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Sharansky, Lau, Peer lead March of the Living
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky (center) leads the March of the Living flanked by Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau (left) and Israeli government ministers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day Monday (April 12). Photo: Yossi Zeliger
AUSCHWITZ, Poland (Press Release)–Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, flanked by Israel’s former Chief Rabbi and government ministers, led a group of over 10,000 on the annual March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp in Poland, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, Monday (April 12).
“It is easy to say that the lessons of Auschwitz have been learned. It is easy to say those two magic words, never again,” Sharansky said, addressing the marchers, mostly Jewish young adults from Israel and abroad. “The hard part is giving those words meaning. That is our challenge. That is your challenge.”
“Our grandparents and their grandparents and all our ancestors chose to stay Jewish — despite all the persecutions. Will we be determined enough and strong enough to make that same choice? Will we be as true to our identities living in freedom as they were living in fear?”
This year’s March marks the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II and honors the memory of the million and a half children who were killed during the Holocaust. Israel’s former Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, who led this year’s march with Sharansky, was among those who survived the Holocaust as a child.
Sharansky also invited several young adults from Israel to join him on the march, including Israeli tennis champ Shachar Peer, who came with her grandmother, Yuliana Eckstein, an Auschwitz survivor, and IDF Lieutenant Bensigizi Avraham, an immigrant from Ethiopia who does her army service as a counselor at Nativ, the Jewish Agency program to strengthen the Jewish identity of IDF soldiers.
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Preceding provided by the Jewish Agency for Israel
The Jews Down Under~Roundup of Australian Jewish News
Compiled by Garry Fabian
Peer Protest moves to Melbourne
MELBOURNE, 20 January – A small group of Palestinian supporters held a protest outside the Australian Open on Tuesday afternoon (January 19).
The Australians For Palestine group, which numbered fewer than 10, singled out Israel’s top tenns player Shahar Peer for criticism. The protest was peaceful, but after a time, the demonstrators were asked by police to leave.
The group, most of who were dressed in corporate attire, held placards with a photo of Peer in her Israel Defence Forces uniform. The slogan on the placard read: “Shahar Peer serves for apartheid Israel”.
According to a flyer distributed by Australians For Palestine, Peer has been singled out because she “has shown no understanding of the oppressive
conditions under which Palestinian athletes are forced to live, but rather sees herself as a victim of discrimination”.
Peer, who refrains from making political statements, has been the target of anti-Israeli protests. Most recently, she was heckled at a tournament in Auckland. She also came to global attention last year when the United Arab Emirates, host of the Dubai Tennis Championship, refused to issue the Israeli citizen with a visa.
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Peer advances to second round
MELBOURNE, 21 January – Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer has won through to the second round of the Australian Open after defeating Czech player Lucie Hradecka 6-7, 6-2, 6-1 on Wednesday (January 20).
Peer, the 29th seed, looked sluggish in the opening set and struggled to find her rhythm against Hradecka, who served powerfully in the early stages of the match.
Peer gave up an early break in the first set when she failed to hold serve in the eighth game. The rest of the set went on serve to the tie-break, where Peer quickly fell behind 5-1. She clawed her way back to 5-6, fending off a set-point in
the process, before Hradeka produced another big serve to take it 7-5.
However, Peer found her range midway through the second set and began to dominate proceedings from the back of the court. She broke in the fifth and
eighth games of the second set, with Hradecka gifting her the latter with four double faults.
Peer dominated in the third set, and was further aided by a hefty unforced error and double-fault count from Hradecka, who was beginning to become frustrated.
With little help from her booming first serve, Hradecka was unable to match Peer’s superior ground strokes.
At the post-match media conference, Peer said: “I played her [Hradeka] last year and lost in straight sets. She is a good player and has a big serve, but she is not always consistent and I think that’s the main thing with her.
“I had to play good and be aggressive, because she tries to dominate points pretty early, so my main goal was to be solid but also aggressive. I
tried to combine those two and return well too and I think I did it quite well.”
Peer will play unseeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the second round.
