By Kathryn Crosby
This is an inspiring story of peoplehood. Of community. Of the special magic that is people doing great acts of kindness for others they don’t know.
Wayne Robinson, a Jewish man who lived in the rural New South Wales town of Goulburn where there is no synagogue or established Jewish community, was nearing his final days.
At his request, staff at the Goulburn hospital called the nearest Shliach, Rabbi Shmueli Feldman, Director of Chabad of the ATC (Australian Capital Territory), who traveled the hour long drive from Canberra to Goulburn and talked and prayed with the man.
During their discussions, Wayne discussed whether he should be cremated, as many of his family had been, and asked what the position of Jewish Law is on the subject.
Rabbi Feldman advised him that it is much better to have a proper Jewish burial, and he agreed. However, there hasn’t been a Jewish burial in Goulburn since 1943. The Jewish Cemetery in North Goulburn is no longer operational, with many tombstones destroyed or missing and graves unmarked, and is now maintained only as a historical site.
So Rabbi Feldman very quickly organised with the local council to set aside a new Jewish Section in the main Goulburn Cemetery. They took it to the next council meeting, which happened to be that very night, and got the necessary permission.
Two days later, Wayne passed away, aged just 59. Rabbi Feldman had organised for his body to be cared for by the Chevra Kadisha in Sydney while he set himself to the task of quickly organizing a minyan to both consecrate the new Jewish cemetery and give this man a proper Jewish funeral.
The call went out on Friday for anyone who could travel to Goulburn on Sunday to please do so to make up the minyan. On Saturday night, Rabbi Feldman didn’t think they would make it to 10.
By Sunday morning, he was calling people in Sydney to tell them they weren’t needed. The call went out and they came: two full minyans of Jews who had traveled from Sydney, Canberra, and places in between, so this man they had never met, but who was one of their own, might receive a proper Jewish funeral. Some were observant, some were not but understood this was important. Some came alone, some came with their families, women and children travelling as well to be a part of this very rare and special day. All left with renewed strength and pride in the Jewish people.
Rabbi Feldman described the day as momentous and heart rending. “Any words do not do it justice,” he said. “It was a stunning display of the strength and resilience of the community,” Rabbi Feldman said. “You could see the secret to what has kept our people going for so long.”
By word of mouth, a number of Jews were discovered in the Goulburn area. One of whom, Jewish but not practicing and aged in his 60s, revealed that he’d never had a bar mitzvah.
After the consecration of the new cemetery, and the funeral service which Rabbi Feldman described as one of the most incredible and spiritual services he has ever done, some of the travellers from Canberra went back to the South Hill Art Gallery in Goulburn, and gave him a bar mitzvah.
This beautiful estate, a historically spiritual place which used to be a nunnery, served as a perfect backdrop while he put on tefillin and said the prayers in front of his wife, daughters and the travelling minyan who were all singing joyously. Rabbi Feldman described the day as incredible. “You could feel the spirituality – it was amazing to be a part of.”
It is certainly a day those involved will never forget, particularly those who traveled to make up the minyan, doing a great and very rare mitzvah for a man they would never know.
AUDIO:
Rabbi Shmueli Feldman interviewed on ABC Radio
To #1, #4 & #5, this is a new Jewish cemetery ie there are no other Jews buried there..so possibly wearing a Tallis is prob ok as there are no souls of buried Jews to be insulted
Rabbi Shmueli & Chassi you guys are amazing!!
thanks to number 12 for clarifying for those that want to put in 2 cents without the knowledge!
now i can comment on what a kiddush hashem he made 🙂
If he’d (for some reason) worn the talles at the funeral it would also have been OK, because he was more than 4 amos away from the grave (and had to be, because he’s a cohen).
may your shlichus go from stength to strength and your children should grow up to be proper chasidishe yidden.
Aleh brochos with love, your nephew (currently learning in Melbourne….)
Very simple. If you read the article you will see that the pictures are of the consecration not the funeral. At the consecration it wasn’t yet a beis hachayim so there’s no problem of “loeg lerosh” etc. Later for the funeral service he of course didn’t use a Tallis.
#5 before you make ridiculous statements about shluchim please try to use your brain first.
Hi all worried about the talis – the pics are of the consecration before anyone was buried there, not the funeral (during which he was at the required distance and not wearing the talis)
Good question re the Tallis. I discussed this with Rabbi feldman before the chinuch beis hakvoroes. He wore it for the consecration prayer and took it off for the levaye. Before the levaye it was not a cemetery yet and there is a minhag brought down that for the consecration the rov/chazan does wear the Tallis. As this is a very rare ceremony little is discussed about it in Seforim and as such is understood that you find it strange to see a Tallis in a beis hachayim but you could see from the pictures that it was of the… Read more »
No one read the article there’s setting aside a new part of the modern cemetery where there’s no yidden buried there yet ever no there’s no problem to wear a tails in the pictures I don’t see the mess his merely commemorating the new cemetery in golburn
He can’t be in cemetary. He is leading a tefilah that’s why he is wearing a talis.
The world without Chabad would be a much more diminished and darkened place, c’v (!), I believe. Just think of how many Yidden would be lost just in the former Soviet Union without Chabad!!! I know personally, without Chabad I likely would not be speaking words of Torah, putting on Tefillin, doing mitzvot, or be married (along with becoming a father of a Yid to do even better than me in Yiddishkite, BH, and help undo amalek, c’v). To #1, #4, #5 – remember/zachor amalek… he went after the “weak”: the Yidden in the back/who are behind the gedolim in… Read more »
the warlow-shills are awesome,always going out of their way for other Jews 🙂
Hi, before drawing conclusions – and if you know better and can teach a fellow Yid – why not contact the rabbi wearing the tallis and discuss with him?
Maybe, you too can learn something new from him about Yiddishkite. I’m going to ask my Chabad shaliach about this practice. Best and achdus!
Here is another example of Chabad’s approach of mesirut nefesh for every Jew!
Kol hakavod, I can’t imaging where we would be today without Chabad
Beautiful story!
may the jewish community in canberra go machayil el choyil
Very nice. But…Talesim in the beis hakevuros. Hmmmm??? Only with chabad. Chevra…mir darf vissin halacha. We represent authentic judaism. We must do what the halacha states. Check out M”B 23:3- at the very least tuck the strings in. Hatzlachsla rabba
Exposed Tzitzis in a cemetery?
Keep up the good work! Canberra is blessed to have you!
Chabad – touching pintele Yids and helping to restore faith, reaching out to Jews in the farthest hinterlands.
With you guys around and experiencing your mitzvot (directly and indirectly) helps me to have a more general sense of tikvah, shalom, and inspiration about life and our potential to influence change.
Thanks and continued netzach, hatzlacha, and koach!
Why is he whering a talis in a cemetery