Flight havoc cancels MDA meeting

Tomorrow’s evening’s function to be held jointly by Magen David Adom and the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation has become a ‘victim’ of the world-wide aviation crisis and has been cancelled. Read more

U.S. playwright to direct her work in Sydney

New York Jewish playwright Alana Ruben Free returns to Australia this month to direct charity performances of her powerful one-woman show “Beginner at Life”. Read more

Olmert lets the cat out of the bag

It was no secret in Sydney, but it appears the Lowy family’s dedication of a boxcar at Auschwitz used in the transport of Jews to the death camp was supposed to be a secret in Israel…until former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert let the cat out of the bag. Read more

Also in Jerusalem this week….

Clive Kessler, Professor of Sociology at the University of New South Wales delivered a lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem this week. Read more

Lowy rekindles flame at Yad Vashem

Shirley and Frank Lowy have visited Yad Vashem in Jerusalem at which the high-profile Australian businessman rekindled the eternal flame. Read more

Until Mar-13, 2011 Melbourne: Theresienstadt: Drawn from the inside

The concentration camp at Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia was a macabre mock-up of a real society, a triumph of duplicity, designed to lull its inmates and the world at large into believing that it was a benign resettlement program, where Jews would be the beneficiaries of the Nazis’ humane treatment. Read more

New Theresienstadt exhibition opens on Holocaust Remembrance Day

The Jewish Museum of Australia has opened a new exhibition featuring the artwork of the inmates of the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Read more

Rabbi to receive top award from Catholic university

Rabbi Raymond Apple will be awarded Australian Catholic University’s (ACU) highest honour this week, Doctor of the University, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to Christian-Jewish understanding, interfaith co-operation and community engagement. Read more

Dubai assassination: Smith has report

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has received the Australian Federal Police report on the use of fake Australian passports being used in the Dubai assassination of Hamas leader Hahmoud al-Mabhouh. Read more

Sydney Professor to deliver lecture at the Hebrew University

Clive Kessler, a professor of socialology at the University of New South Wales, will deliver a lecture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem next week. Read more

Pesach Message from the JCA

David Balkin, President of the Jewish Communal Appeal sends a personal message for Pesach Read more

J-Junction goes international

Those searching for their life’s partner can now access a worldwide database thanks to a hookup between J-Junction and overseas Jewish dating services. Read more

Hate law in Victoria – no prosecutions

The Racial and Religious Tolerance Act was passed in Victoria in 2001….and not a single prosecution since. Read more

Posthumous awards for Polish mother and son

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria will present a Righteous Amongst the Nations Award to a Bunbury brother and sister whose father and grandmother  saved the life of one of their father’s schoolmates. Read more

New Zealand group fundraising for PFLP

The Workers Party of New Zealand has transferred funds to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Read more

Israeli Vietnamese dairy project using New Zealand livestock

More than 1600 calves have arrived in Vietnam to kickstart a giant Israeli milk-production unit. Read more

Moriah student selected from 4000 for national debate

Gregory Jacobson will debate legislative power and federalism at the 2010 National Schools Constitutional Convention. Read more

Isla gets her man

Australian actress Isla Fisher has married Sacha Baron Cohen in Paris. Read more

New face at AIJAC

Lauren Jones will fill the newly created role of National Public Affairs Officer for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, a position she will take up in AIJAC’s Sydney office. Read more

Australia reaffirms support for Israel

At a press briefing in Canberra this morning to hand down copies of the report of the Australia Israel Forum held last year,  Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith has powerfully reaffirmed Australia’s strong bonds of friendship with Israel. We reproduce a copy of the report. Read more

Spa for the Soul to aid couples experiencing fertility problems

An evening’s pampering will bring hope, help and education for those experiencing fertility problems. Read more

Leadership deals with Dubai death passports

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia have endorsed investigations into the misuse or theft of Australian passports. Read more

ECAJ welcomes Holocaust inclusion in national education plan….with reservations

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s president Robert Goot has welcomed the inclusion of the Holocaust as a mandatory area of study in the draft national curriculum for History. Read more

New Zealand Foreign Minister en route to Israel

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully heads to the Middle East on Friday for a five-day visit to Egypt, Israel, Ramallah (in the occupied Palestinian territories), and Turkey. Read more

Melanie and Vladamir appeal to UIA women

The New South Wales Women’s Division has reported highly successful functions featuring UK journalist Melanie Philips and  Russian émigré  Vladamir Milner. Read more

Valentine’s Day **

It is possible to gather a star-studded ensemble cast and make a frothy, delightful movie about love in its many guises. Richard Curtis did it with Love, Actually and a parcel of international directors accomplished something similar with the duet of Paris, Je t’aime and New York, I Love You. The strengths of those films, however – the ability to tell interesting stories and generate substantive characters despite limited screen time – are absent here. Valentine’s Day’s greatest strength – its cast – becomes its most obvious weakness. With so many actors fighting for a few extra minutes in front of the camera, this feels like a parade of famous faces, not a motion picture. And, while a few of the skits show glimmers of promise, many are time wasters.

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The Hurt Locker ***+

War is hell. It’s a cliché, but not one that Hollywood often embraces. There are exceptions, of course, like Oliver Stone’s Platoon, which takes no prisoners in depicting war as the gruesome, dehumanizing business it is. But Platoon and other films cut from the same cloth are more dramas than thrillers. The question is whether it’s possible to generate white-knuckle, grip-the-edge-of-the-seat tension in a war movie without turning it into a glorification of violence and bloodshed. Director Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron’s ex and the filmmaker behind Point Break and Strange Days, answers this question with a definitive, uncompromising “yes!” On a weekend when the effects-choked Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen staggers into theaters like a stoned 800-pound gorilla and threatens to put audiences to sleep with its brand of deadly dull “action,” The Hurt Locker is the film to see for those seeking an elevated pulse. It’s 20 minutes shorter and about three times more exciting.

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Sorry again

The Jewish community was strongly represented at a moving interfaith ceremony on Sunday to mark the second anniversary of the national Apology to the Aboriginal People. Read more

Anne Frank exhibition to open in Wellington today

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key will open the Anne Frank travelling exhibition  at the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington today. Read more

Westfield welcomes J.P. Morgan to Sydney project

The Westfield Group  today announced that J.P. Morgan will anchor the new 25-storey 32,800 square metre office tower to be constructed at 85 Castlereagh Street as part of the Westfield Sydney City project that is currently under development. Read more

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