Australia-Israel Labor Dialogue Launched

In her second Sydney appearance, ex MK Einat Wilf shared a platform with past Queensland Premier Peter Beattie before an audience of Labor and Union stalwarts at Trades Hall. Read more

EcoPeace explained

Sydneysiders thirsting for signs of hope from the Middle East filled Newtown Synagogue’s Community Hall to hear leading Israeli environmentalist Gidon Bromberg, co-director of EcoPeace Middle East, deliver some encouraging news. Read more

Interfaith Navy Style

Christians, Muslims and Jews from the Royal Australian Navy prayed together in the imposing setting of Sydney’s St Mary’s Cathedral on Sunday in an Ecumenical and Interfaith Service commemorating the centenary of the first entry of the Royal Australian Navy Fleet into Sydney. Read more

An evening with Richard Falk in Parallel Narrative Land

It was a big night out for Sydney’s anti-Israel community, about 300 of whom turned out at Sydney University’s Footbridge Theatre on Thursday to hear Emeritus Professor Richard Falk, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian territories. Read more

The Twenty-Percenter – Beyond Jewish stereotypes –

A column dedicated to the centrality of “marginal” Jews to the Diaspora experience….

Trying to get upstairs to a session on social justice at Limmud Oz this year was like being a homing salmon swimming upstream…against a torrent of angry bears all rushing headlong towards the latest visiting overseas luminary  holding court on “The Situation” in Israel. Read more

Poor Limmud

While perusing Limmud Sydney’s program for an incentive I couldn’t refuse, something exciting enough to warrant spending a week’s after-rent income on the entrance fee, I came across the promising title:  “The Underbelly of the Jewish Community”…writes Judy Singer. Read more

British analyst briefs Sydney’s Inner West community

British Israel analyst,  Alan Johnson has presented to Sydney’s Inner West Jewish community a cutting-edge update on the latest developments in post-election Israel. Read more

Holy Switch!

Two young women, one a traditional Muslim, the other from an observant reform Jewish background,  have “traded places” for the ABC documentary series “Holy Switch”, and share glowing reports of the experience. Read more

Pesach at the Monte

If Passover is a celebration of the handing of our cultural baton from generation to generation, then few seders could have been as moving as the Pesach concert given by mother and daughter duo, Dahlia and Lily Dior at Sydney’s Hunters Hill Montefiore. As I sat between my own mother and daughter I was moved to tears by the beauty, power and passion of the Dior women’s singing…writes Judy Singer. Read more

Tough questions at NSW Board of Deputies plenum

Professor of Law, Tim McCormack, faced tough questions from members of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on the recently published Turkel Commission Report commissioned by the Israeli government.

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A NSW Parliament take on the Israel-Palestine conflict…writes Judy Singer

The NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine went on a study tour to hell. Deep in the special chamber reserved for militants of the “Middle East conflict” an outrageous sight greeted our parliamentarians.  Exactly as they expected,  there were the Israelis, lolling about on deckchairs, brazenly sipping unattributed orange juice,  while the Palestinians were forced to stand on their heads, neck deep in sewage. But as our parliamentary pack rushed to the elevators to prepare their reports, they missed the foreman’s whistle: “Morning shift’s over. Everybody change places!”

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Tzedek severs links with Sydney Yeshiva

Tzedek, the advocacy group for victims of child sexual abuse, has formally severed its links with the Sydney Yeshiva Centre. Read more