A version of this piece originally appeared in Plus61J, an Australian Jewish publication. If Benjamin Netanyahu could pack up the audience at the Central Synagogue in Sydney and take them back to Israel, he would. No critics. No opponents, from the left, or worse, the right. No journalists waiting to pounce. No police waiting to…
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull offered a staunch defense of Israel on Wednesday, criticizing the United Nations and vowing never to support “one-sided resolutions” calling for an end to Israeli settlement building on occupied land. Turnbull welcomed Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as the first Israeli prime minister to visit Australia, and reiterated Australia’s support for…
A version of this article originally appeared on Plus61J, an Australian-Jewish publication. For years the Australian Jewish community, and the growing community of Israeli expats, have eagerly anticipated a visit by an Israeli prime minister or president. No Israeli Prime Minister has yet visited Australia and the last visit by an Israeli president was Moshe…
A version of this piece originally appeared in Plus61J. How does a twelve-year-old survive when he has been the victim of child sexual abuse and compounding abuses perpetrated by leaders of the community entrusted with his care? How does he grow up to become a Jewish community leader and one of Australia’s best known advocates…
(JTA) — The morning of her conversion to Judaism, Diana Sewell was so nervous she “was running around like a headless chicken” in her Australia home. Meanwhile, some 9,000 miles away in Georgia, her rabbi was dealing with computer difficulties. Neither of those things put a stop to Sewell fulfilling a 60-something-year-old dream of converting…
SYDNEY (JTA) — Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called on his country to cut its $40 million aid to the Palestinian Authority and to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump moves his country’s embassy. Abbott wrote in the weekly edition of The Spectator magazine: “In discussions…
SYDNEY (JTA) — Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull paid an unexpected visit to Sydney’s Central Synagogue to join its Friday night service and menorah lighting, telling the congregation that Australia stands “shoulder to shoulder” with Israel. Turnbull called the synagogue’s rabbi, Levi Wolff, Friday afternoon in honor of Hanukkah. During the call, Wolff, invited Turnbull to attend…
SYNDEY — An Australian government report found that some members of the Jewish community had been “discouraged from reporting” allegations of child sexual abuse against employees of two yeshivas. The Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse published its report Tuesday on the response of Yeshiva Bondi and Yeshivah Melbourne to allegations…
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