The president of the Orthodox rabbinate in Australia issued an unequivocal apology to the victims of child sex abuse and urged perpetrators to turn themselves in to police. On the eve of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Moshe Gutnick, president of the Organization of Rabbis of Australasia, said the “culture of cover-up” in Australia is wrong. “An…
Australia’s Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott, a staunch supporter of Israel, was elected the country’s new prime minister. The Labor government was swept from its six-year term in office on Saturday as the conservative Liberal Party won a convincing, and expected, victory. Abbott – a surf life-saver, volunteer fire-fighter and one-time trainee Catholic priest –…
Maccabi Australia will conduct an independent review of its handling of a child sex abuse scandal that resulted in a former basketball coach being jailed last month for eight years. Shannon Francis was found guilty of several child sex abuse offenses between 1999 and 2000, including sexual penetration of a minor, while he was coaching…
A Jewish lawmaker in Australia is under fire for changing his sample ballot cards in deference to the large Orthodox Jewish community in his electorate. Michael Danby, a junior minister in the Labor government, placed the Sex Party last in sample ballot cards he sent to Orthodox Jewish voters in his Melbourne electorate ahead of…
Jewish community leaders in Australia have virtually abandoned support for the governing Labor Party, with most privately hoping the conservative Liberal Party wins the federal election next weekend. The near consensus in favor of Tony Abbott to replace Kevin Rudd as the nation’s next PM comes as the Liberal Party reportedly plans to upgrade relations…
A former coach of a Maccabi basketball team in Australia was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing four girls more than a decade ago. Shannon Francis, who is not Jewish, was sentenced Wednesday by County Court of Victoria Judge Meryl Sexton. Francis must serve at least 5 1/2 years before he is…
The Labor government’s new policy of banishing asylum seekers who arrive here by sea has left some Jews fuming, many of them survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants who also arrived here as boat people. Like Israel, Australia holds asylum seekers, most of them from Africa, in detention centers. Australia’s centers are on the…
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called new elections for September 7, avoiding a clash with Yom Kippur. Before Julia Gillard was ousted in late June from the top job, she had declared September 14 – Yom Kippur – as the date of the election. But soon after Rudd replaced her he said the clash…
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