The former principal of a haredi Orthodox girls’ school in Melbourne who was extradited from Israel last year is on trial for allegedly sexually abusing a former student. The trial began Tuesday in Australian Supreme Court against former principal Malka Leifer. The mother of eight ran the Adass Israel girls’ school from 2001 to 2008,…
An Australian university has cleared one of its professors of suspected anti-Semitic behavior following a protest that turned ugly, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Sunday. The University of Sydney warned associate professor Jake Lynch – who waved money in the face of a Jewish woman at the protest – that his conduct did not “constitute…
A number of companies in Australia have removed kosher certification symbols from their packaging due to pushback over halal certification. Rumors that money raised from halal certification helps fund terrorism are spurring the pushback, the general manager of the Kosher Australia certification, Yankel Wajsbort, told the Australian Jewish Times, and companies have called the Victorian-based…
Australia’s prime minister publicly apologized for comparing the country’s opposition leader to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. On Thursday, Tony Abbott said in a parliament meeting that Labor Party leader Bill Shorten was the “Dr. Goebbels of economic policy.” Abbott apologized on a radio interview on Friday. “I accept that in the context of history…
A Jewish lawmaker was thrown out of Australia’s Parliament after protesting Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s description of the opposition leader as the “Dr. Goebbels of economic policy.” Joseph Goebbels was the propaganda minister for Nazi Germany. Opposition Labor Party lawmaker Mark Dreyfus, one of three Jewish lawmakers in Parliament, jumped up to protest Abbott’s choice…
Four senior officials with Chabad’s headquarters in Melbourne stepped down two days after child sex-abuse victims called for the resignations of all members of management. The Yeshivah Centre confirmed this week that Chaim New, Yirmi Loebenstein and Sue Susskind had resigned from the committee of management, in addition to the chairman, Don Wolf. “We will…
About 400 people attended Australia’s first Limmud conference tailored especially for Russian-speaking Jews. The events held last week in Sydney and near Melbourne were organized by the local branch of Limmud FSU, a network of groups that uses the concept of Limmud conferences to connect communities of Russian-speaking Jews on four continents. Chaim Chesler, a…
Three senior Orthodox rabbis have resigned from their posts in the wake of Australia’s Royal Commission into the child sex abuse scandal at two Chabad institutions. On Monday, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant, president of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia, resigned from several posts after a text message was revealed during the commission’s hearings last…
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