This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish life in Australia.
Australia
The Latest
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Fast Forward Australian Jews Flee for Lives as Wildfires Rage
The wild bushfires ravaging Australia forced members of the Jewish community to evacuate their homes. David Lake, a traditional Sephardic Jew, lost his home in the blaze at the Blue Mountains, one hour’s drive west of Sydney. He fled his home on Monday. The fires began on Oct. 16, reportedly sparked by explosives training on…
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Fast Forward Nepal Chabad Rabbi Prevents Cremation of Jewish Accident Victim
A Chabad rabbi in Nepal averted the cremation of a 32-year-old Australian woman who died in a road accident. Rabbi Chezki Lifshitz told JTA by phone from Kathmandu Wednesday that he had just recovered the body of the former student of Beth Rivkah College in Melbourne. He said he was flown by helicopter from Kathmandu…
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Fast Forward Australian Police Close In on Suspects in 1982 Hakoah Club Terror Bombing
Three decades after twin bombings rocked the Israeli Consulate and a Jewish social club in Sydney, Australian detectives believe they are closing in on the suspected perpetrators of the attacks that took place just two days before Christmas in 1982. No one was killed in the blasts at the consulate and the Hakoah Club, an…
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Fast Forward Australian Chabad Yeshiva Guard Found Guilty of Raping Boy
A former security guard at an Orthodox Jewish school in Melbourne was convicted of child rape and molestation. David Cyprys, 44, was a contract worker for Yeshivah College, a Chabad-run boys’ school, when he abused nine boys in the 1980s and early 1990s. A jury at the County Court of Victoria found him guilty last…
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Fast Forward Joshua Frydenberg, Jewish Rising Star, Joins New Australian Government
The sole Jewish member of the new Australian government was appointed to a junior minister position. Joshua Frydenberg was promoted to parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister on Monday by the newly elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Abbott’s Liberal Party won the Sept. 7 election in a landslide over the Labor Party, ending its six-year…
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Fast Forward Leading Orthodox Rabbi in Australia Apologizes for Abuse Cover Up
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…
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Fast Forward Staunch Israel Supporter Tony Abbott Wins Australia Premiership
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 –…
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Fast Forward Maccabi Australia To Probe Abuse Scandal
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…
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