Australian Jewish leadership voices concern about Israel’s government
In a joint statement, The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia are calling on Israel’s government to act on President Herzog’s call to halt its controversial move to reform the judiciary.
President of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry Jillian Segal
The following statement was penned by the ECAJ president Jillian Segal and ZFA president Jeremy Leibler.
The Australian Jewish community is a deeply Zionist community. Israel is at the core of our Jewish identity and a focus of our schools, youth movements, synagogues, communal institutions and, in many cases, our family connections.
We celebrate Israel’s successes and achievements. When Israel is under attack, we share the pain and suffering of our brothers and sisters. We defend Israel against the irrational hatred that is sadly increasingly pervasive throughout the world.
We recognise and respect that, being in the diaspora, we have different rights, but we are also deeply invested in Israel’s survival and the well-being of all Israelis and the Jewish people.
We believe that Israel must forever remain a Jewish and democratic state, rooted in the vision of the prophets. Despite the incomparable challenges that Israel has faced since its inception, the Jewish homeland has admirably upheld those principles as set forth in its Declaration of Independence.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and ZFA President Jeremy Leibler
It is from this position of unconditional love and connection that we express our serious concern at the governing coalition’s proposals to make fundamental changes to the relationship between the Knesset and the judiciary with undue haste and in the absence of broad-based public support. We also view with deep concern other proposals in relation to religious pluralism and the law of return that risk damaging Israel’s precious and unique relationship with Diaspora Jewry.
We call on the governing coalition to heed the call from Israeli President Isaac Herzog for genuine dialogue, based on his five principles for judicial reform, and to pause all of these controversial proposals so that constructive dialogue can occur and a national consensus can begin to emerge.
As a Canadian having made Aliya more than 20 years ago, you cannot imagine how ANNOYING IT IS to hear/read these declarations. Why can’t “liberal” jews keep quiet and recognize that they do not represent jewry but only liberal/reform and or conservative jewry, whose ties to Israel are much weaker than that of traditional and orthodox jewry.
Brilliant letter! Thank you ECAJ & ZFA for this.
It should be acknowledged that many of us think very differently from the above mentioned institutions –
For some, generations of our families have and some still do live in Israel, many have been in the IDF and paid their taxes in Israel.
Jews who live ‘be hutz la Aretz’/overseas need Israel more then Israel needs them.
When push comes to shove, Israel is the one and only country that will rescue us, care for us or take us in..
It is NOT up to those who live ‘be chull’/abroad to dictate what the Israeli governement can or cannot do. Israelis living in Israel and paying their taxes in Israel and beeing part of the IDF and VOTING are the only ones who can decide.
WITH Israel ALWAYS no matter what.
None of their business!
@mdlewis999 – I second that!
Stockholm syndrome
What ever happened to a balanced and nuanced view , what ever happened for the ZFA to be representative of all Jewish community not just Jeremy Leibler’s worldly view
I thought ZFA was an Israeli advocacy organization not a voice if the Netanyahu haters and leftists
If the ZFA was under its previous leadership the statement would have been more nuanced balanced and would have at least criticised the violence and intimidation against the PM ,s wife
It’s appears according to leibler and co anarchy is the new Democracy
Of course if all the anarchists were on the right side of politics ZFA and ECAJ would be singing a whole different tune !