How to treat a convert to Judaism

Ask the Rabbi ….. Read more

Sacred Music Festival

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Feintooner

This week’s cartoon…aI yAi yEAi. Read more

Report on Palestinian teachers’ guides illuminates methods of anti-Jewish indoctrination

The recently published study “Israel, Jews and Peace in Palestinian Authority Teachers’ Guides” by Dr Arnon Groiss of the Centre for Near East Policy Research showed that Palestinian teachers’ guides promote an attitude towards the “other” based on delegitimization, demonization and war indoctrination instead of peace education. Read more

Will the ‘right’ snatch defeat from the jaws of victory … again?

For by …  faith more firm in their unhallowed principles, the bad have fairly earned a victory over the weak, the vacillating, inconsistent good. — William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Read more

On the other hand

We are into the final lap of the election campaign and the overblown rhetoric is raging like a force five hurricane. Read more

President Truman, George Marshal and Israel

American Jewry is split over whether Donald Trump is the most pro-Israel or pro-Jewish president in the history of the USA. It illustrates how divided and antagonistic the different parts of the so-called United States and the Jewish community are. Read more

The Curious Case of Israel’s Invisible Election

With the great election redo of 2019 less than two weeks away Israelis across the political spectrum are meeting up in living rooms, pubs and coffee shops around the country to discuss the great issues of the day…not. Read more

Neither fake nor fiction

We happen to be living at a time when the deluge of news makes it very difficult to sort out the fake from the real facts. Read more

The power of a dream: Israel’s new solar plant lights the way to a bright future

Driving along the long stretch of Highway 6, deep in Israel’s Negev Desert, you could easily think you are seeing a mirage: thousands of giant mirrors all facing the sun. Read more

White Australia has a Black History

Cairns author Barbara Miller has just launched her latest book called White Australia Has A Black History: William Cooper and First Nations Peoples’ Political Activism. Read more

What Hanan Ashrawi really believes and says – in Arabic

Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran Palestinian leader and a PLO Executive Committee member, has recently made the headlines following her organization’s connection to the planned tour in Israel of Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Read more

Trump writes off West Bank and Gaza as separate country

The US State Department web site has removed the West Bank and Gaza (“disputed territories”) from its list of “Countries and Areas”– signalling that it no longer regards these disputed territories as potentially comprising a separate country – in addition to  Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Read more

IDF foils Hezbollah’s risky attacks and its attempts to secure guided missiles

Hezbollah launched a dangerous attack on an Israel Defense Forces’ base in northern Israel on Sunday—an attack that could have resulted in a rapid deterioration into a larger conflict. Read more

Something completely different: a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

Although Geoffrey Lancaster is a world-renowned performer on the fortepiano, it was risky to devote one of the four piano series recitals to a period instrument. Read more

What happens when a good deal ends up a bad deal?

Ask the rabbi. Read more

Feintooner

This week’s cartoon…Blowback. Read more

A present to Leonard. and to us all.

On September 21st, 2019 Leonard Cohen would have been 85.  I have a mixed feelings about this math. From one side, one feels like Leonard always was there with us. Or rather that it is us who were always next to him. Read more

Back home in the Shetlands, a taste of nostalgia and singular Jewish life

It was SRO, standing-room only—an amazing turnout. Young and old, locals and tourists, poured into the venue as part of my travels “back home.” They came, anxious to listen to my book talk and memories growing up as part of the only Jewish family on the remote Shetland Islands. The Greenwald name was respected throughout the Christian, G-d-fearing community. They came not just to hear a talk on kosher cuisine (mixed in with a dollop of nostalgia) but to share memories, still vivid, from more than 50 years ago…writes Ethel G. Hofman. Read more

Incentivized emigration: An idea whose time has come?

Past attempts to encourage Palestinians to voluntary emigrate have always failed, so time and effort would be better invested in reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.” — Yossi Beilin, former Israeli government minister and a principal architect of the Oslo Accords, Al Monitor, Aug. 26, 2019. Read more

On the other hand

Israeli parents (and grandparents) are heaving sighs of relief as the long hot school summer vacation finally draws to a close and students prepare to return to their classrooms. Read more

Puncturing the big lie of Palestinian identity

Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, recently claimed that the Palestinians were the descendants of the Canaanites. Read more

Derangement runs riot

Quote: “We live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, humans have not the faintest idea who they are or what they are doing.” Read more

Adam Kirsch

There are few contemporary Jewish writers in the USA I am interested in meeting. They invariably use what Jewish religion they have to rebel against it or to ridicule it. I have no common language with completely secular Jewish writers – although of course, I respect their freedom to choose and to be who they want. Read more

Birth of the Cool

J-Wire has three double passes for this prize-winning documentary on jazz legend Miles Davis…one for Sydney, one for Brisbane and one for Canberra. Read more

Could Israel’s religious parties surge in next round of elections?

As the Sept. 17 elections draw here, a flurry of activity among the various political parties continues to be a game-changer. Israel is holding a second round after the April 9 elections because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a coalition government, mainly due to Knesset member Avigdor Lieberman’s refusal to sit in a government with the ultra-Orthodox parties. Now, those same parties may prove the sleeper of the election and might provide Netanyahu with the 61 mandates he needs to succeed. Read more

Israeli government makes wine a smart brand to export culture and identity abroad

As Israel’s government ministries endeavour to represent and communicate the singularity and attractiveness of Israeli culture and industry to audiences abroad, wine has topped the list as one way to effectively represent Israeli culture and history. Read more

Music from beneath the Bolshevik boot: a music review by Fraser Beath McEwing

Last night’s Masters Series concert was not for faint-hearted orchestral players, conductors or an audience that wanted orderly, familiar music. Read more

Solar Power for The King David School

In line with the school’s commitment to educating for a sustainable future, students will take personal responsibility for electricity consumption at Melbourne’s The King David School. Read more

Not So-Holy Comeday Debate

Melbourne’s The Not So-Holy Comedy Debate #4 was moderated again by Father Bob Maguire and hosted by JCCV president Jennifer Huppert and Ahmet Keskin from AIS….Henry Greener was there with his video camera. Read more

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