Actor Hugh Grant stumps for Jewish MP, calls out antisemitism in Labour Party

British actor Hugh Grant attacked Labour’s inactivity in combating antisemitism within the party while on the campaign trail with a Jewish MP who left the party over its controversial policies. Read more

Too little, too late? Corbyn says he’s ‘very sorry’ for antisemitism

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Tuesday morning that he is “very sorry for everything that had has happened” with antisemitism in his party after repeatedly being asked to apologize on live television. Read more

Why Netanyahu is not planning to resign

While Israel’s government remains in a period of unprecedented paralysis, embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains entrenched in his position, despite being handed a series of criminal indictments that have been followed by calls from political opponents as well as longtime supporters for him to step aside and allow someone else to take over, either from the opposition or from his own ruling Likud Party. Read more

NZ Broadcast Standards Authority rejects complaint about the usage of “Jew” as a slur

The New Zealand Broadcasting Standards Authority has decided not to uphold a complaint from a member of the public over the use of the word ‘Jew’  by a rugby player on TV as a racist slur. Read more

Anticipating Hitler’s rise pre-war politician told family to get as far away from Germany as possible

The death in New Zealand’s Wairarapa Valley of Tony Haas severs one of the closest surviving human links with Germany’s Nazi era. Read more

Trump ends Arab preoccupation with occupation in Judea and Samaria

President Trump’s decision to recognise the right of Jews to live in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) ends a long-running Arab political campaign accompanied by murderous terrorist attacks to drive the Jews out under the Arab mantra – “End the Occupation”. Read more

Israel’s Supreme Court orders alleged sex offender Malka Leifer to appear before psychiatric panel

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered alleged sex offender Malka Leifer to appear before a psychiatric panel that will rule on whether she is mentally fit to face extradition to Australia hearings. Read more

French parliament to vote on Israel hatred as a form of antisemitism

France’s parliament on Tuesday will vote on a draft resolution that says hatred of Israel is a form of antisemitism. Read more

Merited mistrust in Israel’s legal system

“Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (But who will guard the guardians themselves?)” — Juvenal, a Roman poet (circa 55 C.E.-circa 127 C.E.), Satire VI, line 347. Read more

A new kind of ambassador: The rise of Israel’s Shalva Band and Netta Barzilai

As the Shalva Band and 2018 Eurovision Song Contest winner Netta Barzilai redefine what it means to be beautiful and successful, perhaps they are, at the same time, redefining what it means to be a “traditional” Israeli ambassador. Read more

Amazon removes ornaments showing images of Auschwitz

Amazon has removed Christmas ornaments, a bottle opener and a mouse pad that showed images of the Auschwitz concentration camps amid a backlash from the memorial that manages the site where the Nazis killed more than 1 million people—the majority of them Jewish men, women and children—during the Holocaust. Read more

If Labour Party wins control of Parliament, Corbyn vows to stop UK arms to Israel

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said on Sunday that if his party controls Parliament in the United Kingdom following elections on Dec. 12, Israel would no longer receive arms from Great Britain. Read more

New initiative seeks to remember the ‘forgotten’ Mideast Jewish refugees

The nine young Iraqi Jewish men hanging in the center of Tahrir Square (also known as “Martyrs’ Square) in Cairo in January 1969 after being accused by the Ba’athist regime of espionage were the subject of great interest that day, as hundreds of thousands of Iraqis came to view their corpses—not only causing a terrific traffic jam in Baghdad but also sowing deep fear throughout the millennia-old Jewish community there. Seven months later, three more Jews were executed. Read more

The Kristallnacht Cantata: A Voice of Courage

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Dec-08 Melbourne: A concert commemorating Kristallnacht

A concert featuring a specially-composed cantata honouring the 81st anniversary of the Kristallnacht protest by Indigenous leader, William Cooper. Read more

A brainstorming week in Melbourne

Melbourne has welcomed Professor Ehud Cohen, Director of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Brain Disease Research Centre. Read more

NSW regional Jewish community gains new burial grounds

A new Jewish section at Worrigee Cemetery (near Nowra) has been consecrated by the Head of the Sydney Beth Din, Rabbi Ulman. Read more

Another round of negotiations between Likud and Blue White fails, parties exchange blows

Another round of negotiations between the Likud and Blue and White political parties on the establishment of a unity government failed, as both sides exchanged accusations and as the prospects of a third round of elections within a year loom large. Read more

Australian Honour Wall at Yad Vashem full – a second one underway

A second Australian Yad Vashem honour wall for Holocaust victims and survivors is planned at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Read more

Ask the rabbi

Q. Why are candles lit on the eve of Shabbat? Read more

Jewish Care Victoria elects new President

Jewish Care Victoria elected Susie Ivany its new President who lead the organisation at a meeting of the Board of Governance last week. Read more

Defence Minister approves establishment of new Israeli neighbourhood in Hebron

Defence Minister Naftali Bennett has ordered the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Civil Administration (CA) in Judea and Samaria to notify the Hebron municipality of Israel’s plans to build a new neighbourhood in the city. Read more

‘Israel stands with the resilient londoners,’ senior official says

“Israel stands with the resilient Londoners, who have again become a target of brutal terrorism,” Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel Yuval Rotem stated on Saturday night after an attack in the heart of the city in which a Muslim terrorist stabbed and murdered two people. Read more

‘We’re here to save lives,’ stress those associated with Israel’s ‘Rescuers Without Borders’

It was the year 2000, at the beginning of the Second Intifada, and Arab terror attacks were being carried out against Israelis on a nearly daily basis throughout the country, and particularly on the roads in Judea and Samaria. Read more

Legalizing politics and politicizing the law

One of the modern era’s most dangerous problems is the conflation of politics with law. Political questions are increasingly treated as legal ones, which inevitably results in the law becoming politicized. Last week provided two salient examples. Read more

Legal scholars debate whether Netanyahu can run for prime minister

With little political movement and less than two weeks remaining for the Knesset to decide on a prime minister, Israel appears poised to head for an unprecedented third election within one year. Read more

On the other hand

Another week and still no Government coalition has been formed. If ever there was a time to proclaim “enough already” it is now. Read more

“One of the few non-Armenians to speak about the Armenian genocide”

The Armenian community held a minute’s silence in honour of Genocide and Shoah scholar, Prof Colin Tatz – acknowledging his life-long role in fighting for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Read more

Religious Discrimination Bill rework OK says ECAJ

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has welcomed the Federal government’s decision to issue a revised and further exposure draft of the Religious Discrimination Bill. Read more

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