Yun Qi Chen is the President, Immediate Past President, and Probably Future President of The Definitive Leaders of Australian Jewry (D-LAJ). [1]
He prefers to be known as, “The Pres” in order to appeal to Gen X/Y Jews.
While he applauds the seriousness with which thinkers such as Melbourne University’s Dvir Abramovich, approach the problem of how [...]
Nov
10
2009
10
2009
Yun Qi Chen’s Ultimate Solution
Aug
30
2009
30
2009
Aug
27
2009
27
2009
In The AJN – The Community Survey; a Question; and Coming Next
Community Survey
Headed by Andrew Markus, the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation at Monash has recently completed a 45 page study on patterns in Australia’s Jewish community.
This week, The AJN published some of the results, and this post will examine some of the more interesting findings:
1) Religious affiliation – As expected, Orthodox Jews are in the [...]
Aug
25
2009
25
2009
Part Five – Axis of Honour: Dislocation, Family, and Terror
You probably remember the refrain, during the Bush years, that the Islamists objected to our freedoms and our way of life – that this is why America was attacked on September 11.
This is not exactly in the realms of profound analysis, and belonged with Bush’s ill advised response soon after the attacks, that America was [...]
Aug
14
2009
14
2009
In The AJN – The Holocaust: No Laughing!
I remember the story of two Jewish girls in their early 20s.
They were a bit tipsy on a weeknight when they arrived at one of the girls’ family home. The young ladies didn’t want to scandalise the parents, so they tried to compose themselves before entering.
“Stop laughing,” the girl whose house it was – let’s [...]
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 [...]
Jun
2
2009
2
2009
Zionism on Campus: a New Approach
There is no more fertile ground than the Western campus for all manner of anti-Zionist activity. How such activity can be countered is an important question, not only because Israel and Zionists are misrepresented, but because often, people come to university without eve having known or cared about Israel or Jews, and their formative experiences [...]
May
24
2009
24
2009
The New Week: Ideas from SJ Readers 2 – Jewish Priorities, the Media, Jewish Schools, and our Leadership
While we strongly agree with Yoram on this, we do not agree with his extrapolation that we should not focus too much on the media, or get caught up in its “glamour.” Yoram believes that we are not in any danger of an imminent “pogrom,” and with this we would also agree.
…That does not mean that relations between our community and the Muslim community have not deteriorated considerably. There are many unpleasant actions and events that can take place before large scale violence occurs. It’s also important to remember that communal violence of any stripe never erupts without a long lead-up of perceived insults to honour. One of the hopes of The Sensible Jew is to catch the destructive tendencies of our leadership before any lasting and long term damage is done. Indeed, danger is not imminent, so we are blessed in that we have this opportunity, during a time of peaceful relations with other communities, to build networks and on-the-ground relationships that will prevent a slide into inter-communal animus.
Dvir Abramovich in The Age: No Laughing!
Although Dvir Abramovich’s opinion column in today’s Sunday Age grossly misstates facts and makes various bizarre assertions, I would still like to thank him for the free publicity he has so generously given this blog, through his opinion piece.
Nevertheless, it is only right that [...]