Adler sign comes down
THE Sassoon Yehuda Sephardi Synagogue will be forced to remove a sign which identifies the St Kilda East centre as the “Lyndi and Rodney Adler Sephardi Centre” after a successful appeal by the estate of long-time congregant Albert Sassoon Yehuda.
THE Sassoon Yehuda Sephardi Synagogue will be forced to remove a sign which identifies the St Kilda East centre as the “Lyndi and Rodney Adler Sephardi Centre” after a successful appeal by the estate of long-time congregant Albert Sassoon Yehuda.
The Supreme Court of Victoria’s Court of Appeal has overturned a 2011 ruling that the Adler sign, prominently displayed above extensions completed in 2009, could remain intact. The Sephardi Association of Victoria had claimed the Sassoon Yehuda name pertained only to the synagogue, and that it had a right to name the broader centre after the Adlers.
The ruling was appealed by Melbourne solicitor Dan Horesh, a nephew of Sassoon Yehuda, who died in 2007, and trustee of his estate.
In their December 13 judgment, judges Robert Redlich, Robert Osborn and Anthony Cavanough found that the late Sassoon Yehuda’s original naming rights, granted 10 years ago in exchange for a sizeable donation to the shul, had in fact been violated by erecting the 2009 plaque, which reflected a major donation from the Sydney-based Adler family.
The judgment concluded that the Adler sign also breached a 1990 court settlement, under which a synagogue in Malvern East – an earlier location – would permanently be named The Sassoon Yehuda Synagogue.
PETER KOHN
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