Rabbi Justice Marcus Solomon: The First Rabbi Appointed To Western Australia’s Highest Court

00:03 Speaker 1 I'm Gary Wolak, and this is Lamplighters, stories from Chabad emissaries on the Jewish frontier. Life as a Chabad emissary is often joyous, but it can be unpredictable and even dangerous. Chabad has become a ubiquitous presence in every corner of the world, but behind every Chabad house are emissaries, regular people striving to transcend their circumstances and a community that supports and relies on them. These are their stories. Rabbi Marcus Solomon always wears a yarmulke and sports a long, untrimmed beard. On July thirtieth, twenty twenty-one, Solomon, who lives in Perth, was appointed to the Supreme Court of Western Australia. Now his full title reads Rabbi Justice Marcus Solomon. Some in Australia and elsewhere question whether any religiously committed person can objectively assess law in a civil court. But as far as Solomon's fellow justices are concerned-

01:13 Speaker 2 Since I've been at the court, I've been extremely warmly received, particularly by the Chief Justice himself, who was very keen for me to come to the court and considered that it was actually a feather in the cap of the judicial system that an Orthodox rabbi could sit on the court

01:28 Speaker 1 Solomon's appointment comes after decades of successful work in law, education, and community leadership. His story is proof of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's frequent assertion that every Jew is a shliach. Marcus Solomon's story begins on the east coast of Australia approximately fifty-eight years ago.

01:54 Speaker 2 I was born in a town called Newcastle, which is a regional town north of Sydney in New South Wales. My father's family had been there for some generations. My family were part of the very first Jews to come to Australia. Some of them, in fact, were convicts. My parents kept a kosher home. They were synagogue attenders. My father was the president of the little shul in Newcastle. It wasn't necessarily halachically compliant in all respects, but it was a kosher synagogue-attending home, a very traditional Jewish home, a very engaged Jewish home.

02:31 Speaker 1 Solomon finished tenth grade when he was fifteen years old. He was planning to finish his public school education until he and his family met a Chabad shliach.

02:41 Speaker 2 And that was Rabbi Yitzchak Groner, alav ha-shalom, who was based in Melbourne.

02:46 Speaker 1 Solomon's parents were highly educated with interests in musical theater, Latin literature, and psychology, but they were also deeply spiritual. Groner made a strong impression on them.

02:58 Speaker 2 Rabbi Groner was an extraordinarily impactful personality. It wasn't just a matter of tradition that he exuded. He represented the embodiment of a living Judaism that my parents found exhilarating, and he brought a passion and a joy to Judaism that I think my parents had not previously seen. And my father would often comment on that, that what he saw in Rabbi Groner and that community was that Judaism was a joy, not a discipline. And I picked up on that, and it really was a light shone on all the questions I had. Who is God? What is God? I was a peculiar child. I was interested in God.

03:42 Speaker 1 Groner persuaded Solomon's parents to send each of their children, Marcus and his brother and sister, to attend the Chabad High School just down the coast in Melbourne.

03:52 Speaker 2 It was an extraordinary thing for my parents to have done, but they were persuaded by Rabbi Groner to do it, and that's what happened. I moved to Melbourne by myself. I boarded at the dormitory at Tomchei Tmimim in Melbourne called the Yeshivat HaDaila, and I spent Shabbat at Rabbi Groner's table.

04:11 Speaker 1 Solomon stayed in Melbourne through high school and two more years of yeshiva. He had made friends there, learned Hasidus, and was very comfortable in the Chabad environments. But he wanted to keep learning, so he left for Israel and lived and studied at the oldest yeshiva in Kfar Chabad. As part of that program, students would move to Crown Heights. Solomon and his fellow students arrived there in Tishrei nineteen eighty-three. During Rosh Hashanah of that year, he witnessed tangible examples of the Rebbe's total commitment to Jews around the world.

04:46 Speaker 2 The Rebbe used to take these sacks of letters and surround himself with these massive sacks of letters from Jews all around the world, and he used to cover himself and the sacks of letters with his tallit and blow shofar. The Rebbe committed his holiest moments to their concerns.

05:10 Speaker 1 Solomon also learned about the Rebbe's work ethic.

05:13 Speaker 2 When I first got there, there was another Australian there in the dormitory, and he had a picture of the Rebbe's back walking into seven seventy, reaching up to kiss the mezuzah. And I said, "What, what sort of a picture is that?" He said, "That's my favorite picture of the Rebbe." I said, "Why?" "Because that's a man who just goes to work every day for the Jewish people and humanity." And that stuck with me. That's what the Rebbe just did every single day and every single night. The Rebbe was the most powerful influence in the development of my religious personality and psyche. The Rebbe was the inspiring figure that drove me to want to contribute to the world and to the Jewish people.

