Rabbi Freilich bowing out of PHC
AFTER 43 years in the rabbinate, 28 of them at Perth Hebrew Congregation (PHC), Rabbi Dovid Freilich is retiring from the WA shul, and a search has begun to find a successor.
AFTER 43 years in the rabbinate, 28 of them at Perth Hebrew Congregation (PHC), Rabbi Dovid Freilich – Australia’s second-longest serving Orthodox rabbi – is retiring from the WA shul, and a search has begun to find a successor.
In addition to his role at PHC, Rabbi Freilich has also been the Chief Rabbi of Western Australia, head of the Kashrut Authority of WA, spiritual dean of Perth Hebrew School and a patron of the Ruth Landau Harp Childcare Centre, which he helped pioneer.
“I want a life of my own now,” the rabbi told The AJN.
“I want to dedicate myself now to my family and to the interests that I have beyond the rabbinate.”
Rabbi Freilich said he would hand over all his rabbinical responsibilities to a successor, and is “deeply involved” in the synagogue’s search for the new rabbi, who is expected to begin before Rosh Hashanah, with Rabbi Freilich planning to step down at the end of July.
The search is for someone with “a broad outlook”, he said, who can continue the work in interfaith and communal relations he has fostered. In fact, Rabbi Freilich was awarded an OAM for his interfaith work and for promoting Jewish education.
Asked to name highlights of his career, he pointed to the establishment of the Jewish childcare centre in Perth and the launch of Mount Sinai College in Sydney.
He said the low point of his rabbinate was his resignation as president of the then Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia in 2012.
It followed severe criticism by rabbinical colleagues over his issuing of a public statement on their behalf condemning the discouraging of child sexual abuse victims from coming forward and condemning any rabbis who covered up such abuse. He resigned after being accused of not consulting with other rabbis before issuing the statement.
Reflecting on his 28 years at PHC, he said: “The numerical values of the Hebrew letters for ‘28’ make the word ‘koach’ [strength], which is apt, as that’s what I think I’ve given to the congregation.”
Sydney’s first locally-born congregational rabbi, Rabbi Freilich held the pulpit at Maroubra Synagogue for 15 years, from 1973 until his move west in 1988 to replace Rabbi Dr Shalom Coleman, who had stepped down three years earlier.
Knowing he had big shoes to fill in an unknown city, Rabbi Freilich arranged for his Maroubra shul job to remain open while he decided how he liked Perth. “But after two days, I phoned Maroubra and said it’s impossible to get involved in a congregation when you’ve got one foot out,” he recalled.
Rabbi Freilich leaves PHC in good shape – there are more than 1600 members, or around 600 families in what he described as “the biggest and oldest synagogue in the state … with more members than all the others put together”.
He is fond of characterising PHC’s diverse congregation as “really a bit like a cholent of people, with many different parts to it”.
PETER KOHN
comments