What happened to the Israeli left?

Knesset member Ofer Shelah of Israel’s Blue and White Party is the architect of his party’s current efforts to form a government with the support of the Joint Arab List. Read more

Lie back and listen to Ludwig: a didn’t-happen music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

Instead of arriving at the Sydney Town Hall next Wednesday night to hear the SSO, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, organ, and four soloists perform Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, I’ll probably be waiting for an Uber-eat paper bag to arrive at home. Read more

Can you bury a cremated person’s ashes in a Jewish cemetery?

Ask the rabbi… Read more

On the other hand

Israel is in lockdown with most flights from and into the country cancelled and anyone returning from overseas required to self-quarantine for two weeks. Read more

Henry Greener meets Deb Filler

Henry Greener discovers the many roles DebFiller has filled in her Brilliant Career as a writer, performer, actor, comedian and musician. Read more

An unexpected crisis debunks the Trump-Netanyahu analogy

Leaders of democracies serve a multitude of purposes. Most people say they crave moral leadership. But what most voters really want is someone who will stand up for their views and their values, and to implement policies they support. And if they have to choose between morals and partisanship, they invariably choose the latter, whether on the left or the right. Read more

Pandemic panic a breeding ground for the virus of Jew-hatred

Burned into the historical memory of the Jewish people is what happened in the period when the bubonic plague swept through Europe from 1347 to 1351. Read more

‘Rebranding’ BDS on the African continent

The BDS movement, whose goal is for rest of the world to quarantine the State of Israel as though it was the coronavirus, is undergoing a “rebranding” in its South African heartland. Read more

Take your phone for a walk around Sydney

A Walk of Jewish Sydney‘s mobile app is aimed to revolutionise Jewish tourism to Sydney. Read more

Delaying the inevitable

Trying to prevent events which are spiralling out of control from actually happening is an exercise in futility. Read more

Will a microbe seal the fate of Iran’s virulent regime?

The point about events that catch us unawares is that we are never prepared for the unexpected to happen. Who would have thought that the entire world would suddenly be destabilized by one microbe? Read more

Eating an idol

Eating plays a very important part in Jewish rituals, every day of the year. Read more

Blue Box’s Paul Lowinger has no limit to his territory

Paul Lowinger, JNF NSW’s Blue Box Chairman says his territory extends from Sydney to Manhattan plus NSW regional centres. Read more

Gantz shows Netanyahu was right about ‘Bibi or Tibi’

It appears that Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz has called his own bluff. Read more

A tale of two Israeli leaders

As coronavirus dominates headlines all over the world, Israel is emerging as a leader in the global fight to contain the pandemic, quickly enacting strict quarantine measures and border closures to limit the spread of the virus, as its biotech industries rush to develop home testing kits and vaccines. Read more

The Uluru Statement: Thomas Mayor and Teela Reed ask “Who Will Hear Our Voice?”

When enough Australian people come together to join their voices together in a call for justice and social change, the decision-makers are forced to listen.  Read more

A fine line between sensible caution and outright hysteria

It’s time to take the threat from the coronavirus seriously. Read more

What’s changed since the ‘Black Death’?

The numbers are rolling in, and they make for grim reading. Read more

Feintooner

This week’s cartoon…Israeli Elections and Electioneering Read more

Unrestrained hatred endangering our democracy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confounded his adversaries and proved that he may be the world’s most consummate politician. Read more

The Yellow Bird Sings: a book review by Geoffrey Zygier

I seem to have become our esteemed editor’s go-to guy when he needs someone to crit books about the Holocaust. Read more

Lisl Ziegler 1917-2020

Many factors made Lisl Ziegler the woman she was – first, growing up in Vienna surrounded by enlightened thinkers with socialist values; second, the challenging circumstances of her childhood, an orphan by the time she was 17; and third, the destruction of all that was dear to her with the rise of Nazism and the need to begin life anew.  Read more

Three politicians can make 3000 years-old Jewish dream a reality

The votes are in – and it seems Israel’s Prime Minister – Bibi Netanyahu – is just three politicians shy of realising the 3000-years old dream of the Jewish People to regain sovereignty in Judea and Samaria – its ancient and biblical heartland. Read more

Coronavirus

Ask the Rabbi. Read more

From athlete to Head of Delegation: Barry Smorgon’s 50-year Maccabiah journey

He was one of 23 Australians who competed at the 1969 edition, it was his first overseas trip and first journey to Israel. Over 50 years on, he still vividly remembers walking into the opening ceremony. Read more

On the other hand

The coronavirus has arrived in Israel with many people in quarantine and tourists from certain countries banned. Read more

Election number three – What was different?

Exit polls, having twice underestimated Prime Minister Netanyahu and his block’s number of Knesset seats in April 2019 and September 2019, now overestimated them. Read more

Poor Him

Purim. Poor Him. But “poor” who? Ahasuerus the drunken incompetent sop of a passive king? Vashti the deposed queen? Perhaps all the virgins corralled into the king’s harem? Esther, the Metoo# nice Jewish girl who had to sleep with the king and face the chance that if she failed to please him she would be denied the starring role and end up an extra in the King’s seraglio? Or Mordechai whose refusal to bow to Haman (thus offending the express command of the King) and disobeying the king’s command not to appear at court in sackcloth, put the whole of the Jewish community at risk? Should we feel sorry for Bigtan and Teresh the incompetent plotters? Or is Haman, who overreached in his quest for power, driven by ambition and hatred, ended with his ten sons strung up on a scaffold? Take your pick. And people do. Read more

Behind the masks

As we prepare to celebrate Purim, Jewish communities worldwide are once again confronted by the same challenges which the Jews of ancient Persia faced. Read more

The real centre ground: The only political show in town

Democracy, the process through which the people get to choose who governs them, involves a choice of leaders telling competing stories about how the world should be organized. Read more

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