Facebook plans external board to decide on questionable spots on its site

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s co-CEO Peter Wertheim travelled to Singapore to participate in a two-day consultation on the establishment of an independent External Oversight Board proposed to empower to make final decisions about contested content appearing on Facebook. Read more

$2.2 million government grant for NSW security

The Liberal candidate for Wentworth in the upcoming by-election Dave Sharma visited the Community Security Group where he announced the federal government’s $2.2 million grant for The Council for Jewish Community Security in NSW.  Read more

Sparks fly on Q&A

On ABC-TV’s Q&A last night one of the panelists, MP Bob Katter, was asked a question about the reason for his support for the call by Senator Fraser Anning for “a final solution to the immigration problem” in his maiden speech…and answered it by reading out a statement written by Melbourne’s Avi Yemini which Katter said “reflects the Jewish position in this country”. No it does not says The Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Read more

Australian, British and South African leaders get together

During a break in the opening session of the National Directors Forum of the World Jewish Congress being held in Herzliya in Israel some leaders created a mini-conference over coffee. Read more

Groner event causes distress

An event to commemorate the 10th yahrzeit of Rabbi Yitzhak Groner has caused distress to victims of child sexual abuse according to The Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Read more

The ECAJ joins the push to quash a death sentence for Baha’i man in Yemen

A Yemini prisoner and a member of the Baha’i community has been sentenced to be executed in public because he made contact with Baha’i headquarters in Haifa. Read more

From Out of Left Field: The JCCV shifts to the Left

Anyone familiar with the stances adopted by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) in recent time will surely have noticed that it has shifted sharply to the left, especially over, but not limited to, the referendum on same sex marriage…writes Professor Bill Rubenstein. Read more

Dr Joachim Schneeweiss AM: 1927-2017

Australian Jewry has lost one of its stalwart members of its community with the passing of Dr Joachim Schneeweiss in Sydney on Monday. Read more

ECAJ makes landmark submission to parliamentary committee on freedom of religion

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has sent a landmark 31-page submission, with 14 recommendations, to the Parliamentary Inquiry into the status of the human right to freedom of religion or belief in Australia and other countries currently being conducted by the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. Read more

An Australian Day message from The Executive Council of Australian Jewry

A video Australia Day message from the president of the ECAJ Anton Block… Read more

Leeser encourages all communities to play a part in the 18C inquiry

Following a plea to delegates at The Executive Council of Australian Jewry annual conference Julian Leeser MP federal Member for Berowra has encouraged all community groups to take an active part in the current Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights Inquiry into freedom of speech and the Racial Discrimination Act. Read more

Ten ethnic communities release a statement on 18C

Ten leaders of ethnic communities throughout Australia have released a joint statement in the wake of the Federal government’s announcement of a “Parliamentary Inquiry into Freedom of Speech” in the context of the Racial Discrimination Act. Read more

Parliamentary Inquiry into Freedom of Office: ECAJ

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has issued a statement following the Federal government’s announcement of a Parliamentary Inquiry into Freedom of Speech to look at two issues of freedom of speech in the context of the Racial Discrimination Act. Read more

Yom Ha’azmaut celebrated in Sydney

More than 600 people have joined in a belated celebration of Israel’s 67th birthday in Sydney at which NSW Premier Mike Baird was guest of honour. Read more

Watch your rhetoric

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has stated its position on the use of rhetoric invoking the Nazi Party. Read more

Malcolm Fraser: Community messages

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council have issued statements following the death of former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Read more

Rabbi Selwyn Franklin: NORA and the K-A

Rabbi Selwyn Franklin is the interim president of the New Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia and the vice-president of the NSW Kashrut Authority…a situation which The Executive Council of Australian Jewry finds questionable. Read more

Feldman out on a limb

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry had distanced the community from Rabbi Yosef Feldman, the spiritual head of the Southern Sydney Synagogue who has completed giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse  hearing in Melbourne. Read more

Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse : community reaction

Lay and religious leadership have reacted strongly to the hearings in Melbourne this week at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse  on matters pertaining to the Yeshiva in Sydney and the Yeshivah in Melbourne. Read more

ECAJ AGM: Carr gets a mention

President of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry Robert Goot made reference to Foreign Minister Bob Carr  in Julia Gillard’s former Labor Australian government. Read more

Labor MP’s support of BDS an embarrassment…write Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin

Perhaps it was the pig’s head placed in the kosher section of a Johannesburg Woolworths by anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) “activists” last week. Read more

Antisemitism in Australia – The Vital Statistics

The 2014 report on antisemitism in Australia clearly shows a shift from the extremes to the mainstream community fuelled by social media and the failure of popular media to address incidents with urgency thereby giving credence to virulently antisemitic postings left unmoderated on major websites. Read more

Films, chants, and antisemitism – the protest at Verona…writes Julie Nathan

The protest against the Israeli Film Festival went ahead in Sydney last Thursday evening, despite the preceding court drama. Read more

Attacking the Souls of a People: The Global Resurgence of Anti-Semitism

On July 25, as Israel’s war with Hamas raged, my niece, who is nearly 5 years of age, arrived at her Jewish day school in Perth to find the words “Zionist scum” daubed on the outer walls of the school. Read more

The case the ECAJ did not want to know about

The case brought by Israeli advocacy group Shurat Hadin against University of Sydney associate Professor Jake Lynch has been dropped…a case involving BDS from which The Executive Council of Australian Jewry distanced itself. Read more

Section 18C supporters’ club

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has welcomed political figures and various community organisation who seek to preserve the rights of those who need to culturally defend themselves. Read more

MPs break Liberal ranks over Section18C

Coalition MPs, Craig Laundy, the Federal Member for Reid, and Ken Wyatt, the Federal Member for Hasluck, have come out publicly to oppose any changes to sections of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) which prohibit public conduct that is reasonably likely to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person or groups because of their skin colour or national or ethnic origin. Read more

Anti-Semitic graffiti an “isolated incident”

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide has told The Executive Council of Australian Jewry that graffiti displayed on the university’s campus last week appears to be an isolated incident. Read more

Amnesty Australia permitting ugly antisemitic comments on its Facebook page

Amnesty International Australia has been accused of allowing its Facebook page athttps://www.facebook.com/AmnestyOz/posts/10153527406600632 to be used as a medium for grossly racist and bigoted posted comments. Read more

AUJS backs ECAJ on Racial Discrimination Act issue

The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) has backed the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in calling on the Federal Government to abandon its plans to repeal or weaken Australia’s race hate laws. Read more

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