Holocaust documentary asks why Lithuania honours villains as heroes

Grant Gochin had seen documentation of Jonas Noreika’s signature ordering the construction of a ghetto to confine Lithuanian Jews who would be brutally shot to death. Read more

Hiberno-Yiddish –  The language of Irish Jews 

Hiberno-Yiddish or Irish-Yiddish is the historical dialect spoken by Irish Jews. Read more

M3gan: a film review  by Alex First

When the most advanced “toy” in history goes rogue, lives are at stake in the engaging horror sci-fi thriller M3gan. Read more

Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre – a movie review by Alex First

A rollicking, globe-trotting actioner, director and co-writer Guy Ritchie has a lot of fun and keeps things moving in Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre (ruse of war). Read more

On the other hand

Emergency ambulance response times have been in the news recently. Read more

Democracy must be restored to Israel

“For years now, Israel has seemed to me like a man sleepwalking toward a cliff. Now we’ve fallen from it.” Read more

Where does charity begin?

We are all being bombarded constantly with requests for money, at home, at work, on the streets, and on the internet. Read more

Spot the differences

The pandemic of moral outrage, which has infected all and sundry as Israel finally asserts its sovereign rights brings to mind a famous quote by the late Golda Meir. Read more

Emily: a film review by Alex First

Tense throughout, Emily is a fictitious account of lauded 19th-century writer and poet Emily Brontë (Wuthering Heights), a role filled by Emma Mackey. Read more

Feb-12 1:45pm Sydney: Speed Dating for the 60s

Debbie Katz presents a new speed dating event for those in their 60s. Read more

Shabbat Shemot: Who is God?

Throughout the Torah, God has been referred to anthropomorphically. Read more

Netanyahu government breaks sharply with predecessor in dealings with PA

On Jan. 5, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a series of retaliatory measures against the Palestinian Authority. Read more

Israel Prize laureate’s anti-government stance reveals a sinister view of the Jewish state

Anyone still puzzled by the outcome of the Nov. 1 Knesset elections should listen to professor Asa Kasher’s interview on Sunday with Kanradio. Read more

From Australia’s Jewish Past: Maximilian Hirsch – a leading light in the colony’s free-trade movement 

Max was born in Cologne in the German state of Prussia on 21 September 1852.   Read more

Motherlod_^e: a theatre review by Alex First

Sixty-five minutes of glorious mayhem. Read more

On the other hand

The grass is not always greener on the other side of the world. Read more

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On: a film review by Alex First

Marcel is an extraordinary, original work with Best Animated Feature at the Oscars written all over it. Read more

Penalising Palestinian lawfare

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced on Friday plans to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority for its latest act of lawfare aggression against the Jewish state. Read more

Jordan PLO & Hamas revise Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Plan

The Saudi-based Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine plan (Saudi Plan) – initially published in Al Arabiya News on 8 June 2022 – has been revised in a later document. Read more

How does Israel interpret the Russian-Iranian alliance?

It is perhaps a measure of Israel’s elevated stature in the world that its newly elected right-wing government is under scrutiny not just for its domestic policies and its approach to the Palestinians but its foreign policy as well. Read more

What killed the two-state solution? Cheers and cash for terrorists

In his initial phone conversation with new Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen to congratulate him and the rest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on taking office, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed two contradictory messages. Read more

French-Israeli bass-baritone Yuri Kissin interviewed by Murray Dahm

Yuri Kissin began his singing career in a most unusual way – he was a stand-up comedian and doing a sketch that parodied ‘opera singing.’ Read more

What is wrong in Israel

Corruption is an evocative word. Its original usage in Latin was something spoiled or ruined, mainly comestibles but in Christianity, the human flesh. Read more

The Israeli canary in the West’s cultural coal mine

Those scratching their heads over the way Western liberals have lost all connection with reason over issues of race, gender and Western “colonialism” might usefully look at the reaction to Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount last week. Read more

Collective and compulsive convulsions

One did not need to possess a crystal ball or read tea leaves in order to predict that 2023 would commence with Israel being targeted by the usual motley collection of serial international hypocrites. Read more

Netanyahu’s gambit: going ‘all in’ on peace accord with Saudi Arabia

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is setting an ambitious diplomatic goal for his new term in office: signing a peace accord with Saudi Arabia. Read more

Madagascar The Musical:   a Melbourne theatre review by Alex First

A musical for the littlies – I speak of preschoolers and primary school age children – Madagascar The Musical is based on the successful animated motion picture. Read more

Is Israel really threatened by Ben-Gvir’s Temple Mount gambit?

For those convinced that naming Itamar Ben-Gvir Israel’s minister of national security was tantamount to putting a ticking time bomb in the cabinet, his latest move was proof that they’d been right. Read more

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich: Israel’s power couple

Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the outgoing chief of the Israel Defence Forces general staff, probably never thought he would need to call the incoming prime minister over a political matter in his last month of service…writes Ksenia Svetlova. Read more

Shabbat Vayehiy: Favouritism

As we come to the end of the Book of Bereishit (Genesis), we can look back and see a thread in the narrative of human beings grappling with the moral and spiritual challenges that we all face. Read more

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