High Holy Days at Elwood
Rabbi Dovid Rubinfeld will lead services acting as rabbi/chazan at the Elwood Talmud Torah Congregation.
The beloved long-serving chazan and rabbi of Melbourne Hebrew Congregation (MHC) is returning to Melbourne for the forthcoming High Holy Days.
But this year, Rabbi Dovid Rubinfeld will lead services acting as rabbi/chazan at the Elwood Talmud Torah Congregation.
Having served as chazan at MHC since 1989 and being appointed chief minister in 2003, Rabbi Rubinfeld retired from the congregation in 2018, moving to live with his family in Lakewood, New Jersey in the United States.
Aside from serving as congregational rabbi and chazan, while at MHC he also performed in concerts with internationally renowned chazanim including Yitzchok Helfgot and Yaakov Lemer. Although he returned to MHC for the High Holy Days of 2019, COVID-19 put an end to subsequent visits that were also made impossible by the unfortunate illness of his Australian-born wife Miriam.
Elwood has a history of high-level chazanut that goes back some 60 years since the arrival there of chazan Avraham Adler, who succeeded chazanim Antman and Schwartz and served the congregation with Rabbi Chaim Gutnick.
Chazan Adler was followed inter alia by chazanim Mittelman and Levi. More recently Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick was succeeded by Rabbi Shmuel Karnowski, who served as rabbi, accompanied in recent times by chazan Ronnie Kowadlo, who was also formerly at MHC.
The move of Rabbi Karnowski to Central Shule Chabad has left a void at Elwood that, pending an appointment of a successor, will be filled for the High Holy Days by Rabbi/chazan Rubinfeld together with chazan Kowadlo.
comments