At the media conference, Peer talked down threats to her security when asked whether the recent spate of anti-Israel protests had affected her preparation.
“There is security going on around me, I don’t know exactly how much but I feel really safe,” Peer said.
“I’m just focusing on playing tennis and I’m not here to focus on my security or what’s going on outside the court.”
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Youth movements safe despite GFC
MELBOURNE, 21 January — Amid reports that Jewish youth movements worldwide had gone cap in hand to the Israeli government to save them from
financial collapse, the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) this week insisted that the future of local organisations was secure.
However, ZFA president Philip Chester cautioned that the groups for children and teenagers were surviving “hand-to-mouth”.
Chester voiced his concerns just days after leaders of world Zionist youth movements met with the Knesset Education Committee to plead their
case for increased funding. It followed extensive budget cuts by the Jewish Agency for Israel last year.
Chester who ultimately oversees Betar, Bnei Akiva, Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair, Hineni and Netzer said “People would be shocked at the small budgets some of the movements are running on.”
The organisations, run by youth leaders, most of who are under 21, are largely responsible for their own funding. Most rely on parents, supporters or movement alumni for week-to-week activity and camp funding. Traditional
fundraising methods, such as film and trivia nights, are common.
Increasingly, movements are also having to raise money to support shaliachs (emissaries), who are sent to Australia by the Jewish Agency, but are
only partially financially supported.
The movements’ roof body the Australian Zionist Youth Council receives some funding from the ZFA, but only for large-scale programs, such as leadership camps. For some movements the model works.
Bnei Akiva, for example, has strong support from the Mizrachi community and is savvy in its fundraising organising a mishloach manot sale at Purim and a lulav and etrog sale at Succot.
Other movements, particularly the smaller ones, have less success.
The ZFA is working with them to attract support, but according to Chester, it is not easy.
“We haven’t yet worked out the magical formula to do it,” he said.
Community philanthropists have been approached to ascertain whether they would be interested in assisting, and Chester has also been in discussions with the NSW Jewish Communal Appeal (JCA) to garner support for the Sydney movements.
And while JCA support for youth movements was not on the short-term agenda, he said he was more hopeful in the longer term.
Meanwhile, Chester said he was confident of the survival of local chapters.
“The numbers are good and to their undying credit, the kids do it for nothing and run functions on the smell of an oily rag.
“The truth is, no matter how little they have, they will never stop doing it.”
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Dudi Sela blows lout of Australian Open
MELBOURNE, 20 January – Israeli tennis player Dudi Sela has crashed out of the Australian Open in the first round, losing to Ukrainian qualifier Ivan Sergeyev 6-3, 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.
Israel’s top-ranked male player ranked 41 in the world came into the match with a virus and never found his rhythm, despite displaying patches of brilliance.
The match lasted three hours and 22 minutes.
The Israeli was broken in the first game of the match and there were two more breaks of serve in the set, one to each player. Sergeyev served out the set with a love game.
The second set went on serve to a tie breaker, which Sergeyev dominated with some big serving, winning 7-3.
Sela regained his composure and took the third set 6-4.
There were consecutive service breaks in the second and third games of the fourth set as the intensity went up a notch.
The set then went on serve until the tie break, and it was a brilliant passing shot on the forehand that eventually gave Sergeyev his hard-fought win.
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Australian Jewry rallies for Haiti
SYDNEY, 21 January – Australian Jews are being urged to step up their support for the international aid effort in Haiti.
In the wake of the earthquake that has ravaged the Caribbean island, claiming an estimated 200,000 lives, two community charities — Jewish Aid Australia (JAA) and Magen David Adom (MDA) — have launched appeals.
In three days, JAA had already raised $70,000 for the relief effort. It is directing its donations towards CARE Australia — a non-partisan, non-political Australian charity on the ground in Port-au-Prince.
JAA chief executive officer Gary Samowitz said: “The response has been fantastic and we’ve been inundated with calls and emails.”
Among the donors are AJN owner Robert Magid and his sister Nora Goodridge, who made a $40,000 pledge.
