Larger Than Life The Story of Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner of Blessed Memory

Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner was the most important driving force in strengthening Judaism in Australia over the past half century.

He was described by Isi Leibler, the past Senior Vice President of the World Jewish Congress, as the most outstanding leader Australian Jewry has ever had. Those who knew Rabbi Groner say that he was incomparable – a unique individual.

He was a man of immense compassion, who dedicated himself to his life’s work in the Australian Jewish community, without leaving room for his own needs; he was an orator, whose sincerity and passion could hold people spellbound; and he was a scholar and teacher, who could move people to change their lives. When dealing with your issues, he made you feel you were the most important person in his life at that moment. More people say, ‘I was special to him,’ than can be numbered.

At the age of thirty-three, he was sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from his native New York to Melbourne for ‘three to five’ years and stayed his entire life!

He found Jewish Melbourne a relative backwater, home to an old, British-oriented community and a refuge for traumatised Holocaust survivors. He left it vibrant and growing, full of Jewish life with a reputation throughout the Jewish world that belies its small Jewish population and its distance from the major centres of Judaism and Chassidism. While it would be absurd to attribute sole credit to him, it could well be argued that Rabbi Groner had more to do with the strength of Judaism in Australia than any other individual. He built a community that, almost a decade and a half after his passing, is still fiercely loyal to his memory, far beyond the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim subgroup he officially served.

There are many Jewish books and books on Judaism. There are also countless memoirs and biographies of great Jewish rabbis. Virtually all of them are filled exclusively with stories of their good qualities and deeds. This biography offers a comprehensive and honest insight into the achievements and failures of a great rabbi and a genuine human being.

Like all of us, Rabbi Groner had conflicts, faults and idiosyncrasies. In some ways, he could appear egotistical and autocratic, in others, humble and self-effacing. He seemed to radiate confidence, but inwardly he could be filled with self-doubt, often needing reassurance.

Some of his mistakes had far-reaching consequences. In the late 1980s and early 90s he failed to adequately protect and support victims of sexual abuse in his school. Some of the proceeds of this book will be dedicated to helping protect children from abuse.

Rabbi Groner never tried to hide his own faults. Everyone knew of his foibles because he made them transparent. That was one of the things that endeared him to so many and made him approachable to people who would never otherwise have spoken to a rabbi about their lives and their problems.

This biography is an invigorating and inspiring read.