Man Stabbed in Melbourne Shul Over Kiddush Herring

From Yeshiva World News:

According to local media reports, the Yeshivah Centre in the St. Kilda East area of Melbourne, Australia, was in “lockdown for about an hour” on Shabbos due to a stabbing in the shul R”L, which is located on Hotham Street. The victim, a man in his 20s, was transported to Alfred Hospital in serious/stable condition. Police are investigating.

According to the version appearing in various Jewish media sources, the victim was wounded in his upper torso as a result of an argument during a kiddush. Kikar Shabbos News quotes witnesses who said a fight erupted at a Kiddush between two men over herring, with one refusing to pass it to the other. The man then picked up a knife and stabbed the other.

Hatzalah responded, treated and stabilized the victim and then transported to the hospital.

28 Comments

  • 420ww

    every community needs proper, qualified MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS and articles to inform them as to how to detect mental health issues, and how to use the mental health professionals. It is waaaay past time. We have no time for mental illness to stop what we need to accomplish. get educated, and get help.

    • oy, THATS the problem!

      We aren’t living in the 1840’s. By now every Beis Yaacov girl knows her way around Touro’s “parnasah” institutions and can repeat Baal Peh 300 lines from the DSM Bible. Yet I still keep hearing the very same answer again and again that in only we could end the world’s problems by ensuring the printer delivers more pamphlets about the importance of raising everybody’s education about the importance of mental health. So if it’s not working, that means it’s not enough, and we must keep on trying, and keep raising wawareness, cause maybe we still have one old Bubby somewhere in Antarctica who maybe still thinks the Wells are poisoned, and still washes with a kvurt because she still believes in superstitious evil spirits that sneak up to her hands in her sleep. Oy, we must educate more!

  • this happens in 770 too

    people cannot respect others and do there darnest to bully steal, harness and attack others in 770 , there a whole group of sick women in 770 and many things were done, to be frank the police should come a remove them they are sick people just don’t care to get them help but of course to remove them is there is a huge cry because how do you remove ayid, but these are sick and yell, scream and carry on like crazies, it an’t funny no one in the community care, although some have tried

    • oy, this is pushut embarrassing?

      Oy, they disturb the peace.
      Oy, I pushut get embarrassed from these wako believers.
      Oy, what if a mekurav who someone brings will see this!
      Oy, this is terrible!
      Oy, it’s pushut not right of sutch despicaples to disturb my thoughts while I look down at all the men, who are davening so nicely, and making the Rebbe proud?
      Oy, what will other people say when they see such crazys inside of the Rebbe’s Beis hamikdash hashleeshi?
      Oy this is embarrassing
      Oy it’s pushut a sakanah for those trying to daven nicely

    • Russian's are number one (unless he is a goy)

      It is probably more spiritual like the Purim story

  • Milhouse

    Lo dubim velo yaar. It did not happen at a Chabad shul. Nor did it happen at kiddush, and there was no herring involved. It happened outside Kehillat Rambam, a Sefardi shul that is across the street from the Yeshivah, where herring is bal yeroeh uval yimotzei.

    Nor was there an official lockdown. Some self-appointed “security” busybodies declared a “lockdown”, and anyone who felt like ignoring it did so.

  • Andrea Schonberger

    I honestly wonder what in the world is happening to the human race these days. It seems that more people are committing crimes over ridiculous issues. G_d forbid should you unwittingly dis anyone, like not passing the herring fast enough, lest you suffer serious injury. Doesn’t anyone think before they act? Speaking for myself, I’d be mortified to be arrested for stabbing someone over fish.

  • ARAK - lechaim

    it wasn’t over herring it was over a bottle of arak
    it didn’t happen in yeshiva it happened in the Rambam shul across the street from yeshiva
    all shuls in melbourne were in lockdown also sidney as it was thought it may be linked to global terrorism
    all is peaceful here now and all are readying for pesach
    Lechaim to kllal yisroel for Yud Alef Nissan!

  • Melbourner

    It was not herring, at Rambam shul (incidentally across the road from the main Yeshivah campus) A chosson who was married the previous week brought cake to the shul for the kiddush and had a disagreement with the attacker over the cake (the details of which i dont know but the attacker was DRUNK )who then WENT HOME and brought back a knife and tried to stab the chosson but this victim jumped in to save him.

  • Moshe Eliyahu

    A few issues with this story 1) carrying on shabbos without an Eiruv. 2) whatever the case is wheather it was herring or something else, you don’t just stab a person, bec of whatever, a small little thing (shouldn’t stab anyone for any reason), therefore this man needs to go to a psychiatric facility right away & a psych evaluation & check up history must be done as well, he needs to stay there for a nice while, until the Drs. know all his psych issues. He doesn’t need to go to the city police station. This is a case of mental health, it’s not like when R”L (Rachmana Litzlan) an Arab stabs a yid in Isreal, that’s hate, this is definitely a psychiatrist case & must be delt with right away.

    • Milhouse

      Melbourne has a very good eruv, though not up to the Rambam’s standards so a congregant of Kehillat Rambam shouldn’t have been using it :-)

      However this person has long been known to be crazy, so he’s potur min hamitzvos.

      The whole herring thing was a joke that some Israeli site made up, not knowing that it’s a Sefardi shul where herring would not be allowed over the threshold.

      The “lockdown” was a joke of a different sort. CSG, which is a self-appointed group of busybodies who go around with radios on Shabbos, as far as I know without a heter from any competent rov, took it on themselves to announce a “lockdown” at every shul in Melbourne and Sydney. But they have no power to enforce anything, so those who were not impressed by their “lockdown” ignored it.

    • Sociologist

      Milhouse, what do you mean when you say “has long been known”. Known by who?

  • Sociologist

    I’d predict more upcoming lockdowns, providing the necessary chazaka requred to establish a statistically significant trend.

  • Melbourner

    the stabbing wasnt over the cake. the cake was just the straw that broke the camels back, as thse two were mistame in a long fight bichlal

    • PETA

      It is tzar ballhay chayavim to break a camel’s back. Camels have feelings. How would you like it if someone broke your back?

  • drd

    no matter what it was from. I agree that mental health education is sorely needed in our communities. why not?
    it would help prevent alot of potential issues with shidduchim, and alot more. It is time for us. We are not in the dark ages. We are allowed to know about this. It can help prevent the machla which JCW helps with too.

  • Sociologist

    drd, I agree, but I wouldn’t get too obsessed over the modern age of herring’s lack of taste for quality education, since that recipe tends to brine a population-wide phobia of those who come out to shul to eat fish.

    On the other side, JCW will always be available to encorage and help anyone with a modern Fish Eating Disorder.

    I dunno if advanced education would do good for prehistoric marine consumers.