The former general manager of Victoria’s largest Orthodox Jewish organisation is challenging her dismissal in the Supreme Court of Victoria after talks broke down with her former employer when trying to resolve the dispute through religious arbitration.
Nechama Bendet was general manager of the Jewish Yeshivah Centre in Victoria from 2002 until 2014 and then director of development until her dismissal in June 2017, after the centre was criticised in a report of case studies from the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse.
Mrs Bendet wants to take her former employer to a Jewish court called a Beth Din but claims the Yeshivah Centre, now the Chabad Institutions of Victoria, has resisted her contractual right to religious dispute resolution by arguing the claim should be held in the New York Beth Din rather than one in Israel.
Mrs Bendet’s claim does not set out exactly what she believes was wrong with her dismissal and asks for the court to order the parties to proceed with the arbitration process, known as a Din Torah, or for the Institutions to pay her damages and interest.
The Yeshivah Centre, which ran schools, religious and community programs for Melbourne’s orthodox Jewish community was criticised by the royal commission, which found: “At least until the 2000s, those in leadership positions did not report allegations of child sexual abuse to police or other civil authorities”.
Read the article by Nick Bonyhady in The Age.