05:57 Speaker 1 The group Solomon studied with left Crown Heights- But Solomon stayed. He received Smicha, rabbinic ordination, in 1985 at 770. He returned to Perth in 1985, and began teaching at the very Jewish day school he had attended as a child. He also studied education, philosophy, politics, and art at Murdoch University in Perth. In 1987, he married his wife, Linda. He taught his way through law school, attending the University of Western Australia, earning his degree in 1991. Solomon worked for two law firms, but he felt that, in his words, he was wasting his life because he didn't see how that work helped the Jewish people or the world. He began to think he should devote his life to education. He asked a close friend what to do. The response? "You've got a Rebbe. Why don't you ask the Rebbe?"

06:55 Speaker 2 So I wrote the letter.

06:57 Speaker 1 The Rebbe's response: "Stay in the legal profession. Devote your spare time and energy to Jewish education, and you'll be successful in both."

07:06 Speaker 2 And my first reaction to that was like sort of a thud in the head, because it was not what I was expecting, and it was not what I thought I wanted. But after I overcame the initial sort of shock or disappointment about not doing what I thought I should do, which was to go back into teaching, I absorbed it and sort of accommodated it as, well, now I know what I'm supposed to be doing. That's cause for enthusiastic happiness, which it did become.

07:35 Speaker 1 In 1993, Solomon founded the Beit Midrash of Western Australia, known as the Dion Elyshur.

07:41 Speaker 2 We started a learning program for kids, and encouraged families to become more observant and, uh, more engaged in traditional Jewish learning. Between that and the practice of law, that's what I did every day of my life since I received that bracha.

07:58 Speaker 1 Solomon was busier than ever with a family which would soon grow to six children. He needed help. Perth's Jewish community is smaller and more remote than the ones in Sydney and Melbourne, so he reached out to Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights. He was directed to a young Shliach.

08:18 Speaker 3 I remember the first time he called me.

08:19 Speaker 1 That's Rabbi Levi Wolf.

08:21 Speaker 3 I was in Kollel, and he said, "You know, would you consider coming down and helping build a Chabad house, a Chabad community in Perth?" And I never heard of Perth. I heard of Sydney, I heard of Melbourne. Chanie and I took out a map, and it took us a few moments until we found Perth.

08:35 Speaker 1 At first, the Wolfs, who had wanted to go out on Shlichus, weren't sure they wanted to relocate to the other side of the globe with their first child, who was only three months old. But Solomon used his powers of persuasion. The Wolfs agreed. Why do you think Rabbi Solomon specifically wanted you for that job?

08:54 Speaker 3 Well, I don't think he wanted me. He wanted anybody. Anybody that was gonna come in there and help out. Jewish education, if it was teaching, if it was, um, just outreach. He really wanted somebody to come and do this full time. He wanted a Shliach to really partner with him and really take it to the next level, and just do this full time. The Rebbe had inspired him, and the Yiddishkeit that he had come to appreciate and love, he wanted to share that in whatever way possible he could with the community in WA.

09:26 Speaker 1 In January 1998, Rabbi Levi and Rebbetzin Chanie Wolf boarded a plane in New York, along with their three-month-old daughter, Mushka.

09:35 Speaker 3 I remember sitting on the airplane, and they had to defrost the runway. There was a terrible blizzard that night, and so we took off on this really freezing cold icy night from New York. We touched down in Perth on the night of our wedding anniversary.

09:50 Speaker 1 The Wolfs hadn't known that, because it's in the Southern Hemisphere, January is summertime in Australia.

09:56 Speaker 3 It was a hot January day. We walked out, and everybody there was just really in their, to say the least, summer clothes, and there we were holding our coats, our, our gloves, our scarves. And he was the first one at the airport waiting to meet us and greet us, helped us get into the car, and from there, a beautiful 24 years of friendship began.

10:21 Speaker 1 Solomon put Wolf to work immediately. He had Solomon's full support, and his knowledge of Perth's Jewish community.

10:28 Speaker 3 An average Shliach would have to come, take out a telephone book, try and sell himself, herself, and try to encourage people to want to understand what Yiddishkeit is, and then come and speak to them. What does a young man like myself know about administration, sending out letters? I mean, I remember sitting in Marcus's chambers, this was his, uh, law office. I would tell him the things that needed to be done, and he would be dictating letters to his PA, and she would write those letters on my behalf to, uh, individuals in the community that I was seeking, uh, to develop relationships and connections with.

