews, who form about 10 per cent of Australia's
120,000-strong Jewish community, were expressed in an article in last week's
Australian Jewish News by Rabbi Benzion Milecki, the chief minister
of South Head Synagogue.
"Homosexuality is not only forbidden according to Jewish law, it has the
dubious distinction of being one of the only things which the Torah [scriptures]
refers to as toeva - an abomination, a word which is used to connote the
idea of disgust," he wrote.
However, Reform Jews turned out in droves on March 4 to cheer on 160 gay
and lesbian Jews and their supporters, waving a banner and wearing pink stars
of David, who rode on a float along Oxford Street for the first time in the
23-year history of the Mardi Gras.
They included Jews from Israel, South Africa, the United States, Britain,
Germany, Sweden and New Zealand and were led by US lesbian rabbi Ariel
Friedlander, author Diane Armstrong, and Susie Wise, a Holocaust survivor.
It was described as the biggest gay Jewish event in the world.
Vic Alhadeff, editor of the weekly Jewish News, splashed the picture
on the front page of his next issue, aware it would cause controversy among
his 60,000 readers.
"We thought long and hard about it because it is a very sensitive issue within
the Jewish community," he said, "We decided our mandate was to reflect the
entire community whether they are republican or monarchist, Orthodox or Reform,
gay or straight. At the end of the day, it was newsworthy."
Mr Alhadeff said he was not altogether surprised when he was asked by Rabbi
Moshe Gutnick, the president of the NSW Rabbinical Council, and brother of
Melbourne gold-mining magnate Jo Gutnick, to appear before the Beth Din court.
One prominent member of the Jewish community had already complained about
his coverage of gay issues. A member of the Board of Deputies, Ms Eliana
Miller, confirmed she had written to Beth Din asking for an arbitration,
but declined to say what the letter was about.
"Anyone can write to Beth Din asking them to make a judgment about something
they find abhorrent," she said.
Although the court historically had life and death power - it is descended
from the biblical Sanhedrin - today, according to Mr Alhadeff, it is mainly
used as a forum to arbitrate disputes such as divorce settlements and has
no "coercive power".
Also asked to appear before Beth Din over complaints about their attitude
to homosexuality are two prominent Sydney Jews, chief executive of the Shalom
Institute, which runs Shalom College at the University of NSW, Dr Hilton
Immerman, and president of the 200-strong NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Mr
Peter Wertheim. Beth Din's registrar, Rabbi Raymond Apple, denied anyone
had been summonsed. They had been "invited to have a chat".
Dr Immerman said he believed the complaint related to Shalom College hiring
out a function room to about 80 gay and lesbian Jews and their supporters
the night before the Mardi Gras. They shared a traditional candle-lit Shabbat
meal, with prayers led by Reform rabbis, at which some gay Jews ostracised
by their families reportedly wept.
The complaint against Mr Wertheim is believed to relate to the defeat of
a motion at a meeting of the Board of Deputies last year. The motion sought
to change the board's constitution in a way which could have excluded gay
organisations from becoming affiliated with it.
In an extraordinary display of support for gay Jews in the face of the Beth
Din hearing, letters from about 30 readers around the world, and an advertisement
signed by 28 of Sydney's most distinguished Jews, will appear in tomorrow's
Australian Jewish News. They include Professor Ron Penny, a leading
AIDS authority, who writes: "A majority of us working in this area, I am
sure, join me in applauding you [the News] as well as those in our
community who, as Jews, are isolated because of ignorance, denial or prejudice,
yet live in a community subjected for centuries to the same treatment from
others."
The other signatories are: justices Mahla Pearlman, Chief Judge of the Land
and Environment Court, Peter Rose (Family Court) and Ronald Solomon (District
Court) ; and professors Colin Tatz (director of the Centre for Contemporary
Genocide Studies and Professor of Politics at Macquarie University), Graham
De Vahl Davis (engineering, University of NSW), Sol Encel (sociology, NSW),
Peter Baume (former Federal Health Minister, Chancellor of the Australian
National University), Henry Brodarty (psychogeriatrics, NSW), David Cooper
(medicine, NSW), and John Ziegler (Associate Professor of Pediatrics, NSW).
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