“Bob and Nora’s donation is an inspiring example to the rest of the community,” Samowitz said. “The more money raised, the more services will be provided to those suffering the aftermath of the earthquake, and every donation counts.”
The Pratt Foundation, meanwhile, run by Jewish philanthropist Heloise Waislitz, has made an initial donation of $50,000. The foundation’s CEO, Sam Lipski, said the 5000 workers at the family company, Visy, had also been invited to give funds to the people of Haiti. He said donations made by staff would be matched by the foundation.
Ron Raab, president of Insulin for Life Australia, added that his organisation had sent emergency shipments of insulin to assist Haitian diabetics
who were struggling to get access to lifesaving medication.
Local MDA branches are also running an appeal to support the work of their Israeli colleagues on the embattled island. As part of the International Committee of the Red Cross, MDA sent a paramedic delegation to Haiti immediately upon hearing of the earthquake.
According to MDA-Red Cross coordinator Dudi Abadi, all the money raised by the ambulance and first aid service will be used to fulfill the most urgent needs — medical equipment, blankets, water, food, hygiene items, purification tablets and sheets of plastic.
Encouraging the community to give generously to the appeals, Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot said: “The earthquake
claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and has left many of the survivors without homes, food, water, medical and hospital services, and
other basic necessities. I urge everyone in our community to dig deep and support the recognised international aid organisations, which have
workers on the ground in Haiti, including Jewish organisations such as Jewish Aid Australia Limited, Magen David Adom and ZAKA.”
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Israeli Torah scholar sets up new Kollel
SYDNEY, 21 January – Despite success stories in Melbourne and Perth, Sydney has struggled for years to establish a viable kollel.
But this time around the Jewish Learning Centre (JLC) is hoping that the outcome will be different.
Next month, JLC plans to bring four Israeli bochers (Torah scholars) to set up Australia’s third Torah MiTzion Kollel.
Once established, it will be one of 25 religious-Zionist kollels dotted around the world under the umbrella organisation of Torah MiTzion in Israel, including one in Melbourne, based at Mizrachi shul and another in Perth.
Rabbi Daniel Eisenberg, who will be heading the project, said: “Jewish life is very dependent on the vibrancy of its institutions and every additional source of inspiration that can be provided to the Sydney community will help advance stronger Jewish identity.
“This is a prime example of that kind of institution.”
Traditionally, a kollel is an institute for advanced Torah studies, which provides married men with housing and a regular monthly stipend to study Judaism’s classic texts.
However, this Torah MiTzion Kollel will run slightly differently.
For starters, these bochers are not married. Furthermore, while they will undertake intensive studies at JLC’s beit hamedrash, the men will also perform outreach work.
Other shuls run similar initiatives for unmarried bochers, but this is the only program to officially be called a kollel in Sydney.
“The focus here is to work in the traditional sense of the kollel, as well as to strengthen the Jewish nature of the community,” said Rabbi
Eisenberg, who is still raising some of the $180,000 in funds needed to operate the project in its first year.
This is not the first time an organisation has tried to establish a kollel in the area.
In 2006, the Adass Israel congregation brought out seven rabbis and their families to set up Sydney’s first full-scale kollel. But two years later, it closed down because of funding and organisational issues.
Rabbi Eisenberg, however, believes this time they will succeed.
“It’s not like bringing a group of married men and their families. It’s a very big difference in proportion. It’s more sustainable,” he said.
Can Pakula make the trains run on time?
MELBOURNE, 21 January – Jewish MP Martin Pakula has been handed Victoria’s poisoned chalice – the transport portfolio. The state’s transport minister Lynne Kosky resigned from parliament on Monday, citing family health problems.
Pakula who was voted in by his caucus colleagues yesterday, will inherit a range of problems, which include over crowded trains, transport cancellations and a troubled over-budged new electronic ticketing system, and technical
problems with the public transport system.
The 40-year old who was elected to Parliament in 2006, had a Jewish upbringing, and is a son of a Holocaust survivor. He also adds industrial relations to his portfolio.