11:01 Speaker 1 But Wolf says that even as the two began to work with each other, they were developing a strong friendship.

11:07 Speaker 3 We farbrenged together. Some of those farbrengens went deep into Saturday night. And we would talk the old, same language. He made me feel like a brother, a long-lost brother. He opened up his house, together with his dear wife, Linda, also a very, very special friend to us, and their home was an unofficial Chabad house.

11:28 Speaker 1 The Wolfs worked for two and a half years in Perth to build the Jewish community there, and then they were offered positions as the leaders of the largest synagogue in Australia.

11:38 Speaker 3 It's called the Central Synagogue. It has today a membership of over 1,000 families. And it was a very, very difficult decision for us, because we loved the community that we had been living with for those two and a half years.

11:51 Speaker 1 And they especially loved Marcus and Linda Solomon, but they knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Wolfs, with the Solomons' blessings- took their shlichus to Sydney.

12:02 Speaker 3 It was, and still is, an amazing journey for us, for Chani and I. It's now towards the end of 20 years being here at the Central Synagogue, and, uh, the community really is a tremendous, large, beautiful family for us here.

12:14 Speaker 1 Wolf and Solomon continued their friendship over the years, although the distance between Sydney and Perth is about a five-hour flight. While the Wolfs built the Jewish community of Sydney, Rabbi Solomon rose through the ranks of the legal profession. After about 15 years as an attorney, he joined the independent bar. He specialized in court trial work on high-profile cases. Having demonstrated a high standard, Solomon was among a very small percentage of barristers designated by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as senior counsel, from which most justices are appointed. When Levi Wolf heard the news this past July that Solomon was appointed as the first observant Jew, and certainly the first with rabbinical ordination, to Western Australia's highest court, he was delighted, but he wasn't surprised. In fact-

13:09 Speaker 3 Why didn't that happen 10 years earlier, and why was he not appointed Chief Justice of the court? Marcus is a genius, and he's somebody who really works in both worlds, in the world of law, in the world of Yiddishkeit, and I think Marcus has that balance down to an art.

13:27 Speaker 1 Wolf's confidence notwithstanding, Solomon is settling into his Supreme Court appointment amid the question from some quarters about whether he, or any religious person, can objectively assess the law in a civil court. Solomon's response?

13:43 Speaker 2 The cornerstone of Western civilization is the Judeo-Christian ethic. 99.9% of the time, the common law system is a just and moral system which is entirely consistent with the vision that Judaism and its prophets had for humanity. So the question is premised on a very distorted understanding of what religion is.

14:08 Speaker 1 You have an untrimmed beard, and you wear a yarmulke. What message do you hope that sends?

14:14 Speaker 2 Well, I hope the message that it sends is that unapologetic, overt commitment to the Jewish faith is no barrier to any level of professional success. And on the contrary, it will facilitate and enhance the prospect of professional success.

14:34 Speaker 1 Solomon has already succeeded in his dual mission to educate Australian Jews and to work in the field of law, as the Rebbe suggested he should do. His Supreme Court appointment testifies to his success in the latter, but when it comes to the former, he's been no less successful because Rabbi Marcus Solomon, with the help of Rabbi Wolf, has drawn in thousands of people who just a couple of decades ago didn't even have access to a frum education.

15:04 Speaker 2 And those kids are now rabbis and leaders in shuls in Australia.

15:11 Speaker 3 I personally know young families today who are running magnificent Jewish homes as a direct outcome of the passion, care, and teachings of Rabbi Solomon's Sunday classes, a direct outcome of exactly that, where the Rebbe told him, "Remain in the sphere of law, but don't give up on the passion you have for Jewish education." I think Marcus certainly lives with, the Rebbe said that every Yid is a shliach. Everybody has the opportunity, regardless of your title, to really bring the shlichus that Avraham Avinu started, and that's exactly what Marcus is doing.

15:56 Speaker 2 I still have that photo of the Rebbe's back. That remains, to me, the enduring image. The Rebbe's back walking up the stairs into 770, going into his office to work for the world, to work for the Jewish people, believing in everybody's ability to do that, and believing in the goodness and hope that the future will bring. And if we can all get up every day with that attitude, we'll be doing very well.

16:26 Speaker 1 I'm Gary Wollek. Thanks for listening to Lamplighters: Stories from Chabad Emissaries on the Jewish Frontier. We welcome your questions and comments about what you've just heard on Lamplighters. Please email us at podcast@lubavitch.com. And if you know of a great story involving Chabad emissaries or the people they inspire, please let us know about them. That's podcast@L-U-B-A-V-I-T-C-H.com. This is a Lubavitch International podcast.