Ghost Stories: a theatre review by Alex First

An engaging professor of parapsychology talks us through the history of ghost stories – how they came to be and how they have evolved over time. Read more

10 things you need to know about Yom Kippur

The Bible calls Yom Kippur the “Sabbath of Sabbaths,” the holiest day of the Jewish calendar and the pinnacle of the High Holidays that start with Rosh Hashanah. Read more

Feintooner

This week’s cartoon: A tale of two Handmaids Read more

Doubling Australian aid to UNRWA: A vital perspective

The Australian government will double its aid to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which the UN created as a “temporary” entity in the wake of the Israel War of Independence, to help half a million Arabs displaced as a result of these hostilities. Read more

Lapid rejects Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has finally emerged from the cocoon of silence that has enveloped all current 120 Knesset members – choosing to reject a solution emanating from Saudi Arabia on June 8 calling for the merger of Jordan, Gaza and part of the West Bank into one territorial entity to be called the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine (Saudi Solution). Read more

On the other hand

“If I had a hammer – I’d hammer in the morning – I’d hammer in the evening – All over this land” Read more

Use by date expires

When use by dates expire for food and medicine, we dispose of the remaining items to avoid being either poisoned or adversely affected. Read more

How Benny Gantz killed Israeli-Palestinian peace

In an interview with Maariv last week, former Israeli Air Force commander Amir Eshel made several startling admissions about the role he and other IDF generals played in scuttling former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most significant strategic policies. Read more

UN Security Council hails Lapid’s ‘two-state’ commitment, questions Israeli counterterrorism ops

As the United Nations Security Council met on Wednesday, a recurrent theme emerged. Council members lauded Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s support for a two-state solution while simultaneously expressing concern over growing instability in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Read more

Cyrano: a theatre review by Alex First

A massive triumph. The MTC production of the season. A talented cast, headlined by writer and star Virginia Gay proves that the pen is mightier than the sword. Read more

Why social justice warriors can’t deal with anti-Semitism

Ruth Wisse, an emeritus professor of Yiddish literature at Harvard and an unfailingly impressive commentator on the Jewish world, has uttered a desperate cry about the moral and spiritual state of American Jews. Read more

Divine Royalty

“Adonai, what is a human being that You should care about him, what is a mortal, that You should consider it?  A human is no more than a breath, a life is like a passing shadow” (Psalms 144.3.).

What can express the vulnerability, the insignificance of human beings, more succinctly than that? Read more

Shabbat Vayeylech and Shuva: Why God hides

The Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is always called the Shabbat Shuvah, the Shabbat of Return. Read more

Jewish director says Facebook banning ads for his Holocaust film was shameful

A son of Holocaust survivors is demanding an apology from Facebook for blocking ads for his newly-released film “Beautiful Blue Eyes.” Read more

In these days of cybersecurity, Israel can help

A few weeks ago, I came across a tender looking for companies to provide real-time awareness of cybersecurity hacking for the Sydney Opera House’s website.
Read more

I don’t go to shule because it does nothing for me. What advice, if any, can you give me?

Ask the rabbi. Read more

L’Chaim – to Life: Prof Sharon Lewin – Leading the AUSiMED delegation to Israel to discuss each country’s COVID-19 response

Morry Frenkel speaks with Prof Sharon Lewin, inaugural Director of the Peter Doherty Institute, co-chair of the COVID19 Health and Research Advisory Council and member of the AUSiMED Board, about the recent AUSiMED delegation she led to Israel. Read more

Is Italy’s Giorgia Meloni a friend or a foe of the Jews?

The latest parliamentary elections in Italy have sent many in the chattering classes in both Europe and the United States heading for their smelling salts. Read more

Giorgia Meloni: ‘I believe that the existence of Israel is vital’

It appears that history is about to be made in Italy: Giorgia Meloni, the 45-year-old leader of the national conservative party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), has pledged to fight mass immigration and Islamization and has been very critical of the European Union, is poised to become the country’s first female prime minister. Read more

Giorgia Meloni and other female conservatives are today’s feminists

There is no doubt that, in historical terms, one of the left’s most important and beloved causes has been women’s emancipation, and rightly so. Read more

Feintooner

This week’s cartoon: As the axis of evil turns and burns Read more

Instruments of Dance (The Australian Ballet): reviewed by Alex First

The second line of Peter Allen’s iconic anthem, I Still Call Australia Home, contains the words “From New York to Rio and old London Town”. Read more

How a Jewish girl went into hiding with a Nazi family

It is the last winter before Germany’s capitulation. The seventeen-year-old Anni Gmitruk walks alongside a man wearing a swastika armband. It’s dark, and the snow crackles under their shoes. They have just been to the cinema in Zerbst, a small city deep in the Third Reich, to see Heimkehr, a classic among Nazi propaganda films. Read more

‘Treat Iran like pariah:’ Haley hits Biden team for relentless pursuit of nuclear deal

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley sharply criticised the Biden administration for its failure to confront the Iranian regime during a special press conference held Wednesday in New York City on the sidelines of the 77th U.N. General Assembly. Read more

Iran’s inspirational protest movement

It’s impossible not be astonished and humbled by the bravery of the Iranian people. Read more

Israel’s choice: independence or appeasement

Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid and his supporters in the media went berserk Tuesday after Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out against the gas deal the Biden administration is mediating between Israel and Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon. Read more

On the other hand

Signs of the approaching Holy days are to be seen everywhere. Read more

With call for Palestinian state at UN, Lapid has defined Israel’s upcoming fifth election

With just 29 words, from the stage at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, temporary caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid may have completely changed Israel’s fifth election landscape from the first four election cycles over the past two-and-a-half years. Read more

Honey

As we approach Rosh Hashanah and think of dipping our apples into honey in the hope of a sweet year, it’s a good time to talk about honey. Read more

NSW Shooters Party leader’s father interned in concentration camps

In 2013, NSW Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party leader Robert Borsak MP shocked participants on a NSW Jewish Board of Deputies-supported trip to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem when he told fellow parliamentarians that his late-father Czeslaw “Chester” Borsak was interned in Majdanek and Buchenwald concentration camps. Read more

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