JCA announces campaign event at Sydney Opera House
Bookings opened today for JCA’s 2024 Communal Campaign event on Sunday, 7th April 2024, at the iconic Sydney Opera House.
Alain Hasson
“Following the October 9 protests on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, it has been an overwhelming desire of mine for our community to gather at this iconic location and to proudly reaffirm our place as a strong and resilient Australian Jewish community”, said Alain Hasson, CEO of JCA. “This campaign will be like no other before it. Never in our recent history has the Australian Jewish community experienced such levels of antisemitism or felt as uncertain about our local community future. Following the attacks in Israel on October 7th and the protests on October 9th, everything changed. It is now up to us to stand together as one – a united, strong community that supports each other”.
Headlining the event are speakers Nova Peris OAM OLY, Olympian and great ally of our community, and Dr Sharon Nazarian, an Iranian-born American communal leader, philanthropist and an international authority on antisemitism. They will be joined by many other leaders of local Jewish community.
In a real win for the organisation, Dr Sharon Nazarian, former Senior Vice President and now current board director of the Anti-Defamation League, will address the community on the globalisation of antisemitism.
In the fall of 2023, three days before the horrific Oct. 7th gruesome Hamas attack on Southern Israel, Dr. Nazarian designed and piloted a first-of-its-kind course at UCLA in the Global Studies department at UCLA on The Globalization of Antisemitism: A Survey of Transnational Trends – a senior seminar on understanding antisemitism through a global lens. As an experienced educator and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Dr. Nazarian’s experience with the campus climate on US university campuses provided her with firsthand insight into what is going on in classrooms at an especially sensitive time.
“I call on everyone to join us at the Sydney Opera House. We will stand together with our community, our friends, our family and our allies to ensure our local organisations like the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, CSG, AUJS who are on the frontlines of advocating for us and keeping us safe know they are not alone,” said Ian Sandler, President JCA.
To book for JCA’s campaign – book early as seats are allocated on a first come, first served basis. The event is open to anyone over the age of 16. Bookings can be made at https://jca.org.au/main-event-2024
