Victoria: a change at the top

Jennifer Huppert is the new president of The Jewish Community Council of Victoria taking over from Nina Bassat.

 

At the Annual General Meeting of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) on Monday evening, two time JCCV President Nina Bassat completed her term and handed over the baton of the Presidency to lawyer, community leader and past member of the Victorian Parliament Jennifer Huppert.

Community leaders, Rabbonim, members of parliament, including the leaders of the Parliamentary Friends of Israel David Southwick MP and Marsha Thomson MP, Telmo Languillor MP – Opposition spokesman for Multicultural Affairs, Frank McGuire MP and Josh Burns – Candidate for Caulfield, and other faith and multicultural community leaders attended a cocktail party prior to the AGM to farewell Ms. Bassat and thank her for her exemplary leadership over the previous three years. Speakers from across the community spoke about Ms. Bassat’s contributions to the Jewish community and broader Victorian community, in areas including Child Protection, community security and antisemitism, the JCCV Youth Alcohol Project, pastoral care, building important bridges across faiths and multicultural communities, GLBTI initiatives and the Kynnections project working with African youth.

Keynote speakers at the AGM included Prof Len Saxe from Brandeis University in the USA speaking about the importance of the Taglit Birthright program in maintaining Jewish continuity and connection to Judaism, and Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Andrew Crisp speaking about the important cooperation between the Police and the Jewish community, especially in the areas of security and safety, multicultural community engagement and working with new & developing communities.

The new JCCV Executive Committee was elected, with Jennifer Huppert as President, Atida Lipshatz as Vice President and Ian Jones continuing as Honorary Treasurer. Rimma Sverdlin and Anton Hermann were re-elected as members of the executive, and new members Doron Abromovici, Dr Andre Oboler and Frances Prince, bring fresh faces and as well as a broad range of community experience to the JCCV.

Stalwarts of the community, John Searle and Dr Helen Light, who retired from the JCCV Executive were thanked for their tremendous community contribution and successes during their time of service, including roles as President and Vice President respectively.

As part of the evening’s proceedings, Dr Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) was presented with the Marion and Kurt Lippmann Scholarship and Sean Meltzer was presented with a certificate of appreciation for his outstanding media and video work for the JCCV.