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Ambassador Jones
January 30, 2019 by J-Wire Newsdesk
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Jeremy Jones, the Director of International and of Community Affairs of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, was honoured as one of the “high achieving and proud Australians” sent “to inspire pride” to local communities across Australia over the Australia day period.
Australia Day ambassador Jeremy Jones
This was the third successive year he had been invited to address Citizenship conferrals and other community events, after being selected by the NSW Australia Day Council. After initially receiving the assignment to address Federation Council, in inland southern NSW, he was given the additional role of being the keynote speaker in Burwood, in Sydney’s inner west.
“It is difficult to conceive of two places in NSW which differ as greatly as the Lake Mulwala Water Skiing club and the Burwood Public Library, but at both venues I had the honour of not only speaking but having the opportunity to pay tribute to local heroes who had given time, energy and creativity in a variety of volunteering endeavours”
“Burwood is intensely multicultural and very much part of the City of Sydney while the Federation Council includes farmland, beautiful tourist destinations and small towns. In Burwood the Mayor, the local member of parliament, the local police commander and I facilitated forty new Australian citizens while in Federation Council two new Australian citizens were warmly embraced by the local community, ” Jeremy Jones said.
“At both ceremonies my message was of the wonderful multicultural society we have developed, the great progress which has been made in understanding and appreciating Indigenous Australians’ lives and history, the opportunities for participating at all levels of society and government and the way in which there is no contradiction in maintaining your identity as an individual, member of a specific cultural religious or ethnic group, local pride and a range of personal preferences, while also being completely Australian” he added.
“As in previous years, I observed that the fact that I was introduced as from the Jewish community and included references to my personal and Australia’s Jewish history it was seen as completely unremarkable and certainly not a cause of any tension or pushback.
“In Burwood it was clear that a member of the Jewish community and former local Mayor, John Lutman, created a positive attitude towards Jews while in the Federation Council’s Pioneer Museum a special exhibit was being held on the subject of Sir John Monash and the local guide was well informed about the pernicious nature of antisemitism” he concluded.
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