Orthodox rabbis advised not to attend memorial service for NSWJBD president held at reform temple

Rabbi Chaim Ingram is questioning a story he considers negative published in the media revealing that the Rabbinical Council of NSW advised the members of this orthodox organisation not attending a memorial service for Jeremy Spinak, a former president of The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, as it was to be held at The Emanuel reform synagogue. Read more

Another Rivlin in the news

91-yr-old Joan Lardner Rivlin has been made a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for services to seniors. Read more

Eulogy for Amos Oz

Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin delivered the eulogy at the funeral for the world-acclaimed writer and thinker Amos Oz who died last week at the age of 79. Read more

Visitor no 4,000,000 passes through immigration in Israel.

The arrival of the four millionth tourist to land in Israel in 2018 ends a year of record-breaking tourism figures. Read more

Sydney Beth Din rejects calls for resignation

The Sydney Beth Din has echoed The Rabbinical Council of Australia and New Zealand in rejecting calls for the resignation of any of its members to resign following their failure to overturn a guilty verdict on committing contempt of court. Read more

Sydney Beth Din: High Court in its sights

The four rabbis in the centre of the Sydney Beth Din contempt of court fracas will not resign according to the Jewish judicial organisation. Read more

Walker finds 1,700-yr-old stone busts

Two impressive Roman busts were found this month near Beit She’an – thanks to the alertness of a local resident, who spotted the top of one of the busts’ heads sticking out of the ground as she was taking a walk north of the old city. Read more

Waks calls for the Sydney Beth Din rabbis to resign

Child sexual abuse advocate Manny Waks has called the four rabbis found guilty of contempt of courts to resign immediately. Read more

Amos Oz: a classmate mourns

Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin writes a letter on behalf of himself and his wife to his old classmate Amos Oz who died on Friday from cancer at the age of 79. Read more

Partisans’ Song translated from Yiddish into Noongar

The Partisans’ Song, Zog Nit Keynmol, written in Yiddish by Hirsh Glik in the Vilna ghetto in 1943, has been translated into Noongar, an Australian indigenous language, spoken in the south-west of Western Australia. Read more

The rabbis confer

The Rabbinical Council of NSW has expressed its fears that the guilty verdict upheld in an appeal last week finding the Sydney Beth Din in contempt of court may impact on religious freedom in Australia. Read more

Sydney Beth Din goes public following the 2-1 decision appeal against it

Last week, the Court of Appeal in Sydney rejected an appeal by the Sydney Beth Din against a verdict of being guilty of contempt of court. The Beth Din responds. Read more

Gift of Life Marrow Registry keeps moving forward

In 1991, Jay Feinberg was facing a battle with leukaemia and needed a bone-marrow transplant. Read more

Last surviving Warsaw Ghetto Uprising fighter passes away at age 94

The last surviving resistance fighter from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 passed away on Dec. 22 in Jerusalem at the age of 94. Read more

Ramban participants report back

The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council has held a briefing by Nationals MP Kevin Hogan and Samuel Mullins, who relayed their impressions from the Rambam Federal Parliamentary group and bipartisan Political Advisor group trips respectively, at an AIJAC luncheon in Sydney. Read more

The Beth Din contempt verdict stays

The Court of Appeals in Sydney has upheld a decision by the Supreme Court finding the Sydney Beth Din contempt of court but has reduced the penalties imposed on the four rabbis involved. Read more

SBS corrects article but misreporting remains

SBS has partly corrected an article on its website called “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict explained” in response to an Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) complaint. Read more

Mark Dreyfus reaffirms Labor’s position on Israel

Following the Senator Penny Wong’s resolution passed at yesterday’s ALP national conference which stated that a Labor government would seek to recognise Palestine’s statehood, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has reaffirmed Labor’s support for Israel. Read more

Reaction to Penny Wong Palestine speech

 Liberal Senator Eric Abetz, the ECAJ, the Zionist Federation of Australia and AIJAC have reacted to Senator’s speech at the ALP national conference calling for the next Labor government to work to recognise a Palestinian state. Read more

Labor calls for a Palestine state…eventually

Senator Penny Wong has moved a resolution at the ALP conference in Adelaide calling the recognition of a Palestinian state as “an important priority for the next Labor government” providing Israel and Palestine recognise that they will live in peace and security.

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Liberal Friends salutes Morrison

The NSW Liberal Friends of Israel have commended the Australian Government on its formal recognition of West Jerusalem as the true capital of Israel. Read more

Music played in Seidler buildings

In the Sydney Festival’s Seidler Salon Series music and architecture will come together in a series of concerts hosted in and around, and inspired by, the singular buildings of Australia’s most famous modernist architect, Harry Seidler. Read more

President visits the north

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has visited the area of Operation Northern Shield in the north of the country where a fourth tunnel has been discovered. Read more

Will NSW Libs allow nationals backdoor preference deal with One Nation

NSW Labor frontbencher Walt Secord has accused NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian of being “tricky” on preferences saying she attacks the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party (SFF), but remains silent on One Nation preferences.

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Labor’s UNRWA funding pledge ignores concerns

Labor’s announced commitment of $20 million in additional funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) specifically ignores the concerns that have been ventilated over funding to that body. Read more

The rabbis on Moriah – George on the rabbis

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The Religious Freedom Review as the ECAJ sees it

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has cautiously welcomed the release of the Religious Freedom Review handed down by the Expert Panel chaired by the Hon Philip Ruddock, and the Australian government’s response to it. Read more

Our next Governor-General

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has welcomed the announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that former general and defence force chief David Hurley will be Australia’s next Governor-General.  Read more

Yuval Rotem welcomes Scott Morrison’s decision

Israel’s Director General of the Ministry of Foreign affairs Yuval Rotem has welcomed Australia recognising Jerusalem as the country’s capital. Read more

…and Iran too

The Zionist Federation of Australia and The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council have also welcomed Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison government’s reassessment of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action regarding Iran. Read more

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