Yitzchok Dovid Groner

Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner Y'S (18 April 1925 – 7 July 2008) was the most senior Chabad rabbi in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and the director of the Yeshivah Centre.

Born in New York City, United States to a Hassidic family (his brother Leib Groner was one of the secretaries to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson), he arrived in Melbourne, Australia for the first time in 1953 at the bidding of the prior Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and began his position officially in 1958.

He has been referred to as one of the pioneers and builders of the Melbourne Jewish community. He was also known for his Talmudic erudition, his sermons and rousing High Holiday cantorial services (chazzanut) in the Yeshivah synagogue, specifically Ne'ilah. Tge value of all these was reassessed once further information became available about Groner's after his death.

On 18 May 2008, he explained at a Shabbat gathering that he was the forerunner and organiser of the Lag B'Omer Parade in 1942 and personally arranged the event as a request from Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson spoke for the first time in a public fashion at that gathering and Rabbi Groner Y'S suggested that somebody should take notes. In fact, the entire talk is available today thanks to Rabbi Groner Y'S. It is a matter of speculation as to whether Schneerson knew of and condoned the behaviour of Groner in other areas.

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