The Sensible Jew

This is the second installment in this series. Click here to read part 1.
So, what else do the Israel-Right-or-Wrong and anti-Zionists groups in Australia have in common?
Fury at dissent within own ranks:
For our non-Jewish readers, let me tell you about a communal treasure.
He’s a tireless letter-to-the-editor writer, and apparently an avid mass emailer about matters [...]

by Yaron Gottlieb
Since leaving school, I’ve spent a good chunk of my life learning in Israeli Yeshivot (Jewish religious seminaries). This was interspersed with studying for tertiary degrees in Australia, and I always seemed to survive the culture shock between the places.
But returning to Australia, a newly ordained rabbi, after spending last year in a [...]

We have a tendency to cast the spectre of anti-Semitism as a vast, amorphous thing that can never be quantified.
This means not distinguishing between an unpleasant letter to the editor, a school-yard taunt, an ill-conceived play;  and expulsions, pogroms, and gas chambers. These are all conflated.
for some, they might exist on a continuum, but most [...]

As many of you know, I have a pretty high threshold for what might constitute anti-Semitism in the arts and media.
Please keep this in mind when I write that yesterday, while watching a play, I witnessed a truly vile depiction of Jews that initially made me want to launch myself from the back row of [...]

After reading the articles, read the comments below.
Robert Goot’s latest crusade
Albert Dadon’s piece in The Age
Dvir in his most recent spray
See also page 3 of this week’s Australian Jewish News
***
Now ask yourself whether the horrendous comments in response to these pieces are perhaps worse than the original infraction being complained about….
Along with the usual missives [...]

Yesterday, Liam Getreu, incoming AUJS chairman, wrote an opinion piece for the Australian that should serve as a model for how this community conducts its PR.
We need to remember that no matter how interesting and important we Jews find ourselves and Israel, the rest of the population generally has other things on its mind.
Except for [...]

Wow!
This is a stunning piece of writing from the incoming chairman of the Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS).
It’s pretty much pitch perfect, and some of our more seasoned leaders would do well to study it closely.
In the next post, I will analyse the piece closely, examining how the article achieves its aims so adroitly.

Sometimes, you just get lucky.
Sometimes, you can just sit back and watch your opponents do all the hard PR yards for you.
If you are a Jewish reader of this blog, please imagine that you are an average Aussie (ie a non-Jew without any interest in the whole Israel/Palestine imbroglio).
Now imagine yourself, in front of your [...]