just a tiny bit of my own opinion which will not alter the direction of your thoughts.
Ignorance does not beget necessarily fear, it could engage rage and aggression as well, but I am sure that you know that.
Engaging in discussions, dialectics on specific issues is conditioned exclusively on comprehensive knowledge of the field one defends as well as the one opposes. It is a sine qua non condition !
You are perfectly right about certain people who chase a specific position of communal authority and barge into certain areas of communal advocacy utterly ignorant about matters. It happened precisely on the subject of Jewish Catholic dialogue about the time of the 2000 Sydney “International Youth Catholic do with the Pope here etc. A certain Board of Deps. ambitious boss aspirant took the reins of a necessary discussion/confrontation with the Church. The person was tabula rasa ( Latin for utter ignorance ), claimed leadership of the talks, pushed me aside, then asked me on the 12th hour for instructions, it was too late, screwed up the whole thing big time, blamed ME for not advising him on time important knowledge and , finally, boasted that his failure was a valuable lesson for the Community on how NOT to go about this kind of stuff .The clown now is the head of something else because he is viciated by a monstruous ego incapable to be accommodated by his vacuous skull.
Manners in which sensible matters must be discussed is a matter for intense discussions and hey are relative to the issues. ( a Motherhood flat statement if I ever made one ).
I shall only add that, in most cases, controversial stances expect reactions of a certain kind and in some cases they even desire certain reactions. These are called “provocations”. Here we must debate if one should or should not respond to provocations. ( see above Motherhood statement !!)

Gil

take from me I am an expert in the Board’s Constitution.
If you are a Member of the Board ( only some 25 bucks and you are in ), not a Deputy, you are allowed to assist at Plenums. You may be given the floor only is specific leave is given by the Chair and, of course not voted down by the majority present. You have limited time to speak ,but once you have the floor will be free to express yrself if not out of order. Another detail, you will seat in a special place, NOT in the same general sitting arrangements with the Deputies.
That’s all !

Otto,

You won’t be seeing me at any future Board of Deputies meeting.
I did attend for a short time but at my last appearance, my “interrogation” of a certain member as to his knowledge of the Christian gospels that gave birth to the accusation of Jews as Christ killers, was not appreciated, to put it mildly.

The thrust of my argument was that there was no point in anyone from the Board getting into debate with an Anglican Priest who accused Jews of deicide if they had not the faintest idea of the false Christian narrative that gave birth to this abomination. My main point was that those Jews who know nothing of this issue, do more harm than good when they engage Christian clergy.

Suffice to say that as I was not an affiliate, I was told in no uncertain terms that in future, the Board would go by the rules and only affiliates would be allowed to speak at Plenums. If I wanted to attend I could do so but would have to stay silent until I was an elected affiliate. As these terms were unacceptable to me, I walked out.

Hypothetically speaking, based on what I have seen going on and reported at these Plenums, if I were to be elected to the Board, my first aim would be to shut down all the inter-faith and any other useless committee that did not directly aid the Jewish community.

Gil
your perceptions/comments are impeccable, but I will still argue with the comments/you about the AVAILABLE methods of dealings with” them”.
I will not criticise the Board here, I will criticise it everywhere, but always with the best intentions, realistically, as a true friend.
Yet, the initiatives and tactics will have to originate with us simply because “they” will NEVER call our number, except for leaving obnoxious messages.

Seeya at the Board, there you’ll have also the chance of sampling some of the best instant coffee – no less than International Roast !! – and delicious “Marie” biscuits. I always stuff me pockets with them and on the way home I make lots of pigeons in the park across the road happy. No wonder the birds are nuts about me, especially those around the Board’s building.

It’s true that as Jews we have the knowledge of our history and our traditions. It’s equally true that in the main others are vastly ignorant of both of these. Therein lies the fault-line, as ignorance breeds fear and is a stamping ground for the implantation and blooming of lies and ultimate destructiveness. I can’t think of anything worse than sitting around sipping tea with interfaith participants, while mouthing superficial inanities, and I wouldn’t do it. However, a program devised whereby people of different faiths or, if not religious, cultural traditions and perspectives, can get together motivated by a willingness to be exposed to one another’s ‘truths’, that’s a different story altogether. Directness and fire in the belly, while being willing to listen to one another, is the only effective way to go – sadly, this will not attract the numbers to make a difference. Oh, and there are so many Jews with almost complete ignorance of the Christian tradition and New Testament, due most probably to a feeling of repugnance due to what has followed from it (something I understand as a feeling full well). The thing is, we need the knowledge. Just as we need good knowledge of Islam. Otherwise, how can you effectively fight destructive acts in the name of these faiths? It’s not enough to have good knowledge of our own religion and concerns; we must be as informed as possible.

As Jews, we cannot afford to cling together as a group and disappear into some gaping, black hole of emptiness, unregarded. We must be willing to speak out with fierce control the truths we know and look our enemies in the eye with dignity.

Otto,

You are no doubt a good well meaning Jewish man.