He is one of three Labour MP’s in the Victorian Parliament. The others are Marsha Thomson and Jennifer Huppert.
Pakul caught the train to work recently, taking time out to hear complaints from frustrated commuters.
Mr Pakula chatted with passengers on the 8.17am from Sandringham, hearing their complaints about punctuality and cancellations on the network.
He said most people had been welcoming, but had a lot to say about their morning commute.
“What they want is reliability and punctuality. That’s the absolute key message from today,” he said.
A casual user of the system Mr Pakula said he caught the Sandringham line a couple of dozen times a year and sometimes caught the bus home from the station.
“Like all commuters, I’ve had times when the train I’ve been on has been extremely crowded, or it has been extremely hot or there’s been delays
and I understand why people would be frustrated by that,” he said.
But from today he is expected to be a regular traveller, getting out on public transport every day.
Mr Pakula also indicated that he would be considering the future of W-Class trams, saying they would most likely eventually end up servicing only the city circle.
“I don’t think anything is forever (and) I don’t think they are designed for large-scale commuter transportation any more,” he said.
“I think people want a more modern, more comfortable tram these days, and so I think the W-class tram, their use will be confined to (the city circle).”
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Country music with a slice of kugel
TAMWORTH, NSW. 21 January – Every year at about this time, country music flows down the streets of Tamworth just about as freely as the cold beer
flows from the taps of their pubs.
It’s the Tamworth Country Music Festival in the city that’s described as the Nashville of the Southern Hemisphere.
It’s also the city home to musicians who go by the curious names of 8 Ball Aitken and Bird.
“Come on in, we’ve made a kugel for you,” 8 Ball Aitken says when we meet at his home. The Queensland native, who sports a long bright red beard and speaks in a soft voice, performed at the festival, which ran until January 24
Aitken has led an interesting life. The Golden Guitar nominee went from picking mangoes and bananas, to picking the strings on his guitar. Though not Jewish himself, his fiancee and manager Bird Jensen are, and Judaism has come to influence his music.
Aitken is a welcome friend at Brisbane’s Beit Knesset Shalom Progressive Synagogue; he has played at synagogue functions and filmed part of a music video there.
Over the past six years, he’s released three albums and toured in towns all over Australia as well as 15 countries.
“[His music] is not strictly country,” Jensen says. “It’s part blues, folk, country and indie rock,” she explains.
The pair’s hard work has finally paid off. “We earn our living through our own original music,” Jensen says. “A lot of people can’t do that.”
Many artists in Australia, including Aitken, are partially supported by the Australian Business Arts Foundation (ABAF).
To get more funding, business-minded Jensen even makes her own “8 Ball shmattehs” — T-shirts and other tour merchandise — and says she is willing
to go the extra mile in ways other managers probably never considered.
“If anyone [donates enough money to get 8 Ball Aitken back into the studio], I’ll personally make them a shabbat dinner in their home,” Jensen enthuses, “and it will be good.”
8 Ball Aitken performed at the Tamworth Country Music Festival through January 24.
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Fabian is Australia bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World
The Jews Down Under~Roundup of Australian Jewish news
Compiled by Garry Fabian
A survivor’s homage to her floating angels
MELBOURNE, January 11, 2010— Judy Kolt wrote her World War II story, Tell It to the Squirrels, in honour of her father. She had spent World War II in perpetual flight, hidden by nuns in a convent boarding school, disguised as a blind child in an institute for the blind, hidden in an old people’s home, in different homes and ghettos and on a farm.
She and her older sister, Tosia, were two of at least 13 Jewish children sheltered by the nuns in a boarding school of 30, while her mother disguised her Jewish looks by dressing like a prostitute.
”They put their own lives at risk and completely disregarded the dangers. They smiled right through it,” Kolt said yesterday. ”When I first saw them I didn’t think they were human. With their long clothes, I couldn’t see their feet and thought they were floating angels.”
Kolt, born Izia Jablonska in 1936, has just published her remarkable story, Tell It to the Squirrels, with the help of another remarkable story, the Write Your Story program.
The program began with 10-weeks of state-funding to help elderly Jews record their histories for their children and grandchildren.
