Rabbi’s New Role

A man who created extraordinary connections during his 13 years as the Rabbi at Sydney’s Great Synagogue is now making links of a different kind in Bondi.

When Rabbi Mendel Kastel talks, people listen. He is an imposing presence, but his slightly American-accented-voice doesn’t need to be raised for attention to swing his way. In the time since he moved to Sydney from New York in 1988, Rabbi Kastel has become a familiar figure in both the Jewish and wider community, creating programs that benefit teenagers and others in need.

His latest career challenge is as the CEO of the Jewish House at Bondi, a place designed to help those in crisis.

“We provide crisis accommodation and counselling. We’re obviously a Jewish organisation, but we help everyone over the age of 16,” he said.

General manager Ruth Abras said the people who used the service “could be victims of domestic violence or those involved in a family or emotional breakdown”.

“We are not a rehabilitation centre, but act as a contact point – we refer people on to the appropriate place and also have two psychologists here to help,” she said.
For Rabbi Kastel, the desire to guide people through their difficulties is a strong one.

A natural networker, he thinks that being a fourth-generation rabbi has instilled these characteristics in him. “My father was an outreach rabbi who was always organising programs. As a child, I helped him organise events and I also did visits to hospital patients.”

As the hospital chaplain for Wolper and St Vincent’s hospitals, Rabbi Kastel sees some 60 patients a week, continuing the pattern of care he started as a 12-year-old boy. He is also a chaplain for the NSW Police.

Rabbi Kastel said he believed it was important for people, particularly teenagers, to have someone to talk to. When he founded the Point Zero youth services in 1997, it was as a result of articles in the Wentworth Courier detailing the problems in areas like Double Bay where youth were hanging out late at night with nowhere to go.

The very successful service has volunteers in vans helping young people they find in potentially threatening situations around the Eastern Suburbs, such as 12-year-old girls drunk and a long way from home in a park at Bondi Beach.