However, it is high time that men of goodwill pull their heads out of the sand and face reality. Unfortunately, the messages of tolerance, goodwill, democracy etc. etc. ad nauseum only emanate from our side.

You write:
“The Australian civilized message to those passionate about open conflicts has been heard. Obviously the same groups have reconsidered their tactics. More intense PR of the farcical type has replaced the violent propensities”.

What planet has your head been living in that you won’t face reality? It is now 2013 and nothing, absolutely nothing, has changed for decades. Islamic educators have no problem in teaching their children that Jews are the offspring of pigs and apes. As sure as night follows day, there will be violence in the streets of Western capitals at the first outbreak of hostilities in the Middle East.

Regardless of a few moderate individuals (who are too terrified to speak out against their co-religionist’s excesses, both verbal and physical) the religion of Islam will most probably never be tolerant towards Jews.

Their Imams simply wish us dead. How many times have we heard them quoting from the Koran where a tree is telling a Muslim: “O Muslim there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and slaughter him”. This doesn’t sound like the preachings of brotherly love to me.

Until we as a people demand that so called moderates within the Muslim community are prepared to speak PUBLICLY against their “leaders”, the claptrap known as inter-faith dialogue should be terminated. Again, that group known as the Board of Deputies will argue that this will cause a void, to which I, for the umpteenth time respond: “So what? These people have the Board’s number should they ever want to enter into serious dialogue with us”.

Iain. R. B.

Maxine
as a sensible writer I am sure that you will agree that by now everybody knows what Islam is capable to reek both within its specific geo-political world and outside. ( we must single OUT Indonesia as far as judicial and general State policies ).
The books you recommend as well as Leanne Piggot, one of the most articulate academics we are fortunate to embrace ( and be embraced by ), are, indeed, valuable sources of solid information.
Yet, we are also very fortunate in Australia that reliable institutions, as well as a general culture of aversion toward ostensive inter-faith, inter ethnic and even political conflict, ensure that a far more civilized approach to the issues you correctly raised is more than just accessible.
Public manifestations of the violent nature originating with precisely the group we must single out, Islamic activism, have been retorted in such a decisive manner by the relevant authorities, that the unwanted tactics about to be continued by the same group have ceased altogether. The Australian civilized message to those passionate about open conflicts has been heard. Obviously the same groups have reconsidered their tactics. More intense PR of the farcical type has replaced the violent propensities.
Here we, civilized people, are at home, here we must outwit the dedicated falsifiers of the truth, here we must engage in policies which will compel the transgressors to account for themselves in places where reality, logic, common sense, again civilized approaches are the only way to conduct “business”.
We have acquired knowledge, we have historic truth on our side, we do have talented people, and I, for one, would love to see and hear a lot more from Leanne – I told Peter how incredibly lucky he is to see and hear daily and he assured me that he follows her word obediently !! -.
As reality demands, we must confront those responsible for spreading all manner of unethical material, those inciting to anti-social behavior, in a very decisive fashion and all those fora available are the best places. Yes, inter- whatever provides ALL parties with the democratic decent venues a civilized society is defined by, one we, like everybody else, should safeguard.
Your excellent rationale would be most efficient in such places as well as the passion for our ideals of a blessed Eretz Zion Yirushalaim.
Same goes for me mate Gil.

All past inter-faith meetings run especially by the Jewish Board of Deputies, year after monotonous year, have accomplished nothing, as Jews simply refuse, for fear of offending anyone, to address the real issues and in many cases those who purportedly speak on our behalf have no clue as to the Gospel teachings that led to the anti -semitism spread by the Church to this day.

You have my email address.
I would be pleased to attend as a guest speaker at your next useless inter-faith meeting with the Christian and Islamic denominations.

If I were to receive an invitation to attend, be advised that my language will NOT be politically correct and I will be saying things that no media outlet will allow me to put into print for fear of offending anyone. It seems that Jews can be vilified, physically harmed and killed (as we have for centuries) but we will not allow anyone of our own to put in print anything controversial for fear it may hurt this or that group’s sensibilities.

Sam,

Both pictures shown in Julie’s article were Church inspired anti-semitic lies and the Muslims have picked up on it.

As a community we need to be well informed IN ADVANCE through Jewish media outlets as to when and where these days of protest will take place, be it Al-Quds or Nakbar or whatever. We can be assured, as sure as night follows day, that the sons of Ishmael will again put up this vitriolic filth and we have to do more than just report on it.

For this, we need a LARGE Jewish male presence on the ground at these demonstrations to counter the lies constantly hurled at us. We need to be involved and Jews have to get up off their comfortable sofas, open their eyes as to what’s going on and attend in large numbers, especially if the demonstration is right in their particular city.

The aim is to ensure that these rallies do not in future go off as smoothly as the organisers have come to expect.

Julie, please call me in to speak at your next useless inter-faith meeting. If you do, be advised that my language will NOT be politically correct and I will be saying things that no media outlet will allow me to put into print for fear of offending anyone. It seems that we can be vilified and physically harmed and killed but we will not allow anyone of our own to put in print anything controversial because it may hurt this or that group’s sensibilities.