Eleven years later, it has produced 85 books and another six anthologies of shorter stories, and is about to link up with Monash University.
The authors pay the costs, and may print as few as 40 copies, but some are sent to various archives.
Founder Julie Meadows, 74, herself a Polish Jewish emigrant at two, said 10 people responded to an advertisement in The Australian Jewish News in 1998, seven of them Holocaust survivors. By the second week, she realised it was vital social
history and decided to keep it going.
”In 11 years I’ve raised more than $200,000 of funds. I pick pockets, and I never stop and it’s hard – I can’t even sell a raffle ticket – but I’m passionate about it,” she said.
”I consider this holy work. This is my synagogue. When you hear stories like Judy’s, it’s full of miracles.”
Kolt’s father fought with the underground and was eventually captured, which was why the nuns rushed Judy and Tosia to the blind institute, but not before he saved not only his own family but many other children.
The nuns took many photos of the Jewish children in communion clothes to protect them if arrested.
She wrote her story because she wanted her children to know the grandfather they never met and to honour the nuns and other heroes.
”They were special people who against all odds saved a handful of people, and from that handful there’s a whole generation now.”
At first she saw the audience as just her family: three children, six grandchildren. But she felt an urgent need that the Holocaust be remembered as ”it is already being denied and forgotten”.
”It’s not just an episode in the lives of Jewish people, it’s important for all humanity. There are witnesses who will never forget it, but for how much longer? I was a child, and I’m in my 70s now.”
That’s why Julie Meadows has not run short of material. People who remember the war are getting older, and their children are urging them to record their lives.
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JCCV seeks guidance on gay issues
MELBOURNE, 13 January – The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) is to establish a reference group to better understand the needs of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members of the community.
The announcement follows a meeting last month between senior members of the JCCV and a number of people who identify themselves as gay or lesbian.
Describing the discussions as “frank and wide ranging”, council president John Searle said participants agreed to set up the roundtable to address issues of vilification and discrimination against gay or lesbian Jews, and to look at the
mental health implications of exclusion based on sexual preference.
“Commencing in early 2010 this reference group will explore and develop strategies to address these issues as they relate to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, with a view to bringing together appropriate partnerships
with service providers in the community.”
While the make-up of the reference group has not been finalised, Michael Barnett, the head of Aleph, a Jewish group for gay men, said it was his understanding he would not be included in the group.
“John Searle does not want to talk to Aleph,” he claimed.
Barnett, who has been engaged in ongoing dialogue with the JCCV president as well as other membersof the Jewish community, public office holders and leaders in the gay and lesbian community, has repeatedly accused some communal organisations and individuals of homophobia.
Searle, however, reiterated his commitment to fighting prejudice and discrimination, whatever its form.
“The vilification of any members of the Victorian Jewish community is intolerable,” he said.
“The JCCV recognises that its role extends beyond the so-called mainstream and intends to work with all its members in ways that are acceptable to the entire community.”
As to gay or lesbian Jews who may feel alienated from communal organisations, he added: “One of my main ambitions on assuming the presidency of the JCCV was to bring disconnected Jews back to our community, a difficult task by definition.”
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Another synagogue faces cash problems
MELBOURNE, 13 January – The city’s only Sephardi synagogue has been left without a rabbi, with the community struggling financially and membership dwindling.
Paul Berman, president of the Sephardi Association of Victoria, has confirmed that Rabbi Yehuda Cohen’s contract had not been extended. It is due to expire on January 31.
It is understood that Rabbi Cohen, who has been at the synagogue for five years, will not return to Melbourne after taking annual leave over the summer.
“We’re in the financial position that we need to get a part-time rabbi,” Berman said. “He wasn’t able to consider that as an option.”
Sephardi Association members, which number about 150, were informed of Rabbi Cohen’s departure in November last year. A newsletter to members said
that with “decreasing membership and high holy day donations, coupled with increasing operational costs”, the board could not afford the expense of a full-time rabbi.
