Robert Goot addresses the WJC governing board
The Immediate Past President of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot highlighted the Constitutional mission of the World Jewish Congress“ to foster the unity and represent the interests of the Jewish people and to ensure the continuity and development of its religious, spiritual, cultural, and social heritage.
Robert Goot
Goot addressed the Governing Board of the World Jewish Congress of which he is Co-Chair of the WJC Policy Council.
At the Paris event, Robert Goot also called the Constitutional mission “to recognize the centrality of the State of Israel to Jewish identity, to strengthen the bonds of Jewish communities and Jews in the Diaspora with Israel”.
Goot made reference to the WJC Executive Committee resolution of September 2017 which lamented the position regarding the egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel and the state of Israel’s conversion law. He made reference to the Discussion Paper that he had co-authored with Fernando Lottenberg of Brazil – “Conversion Law in Israel and Egalitarian Prayer at the Kotel”described the challenge that the WJC faced as the foremost representative organization of world Jewry to “create an opportunity for a respectful and earnest discussion with the Israeli government preferably with the assistance of the Jewish Agency for Israel, to attempt creatively to enhance the unity of the Jewish people and to reduce the impact of differences including religious differences.”
In his subsequent address, Issac Herzog the Chairman of JAFI highlighted that challenge and offered to the WJC to partner with JAFI in attempting to address what he described as one of the great challenges for world Jewry today.
The WJC Governing Board also accepted the recommendation of the WJC Credentials Commission moved by its Chairman Robert Goot, to establish an Africa Australia Jewish Council to better represent the common issues of those Jewish communities and other Jewish communities in their respect regions who might wish to join the AAJC.
