The Pioneering Shliach Who Built Yiddishkeit in Australia and Beyond

29 Tishrei is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Schneur Chaim Hacohen Gutnick, a pioneering rov and dedicated shliach who played a central role in strengthening Yiddishkeit in Australia and beyond.

Born to Rabbi Mordechai Zev Gutnick, a talmid of Tomchei Tmimim in Lubavitch and a shliach of the Rebbe Rashab to the Republic of Georgia, the Gutnick family later moved to Eretz Yisroel and then to London.

Young Chaim lost his father at a very young age. Reb Mordechai Zev had been out in the cold and rain trying to dissuade Jews from doing business on Shabbos. He became very sick and passed away on Yud-Tes Kislev, 5692 (1931), at the young age of 35.

As a bochur, Chaim studied at Schneider’s Yeshiva in London, as well as at the Telzer Yeshiva in Lithuania. His mother later remarried Reb Osher Abramson, and after the war, the family settled in Sydney, Australia. The Gutnicks maintained their connection to the Frierdiker Rebbe, who advised them to remain in Australia and work to spread Yiddishkeit.

Rabbi Gutnick’s shlichus took him to Jewish communities throughout Australia. In his own recollection of his early years in Sydney, he described how the Rebbe instructed him to travel to Adelaide for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rabbi Gutnick had initially declined, concerned about leaving his wife and four young children, but the Rebbe sent him an urgent letter making clear that he should go.

Another story from Rabbi Gutnick’s years in Melbourne illustrates the Rebbe’s involvement in his work. Reb Zalman Serebryanski once brought him a young girl who wished to convert to Yiddishkeit. Rabbi Gutnick, concerned about her ability to maintain a Jewish life while still living with her non-Jewish parents, decided to wait. After learning of her severe emotional distress, he agreed to write to the Rebbe and ask for his guidance.

The Rebbe later asked Rabbi Gutnick in a postscript to another letter, “What’s happening with the Jewish girl from Balaclava?” The question led Rabbi Gutnick and Rabbi Serebryanski to investigate the girl’s family, eventually discovering that her mother had been raised in a frum Jewish home in England.

The girl was subsequently welcomed into the Melbourne Lubavitch community. At a later yechidus, Rabbi Gutnick asked how the Rebbe had known she was Jewish. The Rebbe explained that the girl’s own letter to him could only have been written by a Jewish girl.

Rabbi Gutnick’s close connection with the Rebbe was reflected in the lengthy yechidusen he merited. One account by Reb Zalman Jaffe describes waiting for two hours while Rabbi Gutnick was in yechidus with the Rebbe, highlighting the special relationship they shared.

Rabbi Gutnick served as rov of the Elwood Talmud Torah Hebrew Congregation for over 45 years. Shortly before his passing, he retired. The Australian Jewish News then wrote that “in many ways, Rabbi Gutnick is the unofficial Chief Rabbi of Australia.”

Rabbi Gutnick passed away on 29 Tishrei, 5764 (2003).