Berman added: “There are members within our congregation who are disappointed, who have made connections with Rabbi Cohen and feel it is a shame that he hasn’t been able to stay, and there are members who are looking forward to a new beginning with someone new.”
The outgoing rabbi had tried to build up the Sephardi community, which is seeking younger members, but Berman admitted his organisation is going through “trying times”.
“Our donations were the lowest they have ever been in the history of the association over the past high holy days.”
While the search for a new, part-time rabbi is undertaken, Rabbi Ben Hassan, a shaliach at Leibler Yavneh College, will lead services.
Rabbi Hassan arrived in Melbourne at the end of last year. He is English-born, but undertook his rabbinic studies in Israel.
“He is very excited to be involved with a Sephardi congregation and certainly he is
assisting us at the moment,” Berman said.
A formal search has begun, but the president said the Sephardi Association would be limited somewhat due to its financial difficulties.
“We don’t have a bucketful of Sephardi rabbis here in Australia,” he added.
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Knives & Forks at ten paces
SYDNEY, 13 January – A last-minute deal between two different kashrut authorities this week have saved a Sydney wedding from being thrown into turmoil. Just 48 hours before the big day, it seemed guests at the simcha might go hungry after the
family’s attempt to bring kosher meat from Melbourne to the event was blocked.
The hosts had turned to Victorian kosher caterer Eshel because it offered more competitive rates that they could get locally. And for religious reasons, they wanted meat certified by Melbourne’s Adass Israel Kosher Certification
Authority. However, the policy of the NSW Kashrut Authority (KA) prevents meat from other kosher authorities being used by a caterer or restauranteur in the state unless a KA supervisor has overseen the slaughtering process or the KA
has provided special permission.
A number of kosher consumers have long claimed the policy is anti-competitive, and legal action was threatened in 2005. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission later granted immunity to the KA, though it was said it was “not an endorsement of its policy”.
In the end as a one-off arrangement, the parties involved in the function resolved that an Adass shochet and a mashgiach (supervisor) would fly up to Sydney to supervise the event, but the meat would be sourced from Sydney. It is understood
that the KA’s rabbinic coordinator, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, even went so far as to provide the funds to pay for all the expenses, including the meat.
This latest incident, however, has once again raised concerns about the potential for a kashrut turf war. It has also highlighted Sydney’s lack of competition in kosher catering and the perception that prices are higher than in Melbourne.
At present, there is only one kashrut authority in Sydney. Melbourne, meanwhile, has a number of kashrut organisations. Supervision is carried out by Adass, Mizrachi’s Kosher Australia, Kosher Veyosher , and the Chabad Kosher Committee. Adass charges “about $1 a head for supervision, while Sydney’s KA charges anywhere from $1.20 to $6.60 per head, depending on the catering charges per person.
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Paying tribute to Raoul Wallenberg
MELBOURNE, 18 January – The heroism of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who saved up to 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust, was honoured on the weekend.
Melbourne survivors gathered at a ceremony at St Kilda Town Hall on Sunday January 17 at 11am to pay tribute to Wallenberg, who disappeared 65 years ago.
The annual event has the backing of B’nai B’rith’s Raoul Wallenberg Unit and the City of Port Philip, with personal involvement of Mayor Frank O’Connor.
Susan Ginesy, who was born in Budapest, was saved from deportation to the death camps when she was placed in one of the protected houses set up by Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat. She has written about her experiences in her memoirs, When I Was There . And Now.
Avraham Zeleznikow, who is a member of Raoul Wallenberg Unit and the elderly citizens committee at the City of Port Philip, said that while “most people are familiar with the story”, Wallenberg’s heroism needs to be commemorated,
particularly in St Kilda and surrounding suburbs, where many Holocaust survivors live.
During 1944, Wallenberg, who was posted by his government to Budapest, saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews by thwarting attempts to transport them to Auschwitz.
Working illegally, he issued thousands of protective Swedish passports, and intervened to have Jews pulled off trains heading for Auschwitz.
When the Soviets invaded Budapest in January 1945, Wallenberg was taken into “protective custody”, and was last seen on January 17 of that year.
