Why Holocaust education isn’t enough to combat antisemitism today
In the face of rising antisemitism, public schools, secular organizations and well-meaning institutions often turn to Holocaust education as their primary tool for addressing hatred against Jews…writes Steve Rosenberg. Read more
JIFF J-Wire has double passes to give away
We have double passes for the Jewish International Film Festival for all locations. Read more
Netanyahu sends planes to Amsterdam to rescue Jews from ‘pogrom’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at about 4:30 a.m. local time that he was dispatching two rescue planes to Amsterdam following a “serious incident of violence against Israeli citizens.” Read more
Moira hones actors’ skills
Sydney’s B’nai B’rith Players have fine-tuned their acting skills under the tutorage of well-respected producer/director Moira Blumenthal. Read more
Justice for American terror victims
On Sunday evening, a Palestinian Arab male blew himself up in central Tel Aviv with enough explosives to murder hundreds of Israelis but managed only to end his own life…write Frimet and Arnold Roth. Read more
Michael Easson’s address to the NSW ALP Conference
First principles. Read more
Aug-8 Sydney: Identifying bone fragments after Oct 7
The Australian Friends of the Hebrew University invites the community to join us for a fascinating and enlightening evening as Hebrew University’s Prof. Gila Kahila Bar-Gal talks with journalist and political commentator Gemma Tognini. Read more
Netanyahu’s challenge in Congress
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech this month to the United States Congress poses complex challenges to Israel…writes Avinoam Bar-Yosef. Read more
Twelve tough questions and simple answers about Israel
My good friend, Taglit-Birthright Israel’s CEO Gidi Mark, challenged me recently: “Can you offer short, punchy answers to some of the pressing questions our participants have—and some of the accusations being thrown at them?”…writes Gil Troy. Read more
A Kiwi in Kibbutz Kfar Aza
The man with the microphone explains that Shavout is an agricultural festival where we celebrate the crops harvested throughout the previous year. He tells us that the most important crop is not the apples, the wheat or the avocados. The harvest most cherished is the children born into the community during the past 12 months…writes David Kepes. Read more
International system infected with antisemitism driving false equivalencies
On multiple occasions this week, I’ve found myself wondering if I was living in some dystopian alternate reality…writes Andrew Wallace. Read more
Israel and the world after Oct. 7—an interview with Bernard-Henri Lévy
Few men feel the pain of distant upheavals as acutely as Bernard-Henri Lévy, 75, a French philosopher, filmmaker and public intellectual. Read more
Two dichotomies
1 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Education Minister Jason Clare and their cohort frequently state “there is no place for antiSemitism or Islamophobia on our university campuses or anywhere else.” Read more
The PM meets with rabbis
I refer to your article about the rabbis meeting with the Prime Minister. Read more
Apr-25 11:45pm SBS-TV: Auschwitz – One Day
This documentary tells the story of a typical day in 1944 in the ‘death factory’ at Auschwitz from the viewpoint of victims – but it also allows insights into the mindset of the perpetrators. Read more
Apr-23 8pm SBS-TV: Great British Railway Journeys
Michael Portillo’s Bradshaw-inspired rail tour of London continues in Hampstead, where, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, a ground-breaking Jewish doctor found refuge. Read more
‘I placed him on the grave so that he could be closest to his father’
A moving and heartfelt moment occurred this week at Mount Herzl when Meitar Eliyahu, the widow of St. Sgt. (res.) Yedidya Eliyahu, who was killed in the Gaza war in early November, brought her newborn son Porat Aviya to his father’s grave at the military cemetery for the first time—a mere few weeks after his birth. Read more
Betrayal, lies, politics and grief
Seven years have passed since criminal charges were brought in Washington, D.C., against the woman who murdered my sunny, lovely, empathetic 15-year-old daughter Malki. The anniversary of the charges being made public was on March 14…writes Arnold Roth. Read more
Reader’s letter: “Where’s the Jews?”
“Police find no evidence of anti-Semitic chant at pro-Palestine rally”. Read more
New Zealand must stop funding hate
Like-minded democracies have said they will freeze funding to the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) after evidence that UNRWA employees participated in the October 07 Hamas-led massacre of Israelis. Read more
POSITION VACANT – SYDNEY
The Sydney Jewish Museum seeks a full-time experienced Fundraising Manager Read more
Weaponising the crime of genocide
All too often, the murder of people begins with the murder of language… writes Daniel Taub. Read more
A partially religious assessment of the Hamas-Israel conflict
In an op-ed in The Australian, foreign editor Greg Sheridan gave a partially religious assessment of the Hamas-Israel conflict in a column headlined “Israel has acted with morality in Hamas war”.
In part, he wrote, “There’s a lot of wishful thinking that Arab nations, Egypt, Jordan etc, might provide security.” He failed to mention the history of those two Arab nations with respect to their Palestinian cousins. On 17 September 1970, the Jordanian Army surrounded Jordanian cities with a significant Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) presence and shelled fedayeen posts that were operating from Palestinian refugee camps.
The conflict only ended in July 1971, when the fedayeen were expelled to Lebanon, which led to the creation of the terrorist Black September movement. When, in 1978, Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat signed their historic peace treaty, Israel returned all formerly Egyptian territory, except the Gaza Strip, which Egypt refused to take back. Could that be the reason that Arab nations have not offered to take in any displaced Gazan Arabs in the current conflict? Our Australian government has issued visas to 860 Palestinians. Arab nations refuse to follow suit. Perhaps they fear history repeating. Despite the ugly Australian anti-Jewish incidents to date, we hope that history will not repeat here.
Alan Slade
Dover Heights, Sydney
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The loss of life in Israel and Gaza is heartbreaking
As a woman, I am sickened by the abduction and murder of babies and the use of rape and kidnapping of women and girls in the brutal attack by Hamas on the 7th of October – a heartbreaking and unfathomable day on which Hamas violently took 240 innocent hostages, a condemned terrorist organisation, and a devastating day on which the Jewish people experienced the greatest loss of life since the Holocaust. Read more
Why the referendum holds special meaning for Australia’s Jewish community
Collective Jewish memory is the essence of our faith. It is the intimate knowledge that exists deep within each of us and belongs to all of us…writes Dr Aharon Friedland. Read more
The story of the Ulmas’ martyrdom should be known worldwide
As Poles, we are proud that on 10 September 2023, the Ulma family, our compatriots, will be added to the ranks of the Blessed of the Catholic Church…writes Andrzej Duda. Read more
Nazi salute ban is just part of ridding our society of hate symbols
With welcome news that legislation in Victoria has now banned the “Nazi Salute” a new standard has been set for Victorian and Australian society…writes Perry Q. Wood. Read more
Chabad of RARA travels 20,000km to provide connection to every Jew in regional Australia
Chabad of Rural and Regional Australia, famously known as “RARA”, has had a record-setting past two months. During this time, eight bochurim have travelled thousands of kilometres around Australia in search of Jewish people in far-flung places. Read more
London exhibit explores the ‘triumphant’ Jewish history of cricket
Crickets may not be kosher, but the sport played with a bat and ball certainly is … and has a long Jewish history. Read more
Netanyahu gets an invitation to the White House
U.S. President Joe Biden this week hosts Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The purpose of the visit and speech to Congress is to celebrate Israel’s 75th anniversary. However, the absence of a formal invitation to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu until just before the trip added policy dimensions… writes David Wurmser. Read more
