Welcome, everybody, to the new Sensible Jew site*.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve met with many groups and individuals, spoken to even more over the phone or via email, and one thing is becoming increasingly obvious:
I’m not the only person concerned with our community’s current direction.
But it’s one thing to be perpetually peeved, and [...]
Nov
8
2009
8
2009
Melbourne Jews Gone Wild – Quietly: Rumspringa 2
Oct
5
2009
5
2009
The New Direction
Not long after this blog began in May, a phenomenon emerged: some of the more interesting developments began to take place either via email, or offline altogether.
After having lived away from the community – both in Australia and overseas – for ten years, I began reconnecting with Jews from the various sub-communities, and from different generations.
This was both a refresher course (some things hadn’t changed) and a steep learning curve, as I navigated through the labyrinthine arcana of communal politics and caught up on developments among the younger generations.
Since returning from the hiatus and outing myself in early August, blog-related activity offline has become even more frenetic. Being “out” has given me the opportunity to meet numerous people, and some of the more inspiring and exciting developments seem to be coming from Generations X and Y.
Oct
5
2009
5
2009
A Brief History of The Sensible Jew
This piece was originally published in The AJN in September.
In February, I received an email that had gone viral in Melbourne’s Jewish community. It claimed that owners of a Caulfield-area restaurant were anti-Semites and urged readers to boycott it. On the one hand, something in the email’s tone aroused my suspicion. On the other, I [...]
Sep
29
2009
29
2009
In The New Year 2: Thoughts After Yom Kippur
One of my grandparents never set foot in a concentration camp.
All four went through the Holocaust and all four lost most of the people they ever knew; but one – my paternal grandmother – managed to spend the war in Poland without being captured by the Nazis.
All such stories are intricate, complicated tales of foresight, [...]
Jun
15
2009
15
2009
Jun
3
2009
3
2009
Dani Klein of StandWithUs and The SJ in Dialogue
We’d like to thank Dani Klein of StandWithUs for writing in our comments section. His uninterrupted comment can be read here.
Mr Klein writes:
“My name is Dani Klein, and I am the North American Campus Director for StandWithUs (working with campuses in the USA & Canada). I have had the pleasure of working with Michelle Rojas [...]
May
26
2009
26
2009
An Email to our Leadership
We have just sent an email requesting comments from the leaders of some of our key institutions. These include, AIJAC, the ZFA, ECAJ, AUJS, Maccabi, and the JCCV. Below is a copy of the email that we sent.
“The Sensible Jew is a web log devoted to discussion of matters pertaining to the leadership and representation [...]
May
21
2009
21
2009
May
19
2009
19
2009
May
12
2009
12
2009
8 minutes of terror
The thing is, it’s so bad it’s funny.
And anyone who doesn’t already have a problem with Jews can see it. Anyone who does have a problem with Jews is not going to hear our venerable leader, Jeremy Jones of the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, and think, “Gee… I’ve been wrong about you people all along!”
We’re talking about a an 8 minute play. It’s just another one of those cultural expressions of the evils of Israel (but not Jews – some of their best friends are Jews).
Some lady named, Caryl Churchill wrote it. Who? Let’s just say that if our resplendent leader, Mr. Jones had not screamed, “FIRE” yet again in the crowded theatre of multicultural discourse, we would never have heard of Caryl Churchill, and neither would you…
Talking Tachles 2: In Defence of the Right to Responsive Representation and Transparency
In the first post in this series, we asked a number of questions regarding representation, legitimacy and transparency. Some of the responses touched on themes such as apathy and whether there is indeed any “right” to representation at all.
Firstly, a straw man has been created in the suggestion that we are somehow disciples of Joseph [...]