Some years later, the Soviet Union responded to a growing outcry for Wallenberg’s whereabouts by claiming simply that he had died in custody.
A memorial tree at St Kilda Town Hall is surrounded by a reflective seat, inscribed with the talmudic saying: “Whoever preserves the life of a single human being, it is as if he had preserved an entire world.”
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Moshiach men sanctioned by rabbi
MELBOURNE, 15 January – The head rabbi of Melbourne’s Chabad community this week moved to excise a controversial fringe group from the Jewish community.
Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner, dayan of the city’s Yeshivah College, called on the so-called “Moshiach Men” to be shunned for publicly flouting the Fast of Tevet.
The group is best known in the wider community for their regular antics around St Kilda East. Followers dressed in yellow shirts and novelty hats wave large flags and sing songs proclaiming the arrival of the Messiah, who they believe to be the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
Late last month, a small number of people associated with the Moshiach Men flouted the fast of Tevet 10 by hosting a party at a private home and recording the celebration, which was posted on YouTube.
The video and the event riled Rabbi Telsner, who called the action a chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name) and in complete contradiction to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s teachings.
“In light of the above, I find it necessary to rule that until the perpetrators of these deeds stand before a Beis Din of three Rabbonim, and seek forgiveness and correction of that which they have done, they are to be ostracised by all
members of the community,” Rabbi Telsner wrote in a strongly-worded letter that has since been widely circulated.
He elaborated, writing that the Moshiach Men should not be counted as part of a minyan and cannot be given an aliyah to the Torah.
“Similarly, one should not speak to them or have any business dealings with them,” the Chabad rabbi added.
A representative of the Moshiach Men declined to comment on the letter, saying it had not been specifically addressed to the group.
Rabbi Telsner also refused to elaborate on the drastic measures he had taken against the group, which considers itself part of Chabad Judaism.
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Apron art promotes tolerance
MELBOURNE, 15 January – An apron might be a symbol of domesticity, but for a group of 13 women, it became a symbol of tolerance and diversity.
Women from Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Jewish backgrounds gathered for a two-day interfaith workshop last month facilitated by Jewish Care, Prahran Mission Multicultural Program and the Victorian Multicultural Commission.
The women, who have all been touched by mental illness or have experienced some kind of abuse, designed and decorated aprons to represent their own personal journeys.
Jewish Care CEO Bruce Salvin said: “The workshop provided an opportunity to share experiences, tell stories and build trust.”
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Heading for record feat
SYDNEY, 15 January – -A fitness challenge with a friend has catapulted Jarryd Rubenstein to internet stardom and the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Sydneysider was recorded completing 26 consecutive “muscle ups” — a feat no one around the world has been able to match.
For the mortal athletes out there, a muscle-up is a combination of a chin-up and a dip in one movement, something that, according to Rubenstein, “shouldn’t be tried unless you can do 20-25 chin-ups first”.
Training is Rubinstein’s passion — he exercises at North Bondi beach “as long as it’s notsnowing” – fuelled by 16 months with the Israel Defence Forces Sayeret Golani unit.
His time in Israel converted him to a regime in which, he said, he has “not picked up a weight in five years”.
Back in Australia since 2008, the chiselled 26-year-old who works in wealth management trains religiously by the beach, doing exercises that use only his body weight for resistance.
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Jewish Community acts on Haiti tragedyMELBOURNE, 15 January–To all concerned Jewish community members:
In Haiti, tens of thousands of people are reported dead and the death toll continues to rise after the most devastating earthquake to shake the region in two hundred years.
Schools, hospitals and thousands of homes have been destroyed and over three million people have been left without adequate food, shelter, healthcare and basic infrastructure.
All proceeds from this appeal will be distributed to CARE Australia, which is a non-religious and non-political Australian charity, who are conducting a large scale relief and rescue operation:
“CARE is deploying additional emergency team members to the devastated city of Port-au-Prince in Haiti, where the worst earthquake in 200 years
destroyed houses and left thousands homeless.
