Affiliation: Chabad, Chassidish
Rabbi Gershom Baraza’s path runs through Spain, Christian missionary work, Hong Kong e-commerce, and into rabbinic life in Australia. He has an MSc in Marketing from Edinburgh Napier, postgrad diplomas in Enterprise Risk Management and Digital & Social Media Marketing from the University of Hong Kong, and is currently working on a Doctorate of Business Administration at Heriot-Watt while finishing Yoreh Yoreh and Yadin Yadin at Machon L’horaah. He’s also a co-founder of Keyphone, a high-end kosher phone built around modular hardware and a distraction-free OS — aimed at people who want a real device, not a glorified flip phone, while still keeping the filters in place.
Rafi Hecht first pulled him into the Techeiles conversation, through the Facebook group. His initial attitude was that he was part of Chabad and Chabad doesn’t wear Techeiles, which is strange. Out of curiosity he joined the group. From there he went deep on his own. While he started skeptical, he read the sources, argued with the people who disagreed with him, rechecked, argued some more. Eventually came out the other side wearing it himself. Word is that part of the Hong Kong kehilla followed, including a few from Ohel Leah — the shul that’s been standing there since around 1902. Gershom has said the back-and-forth on Techeiles is what really sharpened his understanding of the dye, more than any of his earlier reading did. He’s now one of the more active voices pushing the mitzvah forward.
Early Life and Conversion
Born in Spain, raised in a small Christian sect, eventually sent to do missionary work in Europe — picked up Mandarin for the job. In Hong Kong, his mother asked him to look into Judaism. He did, intensely, and converted. Today associates with Chabad.
Professional Background
The last decade of his career has run through online marketplaces — Amazon, TMall, JD, Rakuten, eBay — across the US, EMEA, and APAC. In 2013–2014 he was Marketing & Business Development Manager for Chabad.org in Hong Kong, handling content and helping coordinate imports for local Chabad centers. He’s fluent in Spanish, English, Mandarin, and Catalan, and gets by in Hebrew and Cantonese.
He lives in Victoria now, runs a weekly Torah shiur in Caulfield, and hosts the kind of Shabbos table where the food is good, the conversation slides into halacha without anyone announcing it, and the puns are terrible.
