2011 March of the Living participant

(Source: walkingintothewoods)

Purim Down Under

Year 12’s on Purim in Melbourne, Australia

Submit photos of your Purim costumes, and we’ll publish them!

ϟ Death Of A Great Australian Zionist

Australia has lost it’s Jewish former Governor-General, Sir Zelman Cowen, who passed away a few days ago at the age of 92.

SIR ZELMAN COWEN, the governor-general picked to heal the nation after the bitter divisions following Sir John Kerr’s 1975 dismissal of the Whitlam government, has died aged 92.

Sir Zelman died on the 34th anniversary of his swearing in as governor-general, suffering an illness at his Toorak home. His wife, Anna, was by his side.

One of Australia’s most distinguished constitutional lawyers and academics, Sir Zelman was appointed to the vice-regal post by Malcolm Fraser in 1977. Critics said the role had been politicised by the controversial sacking but he won respect from both sides.

Last night, Mr Fraser said Sir Zelman ”restored Australia’s faith in the office of governor-general”.

”He took over the position at a more difficult time than any other governor-general and served in the role with great distinction,” Mr Fraser said. ”He worked extremely hard to see as much as he could and to talk to as many Australians as possible.”

Mr Fraser said Sir Zelman also made enormous contributions to academia and universities.

Born in Melbourne in 1919, Sir Zelman, who was Jewish, was educated at Scotch College and Melbourne University.

He went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He became dean of law at Melbourne University, and later vice-chancellor of the University of New England and then Queensland University.

Despite his weighty career, which included stints at US universities and advising foreign governments on legal matters, he also had a popular touch, appearing on panel programs in the early years of television.

After 4½ years at Yarralumla he became provost of Oriel College Oxford from 1982 to 1990. Back in Australia, he was a member of the board of Fairfax, which publishes the Herald, including a period as chairman. Among his many interests he was patron of the St Kilda Football Club.

In later life he suffered from Parkinson’s disease, which he described as ”a cruel and perverse sort of thing”.

A Jewish community leader, Mark Leibler, said Sir Zelman was ”one Australia’s greatest Jews” and a man whose advice and guidance was sought frequently.

He is survived by his wife and four children – Simon, Nick (Yosef), Kate and Ben – 16 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Sir Zelman was also an ardent Zionist who once said if Israel had been destroyed in the Six Day War, “it would have destroyed me as a person.” His son Yosef lives in Jerusalem.

While not a religiously observant person, he once said:

“I’m proud of my religious heritage. I find it difficult to believe that there is not some original creator. What flows from that I don’t know. I try to live decently, contribute decently, not because of sanctions of heaven or hell, but because that’s the right way.”

 Baruch Dayan HaEmet.

ϟ Stars Under The Southern Cross: Australians United For Israel

girlactionfigure:

Just under a year ago, Melboune-based Luke William Martin, a part-time teacher completing a law degree, who has stood for state parliament in the Liberal interest, inaugurated a grassroots group, Australian Friends of Israel, intended as an expression of the views of what he considers the “silent majority”.  It consisted mainly of non-Jews, drawn to Israel like himself. By October, the group had 300 members, about 60 per cent of them non-Jews.

As J-Wire noted at that time, the Facebook group has expressed concern over “the increasing rise of anti-Semitic violence and hatred in various sections of the world and even to some degree in the Lucky Country,” and unequivocally supports the Jewish State:

“The Jews have as much right as any other people to live in freedom and without fear of harassment or persecution. Israel, the only truly free democracy of the Middle East is a beacon of light to the entire world. Since 1948, it has been transformed into a productive modern industrialized nation. Often provoked with suicide bombings and even invasions from hostile regimes, Israel shows incredible patience and grace towards its neighbours. For such reasons and many more; we stand side-by-side with our ally Israel. Like everybody else, Israelis have a right to live in a secure homeland.”

Explained Luke Martin:

“We desperately need to reinvigorate a national consciousness and conversation in support of Israel. Whilst I do not want to over play the Max Brenner protests, they are an illustration of the fragility of the fabric that holds our society together. Without direct police intervention and opposition from the Coalition, Labor and the Jewish community, the prospect of how those ugly BDS protests might have developed is deeply concerning.”

And with an admirable sense of history (the Anzacs helped to liberate Jerusalem from the Turks, and Australian “Doc” Evatt played a pivotal role in Israel’s birth), he added:

“This is about Israel, and the Australian relationship with Israel. I want Australian Friends of Israel to assist in educating people. I want to remind my fellow Australians of our heritage – a heritage steeped in a love for Israel. Because moderate and respectable Australian patriotism has always been pro-Israel, we are entitled to enshrine our national friendship with Israel in the untouchable mystery and tradition of iconic Australian imagery such as ANZAC Day, Beersheba and the Australian founding fathers. If our founding fathers believed in Israel, so should we. I am doing this for my grandparents.”

Now, what began as a group of like-minded Melbourne supporters of Israel has gone from strength to strength and has changed its name to Australians United For Israel. It’s fully incorporated at both Victorian state level and federally, across Australia.

Mazal Tov, Luke!  Kol HaKavod!

(Incidentally, as Shirlee and an anonymous reader have kindly reminded me, a clear, cogent account of the controversy Down Under provoked by David Landau’s visit has been carried by a section of the Israeli press.  Read it here)

via: DaphneAnson

ϟ Israeli dancing group dropped from festival after refusing to change their name

From Australia’s J-Wire:

A Melbourne Israeli Dancing group was dropped from participating in a Victorian dance festival after refusing organisers’ moves to drop all references to Israel.

The Machol Israeli Dancing Club was scheduled to appear at Multicultural Folk Dance Festival of High Country in the Victorian country town of Mansfield earlier this month.

The festival was organised under the auspices of the Victorian Multicultural Commission and a grant had been awarded to Marta Balan who according to a submission to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission approved the performance of the Machol Group.

When the participants’ names were released, Esther Blumenthal-Skop of Machol was surprised to learn that the name of the Machol Israeli Dancing Club had been truncated to Machol Group and all references to Israel had been removed with the club being described as a Jewish dance group.

No change had been made to other groups including Chinese, Hungarian, Armenaian and Ukrarnian Traditional Folk Dances and the Irish Reel and Jigs.

In her submission to VEOHRC, Blumenthal-Skop said she asked for an explanation and was told that the organiser would not be held responsible for consequences if the words “Israel” or “Israeli” were used to describe the group.

The submission states that Ms Balan agreed to the original wording but within hours Machol was told that choreographers had decided that the dance bracket was not suitable for the event…and that the artistic director was not made aware of this and was surprised at Machol’s non-appearance at the final rehearsal.

Chairman of VEOHRC John Searle told J-Wire: “The matter is now in the hands of the Victorian Muliticultural Commission and we await their findings.”

zavatchalavudvash:

Australian Soldier Park, Beersheba

The park is dedicated for the memory of the Australian Light Horse   that conquered the town from the Turkish Empire on World War I.

(via vshavubanim)

ϟ “Max Brenner come off it, there’s blood in your hot chocolate!”

zavatchalavudvash:

This reminds me of the blood libels in the Middle Ages which accused Jews of baking Christian blood in their Matzot.

BDS - THE BLOOD LIBELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY