The announcement by Australia’s Prime Minister of a royal commission into the “vile and evil” scourge of child sex abuse has reignited the controversial issue inside the Jewish community. Julia Gillard announced Monday that the inquiry would include children under the care of all religious organizations and that it would focus on the response of…
One of Australia’s largest Jewish schools is being sued by a former principal who claims he was the victim of unfair dismissal. Documents filed in Federal Court allege Joseph Gerassi’s dismissal last year from Bialik College in Melbourne was in breach of the Fair Work Act. He is suing the school for millions of dollars…
A 99-year-old man living in Australia celebrated his bar mitzvah. Isaac Volinsky joined a group of about 40 Jews from the former Soviet Union at a Chabad house near Sydney’s Bondi Beach for the first time last week. When Rabbi Eli Schlanger discovered that Volinsky had never been to the weekly “120 Club” for elderly…
A judge in the United States has cleared the way for the extradition to Australia of a man wanted in connection with alleged child sex abuse at a Jewish school. David Kramer, 51, a dual Israeli-American national, is accused of sexually abusing pupils at the Yeshivah College in Melbourne between 1989 and 1993. A judge…
A rabbinical court in New York will determine the fate of a controversial Chabad rabbi in Melbourne who has been dismissed from his post amid allegations of improper conduct. A Chabad spokesman confirmed that Rabbi Chaim Herzog has appealed his dismissal after he received an official letter last month saying he no longer has the…
Australia’s public broadcasting network was accused of a “studied insult” against the Jewish community for dedicating on Rosh Hashanah almost half of its weekly current affairs show to the Israel-Palestine debate. Monday night’s weekly “Q&A” program on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation featured controversial Israeli historian Ilan Pappe – who said the pro-Israel narrative “serves as…
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who helped save up to 100,000 Jews during the Holocaust, was honored in an Australian parliament. New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell marked the centenary since Wallenberg’s birth Wednesday by announcing an annual human rights award in Wallenberg’s name. “It is important the New South Wales Government pays tribute to a…
Australian counter-terror agents have reopened an investigation into the bombings of the Israeli Consulate and a Jewish social club in Sydney 30 years ago. Police confirmed Saturday that members of a special strike force called “Operation Forbearance,” established to investigate the two bombings on Dec. 23, 1982, have interviewed a prime suspect in an American…
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