An early L’Shana tova
The annual Rosh Hashanah Lunch with Victorian parliamentarians has been held at Melbourne’s Parliament House with over 40 State Members of Parliament and the leaders of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) and the Zionist Council of Victoria (ZCV).
Rosh Hashana lunch
Nina Bassat, President of the JCCV discussed the major issues confronting the Victorian Jewish community and some of the actions underway to address the issues, including the importance of community harmony, rise in antisemitic incidents, child protection, youth alcohol abuse, pastoral care, addressing homophobia and community security. Mrs Bassat also thanked Parliament for the strong bipartisan support for the Jewish community.
Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, President of ORA presented an overview of Rosh Hashanah, including the traditions of apple and honey, and the importance of the High Holydays to the Jewish people, as well as blowing the Shofar.
The leaders of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel, David Southwick MP and Marsha Thomson MP both spoke about the bipartisan support for the Jewish community and Israel in Parliament and, following tradition, distributed apple and honey to all the tables to provide a flavour of the forthcoming High Holydays and to welcome in the new year.
Sam Tatarka, President of the ZCV thanked the parliamentarians for their continued bi-partisan support of Israel. Mr Tatarka spoke of the continued rocket attacks on Israel and reminded the audience that Israel had accepted every cease-fire which has been systematically broken by Hamas. He reiterated that Israel does the best it can to prevent the loss of innocent lives.
He advised that “Hamas has finally admitted to the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teenagers which sparked the increased tensions and had lauded these Hamas operatives as heroes.”
“Israel has one objective – to stop the rockets across the border and protect its citizens.”
Both the JCCV and ZCV were very grateful for the support and assistance provided by Marsha Thomson MP and David Southwick MP in hosting the event.