While the exact death toll from the 7.0-magnitude quake is not yet known, it is expected to be catastrophic.
“It is just morning here now,” describes CARE’s Country Director in Haiti Sophie Perez on January 13, less than a day after the quake. “I can hear helicopters working on the search and rescue. The immediate need is to rescue people trapped in the
rubble, then to get people food and water. We’re particularly worried about the children, because so many schools seem to have collapsed. Children were still in school in the afternoon when the earthquake hit, so there are many children trapped. It’s horrifying.”
The Australian Jewish community is being mobilised to support Haitians in their time of need. Please consider a generous contribution to JAA’s Haiti Appeal, to enable CARE to assist communities in Haiti to respond, recover and rebuild in the wake of this enormous disaster.
Thank you for your generous support.
Sincerely,
Gary Samowitz
CEO, Jewish Aid Australia
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Jewish charitable organisations are helping the rescue and relief effort in Haiti after the Caribbean Island was decimated by an earthquake on January 13.
The Victorian chapter of Magen David Adom (MDA) is collecting funds, as is Jewish Aid Australia (JAA).
Haiti’s president Rene Preval said that up to 50,000 may have been killed in the earthquake, which registered seven on the Richter scale. The International Red Cross has estimated that up to three million Haitians have been left homeless, injured or dead.
Many governments and non-government organisations have mobilised to help Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries. They include the Israeli Government, which together with the Red Cross and MDA Israel, is preparing to send a delegation of doctors and paramedics, as well as medical supplies.
In order to support the Israeli effort, the local MDA group is raising money for emergency and medical supplies to be sent to Haiti.
JAA has partnered with CARE Australia, a non-religious and non-political charity, which is conducting relief and rescue operations on the small island via emergency teams. Fundraising undertaken by JAA will be directed to CARE.
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Israelis at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, 18 January – With the 2010 grand slam circuit kicking off at Melbourne Park today (January 18) with the Australian Open, there is
no better time for Israeli and Jewish players to build on the success of 2009.
Here are some of the key players to look out for over summer:
Dudi Sela
The spearhead of Israel’s Davis Cup side became only the fourth Israeli to play in the fourth round of a grand slam when he reached the final 16 at Wimbledon in 2009.
This time last year, Sela had to endure three-rounds of qualifying to play in Melbourne — where he eventually bowed out in the third round.
This year though, the diminutive stroke-maker arrives full of confidence, ranked 40th in the world and buoyed by a strong semifinal showing in Chennai, India, where he gave world number 21 Stanislas Wawrinka a run. He followed that up with a first-round loss to Julian Benneteau at the Sydney International.
Shahar Peer
Israel’s number-one female player has found herself under fire from politically minded spectators in 2010, but was still able to maintain focus to reach the semifinals in Auckland last week.
The world number 30 claimed two titles in September — Tashkent, Uzbekistan and Guangzhou, China — to break a three-year winning drought. She is a Federation Cup spearhead for her country, but will be hoping for a better result in grand slams this year — her best result was reaching the third round at the US Open in 2009.
The second seed at this week’s Hobart International, she will meet Alona Bondarenko in the final on January 18
Andy Ram
Andy Ram is one of the world’s finest doubles exponents. In 2009, he reached the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Frenchwoman Natalie Dechy, and the US Open men’s doubles semifinal with Belarus’ Max Mirnyi.
The ninth-ranked player will likely team with France’s Michael Llodra this summer, after winning with Mirnyi in Miami and making five other finals last year.
Jonathan Erlich
Ram’s former doubles partner has suffered a dogged few years due to injury. The highlight of 2009 was his reunion with Ram in the Davis Cup, and a title in Turkey with compatriot Harel Levy in May.
However, the former grand slam doubles winner’s ranking has slipped to 187.
Aleksandra Wozniak
Aleksandra Wozniak became the first Canadian woman in 17 years to reach the second week of a grand slam, when she lost to Serena Williams in the fourth round at the French Open last year.
The right-hander backed it up, reaching the third round at the US Open, and finished the year ranked 34 in the world.
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sdjewishworld 