An evening with the MSO and Thomas Hampson singing Mahler: a music review by Ron Jontof-Hutter

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra presented a more unusual type of program consisting of three tone poems and a song cycle rather than the traditional overture, concerto, symphony format. Read more

Why a soccer hooligan is smiling

Jibril Rajoub is many things—a convicted terrorist, a former West Bank security chief, a former confidante of the late Yasser Arafat, and now the head of both the Palestinian Football Association and the Palestinian Olympic Committee…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

Is God real or an idea?…ask the rabbi

Rabbi Raymond Apple served for 32 years as the chief minister of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, Australia’s oldest and most prestigious congregation…he provides his answer. Read more

Into the fray: Gaza – A “simple” solution

Denying—or delaying—the inevitable does not make it any less inevitable, only more costly…writes Martin Sherman. Read more

Feintooner

This week’s cartoon… Read more

Michael Chabon’s ideas about inclusion are killing liberal Judaism

When novelist Michael Chabon took the lectern to give a commencement address at the Hebrew Union College-Institute of Religion in Los Angeles earlier this month, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer clearly intended to create controversy…writes Jonathan S. Tobin/JNS. Read more

‘Nakba,’ ‘Naksa’ . . . nowhere

When it comes to the Palestinian “original sin” theory of Israel’s creation, there are two key milestones: the flight of approximately 750,000 Arab refugees during the 1948 War of Independence and the 1967 conquest of eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day War…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

A dose of innovation in security and medical technology at Rambam Hospital

As Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary, its largest hospital in the north celebrates its 80th anniversary, mirroring the Jewish state’s rise to prominence in innovation and security…writes Eliana Rudee/JNS. Read more

Europe makes an about-face on Israel

A strange, startling and deeply unfamiliar sound was heard this week. A Trump tweet imploding, perhaps? Kim Jong-Un finally destroying his nuclear arsenal? A distant rumble from the Hawaii volcano?…writes Melanie Phillips/JNS. Read more

Dave Sharma speaks at NSTE AGM

Dave Sharma, director and Principal at Kelly+Partners and former Australian Ambassador to Israel was the guest speaker at Sydney’s North Shore Temple Emanuel recently held its 58^th Annual General Meeting. Read more

If at first you don’t succeed…writes Michael Kuttner

First there were rockets. Then terror tunnels dug underneath Israeli houses. This was followed by kidnappings and explosive devices. In between there were frogmen trying to infiltrate from the sea and misnamed aid flotillas trying to smuggle in forbidden items to Gaza. Lately there have been flaming kites setting fire to wheat fields and forests. Read more

Let’s abolish Jewish celebrities

Like any embattled minority that needed positive role models, early- and mid-20th-century Jews  embraced celebrities with any sort of tie to the tribe…writes Jonathan S. Tobin. Read more

Palestinian Islamic Jihad prompts dangerous escalation in southern Israel

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Eliyahu’s Mistress: a book review by Geoffrey Zygier

Melbourne lawyer Roger Mendelson has chosen a demanding subject for his debut novel ‘Eliyahu’s Mistress’. Read more

Does a lavish simcha detract from its religious significance?…ask the rabbi.

Rabbi Raymond Apple answers this question and others… Read more

Reviewing a month of hypocrisy and moral decadence

Never have we witnessed such morally decadent political behavior as what has transpired these past weeks…writes Isi Leibler. Read more

Will Prince William follow royal tradition with a tattoo at centuries-old Jerusalem parlour?

Ever since Kensington Palace announced the dates of Prince William’s  scheduled trip to the region on Friday, speculation has been rife that he will visit the Razzouk tattoo parlour in Jerusalem’s Old City to acquire a tattoo of the cross and follow in the footsteps of his royal ancestors King Edward VII in 1862 and Princes  Albert and George (the future King George V) in 1882. Read more

Feintooner

This week’s cartoon…Of Mice and Men. Read more

Medical wearable monitors

Researchers from the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed an integrated system for early diagnosis of diseases using wearable monitors. Read more

On the other hand

Things are hotting up in this part of the world. Summer is kicking in with rising temperatures while regional troublemakers are ensuring that things remain at boiling point. Despite these climatic and political impediments the start up nation continues to thrive. Read more

Inane, again! Thomas Friedman on Gaza

What if all two million Palestinians of Gaza marched to the Israeli border fence with an olive branch in one hand and a sign in Hebrew and Arabic in the other, saying, “Two states for two peoples: We, the Palestinian people of Gaza, want to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish people—a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed adjustments. – Thomas L. Friedman, Hamas, Netanyahu and Mother Nature, New York Times, May 22, 2018.

… the American conduct of the peace process bears an unhappy resemblance to the custom of treating diseases by placing leeches on the body of the afflicted person: It was based on an inadequate understanding of the pathology it attempted to cure, it did not solve the problem it was intended to fix, and it sometimes made it substantially worse. – Michael Mandelbaum, The Peace Process Is an Obstacle to Peace, Commentary, April 14, 2016. Read more

Orchestrated chaos: Palestinian rejectionism again proves its futility

Events at the Israel-Gaza security barrier on May 15 followed what has become an all too predictable pattern…Hamas starts a confrontation with Israel; Israel defends itself; the world condemns Israel…writes Peter Wertheim. Read more

Behind Erdoğan’s boycott threat against Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in the midst of one of his periodic bouts of Israel-hatred, lashing out at the Jewish state and its leaders with all the insults (“Nazi,” “apartheid,” “child-killers” and so forth) that he has deployed with such aplomb in the past…writes Ben Cohen/JNS. Read more

Chutzpah unlimited

We live at a time when even the most outrageous behaviour is accepted as normal…writes Michael Kuttner. Read more

Laya – Local Hero

Rebbetzin Laya Slavin has been award this year’s Local Hero by Sydney’s Waverley Council. Read more

Calling all artists

For the fifth year, Asylum Arts will be bringing together Jewish artists from all over the world for our International Jewish Artist Retreat, a four-day retreat of learning, community building, and professional development. Read more

Israeli home front needs bolstering to fend off Hezbollah’s growing arsenal

The Israeli home front remains unprepared for the large-scale threat posed by Hezbollah’s mammoth and expanding arsenal of projectiles, a former senior military commander has warned.,,writes Yaakov Lappin/JNS.
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Nakba Day in Sydney      

As Israelis, and Jews around the world, celebrate the 70th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Jewish state, Palestinian Arabs and their supporters protest the very existence of Israel, in what they call Nakba Day (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’)…writes Julie Nathan. Read more

“Peaceful” demonstrations…

If I hear the phrase “peaceful demonstration” just one more time, I will have no hair left on my head to tear out. Read more

Peace plan? Netanyahu has nothing to worry about!

It’s the sort of thing that could potentially topple his coalition government, but there’s no sign of panic from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…writes Jonathan S. Tobin. Read more

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