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 TV, watching a bunch of screeching, semi-violent, placard wielding, and very, very shrill people – between 100 and 200 of them, according to various media reports.
These angry folk have congregated in Melbourne to demonstrate in a way that does not strike you as very Australian. Actually, it reminds you of places depicted elsewhere on the news that make you thank God you live in a calm country, governed by the rule of law, and not by the vagaries of the mob. Continue reading Thanks Australians for Palestine 
→
Go to The Age online to read the article.
As many readers know, much Sensible Jew activity now happens off-line.
Right now, I’m waiting on the outcomes of some of these before writing the next post. Hopefully this will only take a day or two. If there’s a moment, I’ll write an interim post beforehand.
Thanks to all those who attended, and particular thanks to the wonderful folk at Auburn Road Centre, who made it clear to those of us who are not members, that we were in a place that honours Judaism, the life of the mind, and the individual.
And boy do they know how to put on a Kiddush!
At the Sex, Denial, Anarchy Forum -
The Anonymous Benefactor is solely responsible for SJ having its own site and beautiful new template. He also happens to be involved in a number of projects that leave me in awe at their potential to benefit Jews and non-Jews alike.
Alex.
Shlichut and the Sensible Jew
by The Anonymous Benefactor
I’ve been asking myself one question over the last year.
It can be a thorny question when asked in the context of a planet numbering 6,768,167,712 souls.
What is the purpose of my life?
Of course I might as well order a dish called triple stacked migraine with tooth ache garnish for all the fun that asking the question brings.
Even utilitarian philosophers conjured a two-tiered hierarchy to value their time (this being the only way they found to keep their spouses from exiting stage right). Which is a long winded way of saying I’m sympathetic and somewhat awed by the path Alex is taking.
Delivering a taser charge to the tuches of a complacent Jewish community is both eminently satisfying and has the side benefit of triggering a worthwhile series of conversations (both public and private) within and with the community. Continue reading Shlichut and the Sensible Jew →
It all seemed tedious enough.
Last night, a local environmental group – led by an angry teen and an angrier middle aged woman – managed to get a forum together.
The by-election for Peter Costello’s vacated seat of Higgins may well be a done deal for the Liberals.
Their candidate, Kelly O’Dwyer is delightfully fresh-faced and many other wonderful things that totally don’t matter in such a safe seat. The Liberals – and everyone else – are certain she’s in.
But in the wonderfully quixotic way of idealists, the angry teen, and angrier lady sought to bring as many of the by-election candidates together as possible in order to grill them (without use of fossil fuels, of course) about their Climate Change fighting credentials.
Really, it’s the sort of event that would normally send me straight to a used-car dealership to find the biggest, most gas-guzzling four-wheel-drive, and do doughnuts in the carpark of the church hall where the forum was being held.
Don’t get me wrong: I love mother earth… and I’d rather there weren’t some sort of carbon-induced apocalypse. The preponderance of evidence and scientific opinion had me at, “hello – now stop leaving lights on everywhere.”
It’s the fervent, messianic, unquestioning stridency that makes me want to run screaming.
But… last night was so very much more than Birkenstocks and self-satisfaction! Continue reading Sex, Denial, & Anarchy: or, How I Narrowly Avoided Joining One Nation →
Today’s morning session of the conference was something of a revelation.
One of the highlights of this conference was meeting a young woman who is part of the Muslim roof body.
Did you know the Muslim community has been having many similar debates to us regarding roof bodies and representation?
Did you know that they had their own political youth-quake (awful term, apologies) 8 years ago? That many of their leaders are now under 40, and at least two are women?
Did you know that they perceive our community as standing 100% united on all Jewish issues, and that they believe we are master media practitioners?
Did you know that our community’s beef with The Age is almost identical to the Muslim community perceptions of Herald Sun coverage of their faith and people?
I didn’t….
Many of us are aware of how much we can learn from how Christian pastoral care deals with youth issues. Many of us may not know just how much we might have to learn from the Muslim Australian experience of fracture, representation, and generational change in leadership. Continue reading Interfaith Conference 2: Answers… Some to Questions I Hadn’t Thought to Ask →
I hear the word, “Interfaith,” and I shudder a bit.
So do many of you from the various comments, emails, and Facebook messages I received after the last post.
Here is the general consensus from that correspondence: Interfaith is a pointless exercise that involves well-meaning types pretending their differences don’t exist, and basically doing not a whole lot beyond smiling and being a bit disingenuous.
Of course, things start to sound a bit more exciting when activities are referred to as “guerrilla interfaith adventures,” – but still, the organised form seems so dreary and ultimately a waste of time.
The thing is, the very organised interfaith adventure I attended today – a youth oriented joint event with Monash Political Science and UNESCO – was exactly the opposite of the nauseating glad-handing we’ve all read about in the Jewish News. Continue reading Interfaith: Time To Keep an Open Mind… Perhaps →
Oh Dvir! Now It’s Official
Dvir Abramovich was at it again.
Yet another piece about how Jews and the Holocaust don’t get the respect they deserve.
Yet more responses from puzzelled or angry non-Jews.
Yet another attempt by me to demonstrate to non-Jews that Jews who cry wolf regarding anti-Semitism are not representative of the community as a whole.
Even I’m bored…
Or I would be had Dvir not been elected recently as a Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) delegate to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
Now, he will not only be writing on our community’s behalf under the banner of his Melbourne University position (and isn’t Melbourne University’s history department even slightly alarmed by the prolific, vitriolic and often poorly researched nature of Dvir’s media appearances?).
Now Dvir’s a community representative.
Officially. Continue reading Oh Dvir! Now It’s Official →