New Board Members for Maccabi Australia

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At the recent Maccabi Australia AGM, changes were made to the Board as part of a succession planning process orchestrated by Chairman Barry Smorgon.

Sam Parasol

Tom Goldman

Long term Maccabi Board members Tom Goldman and Sam Parasol did not to stand for re-election. They have offered to contribute in other areas of the organisation. Sam Parasol was nominated as a Life Member of MAI having given nearly 40 years of dedicated service. In addition Yvonne Fayman and Jeff Houseman also stepped down from their positions on the Board. Each of the retiring board members have provided valuable contributions and the Maccabi organisation has deeply benefited from their input.

The State bodies of Maccabi unanimously voted in two current Board Members in Harry Procel and Barry Smorgon who were on Board rotations, along with two fabulous new additions in Lauren Ehrlich from New South Wales and Mikki Silverman from Victoria. Lauren and Mikki are certainly no strangers to Maccabi, with both having quite extensive experience across the various levels of the Maccabi organisation. They bring to the table great skills across strategy, international sport, management and process.

We are also pleased to welcome Danny Hochberg, who, as the new President of Maccabi NSW also joins the Maccabi Australia Board.

Danny Hochberg

In addition we are pleased to announce that Philip Sheezel has been co-opted onto the Board to facilitate the implementation of our Member Protection Policy across all areas of the organisation. Philip’s legal background and understanding of Maccabi from his countless years of involvement will provide the insight and understanding necessary to ensure that MAI and its affiliates appropriately implement the reforms.

The complete Maccabi Australia Board is Lisa Borowick (President), Barry Smorgon (Chairman), Joe Dorfman,  Lauren Ehrlich, Danny Hochberg, Sydney Kahn, Harry Procel, Philip Sheezel,  Jeff Sher and Mikki Silverman.

At the Annual General Meeting it was also agreed to reinstate the Maccabi Australia Board of Governors in an advisory capacity to the Board of MAI, providing support and counsel to its board members. More details will be forthcoming in the new year.

Independent  Review

As noted in our previous statement, Maccabi is undertaking a formal review in response to the sexual abuse of club members which occurred in 2000, with the need to put in place formal policies and procedures across all levels of the organisation to ensure our members are protected.”

This process of review is being chaired by Nina Bassat AM, along with Harry Rosenberg and Daniel Aghion. The Committee has only just completed the interview stage of its review.

Given the enormity of the task and the number of interviews conducted the Committee is now planning to have the final report complete by the end of January 2014. As noted above Phillip Sheezel will be responsible for its implementation. However, in the interim action has been taken to ensure the organisation responds quickly and sensibly to some initial recommendations. These include:

• An Integrity Officer has been appointed for the forthcoming Junior Carnival in Perth
• A Grievance procedure and policy will be finalised and implemented by the middle of December.

Once the full report is completed, MAI will communicate further on this matter .

2012 Maccabi Australia Awards

Maccabi awards and recognises both outstanding achievements by Jewish Sportsmen and Women as well as those achieved by its own Members. We are proud to announce all the category winners for 2012 as listed below. We congratulate all award winners on their successes of 2012 and their continued success in 2013 and beyond.