“Two Jews, three opinions,” is a cliché. It’s also a gross understatement.
The ease with which a blog can be set up combined with my people’s natural tendency to debate anything, means that there is now a cornucopia of Jewish Australian opinion available online.
Left and right, centre and periphery, religious and secular, Zionist and anti-Zionist – [...]
Mar
15
2010
15
2010
Mar
4
2010
4
2010
Feb
28
2010
28
2010
Mossad and Our Passports
In the current debate surrounding the Australian passports used in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, there are two equally unsound positions.
Firstly, there’s the shrill (if exultant) Anti-Zionist response, that often tips over into outright racism. (see readers comments at the end of the stories)
On the other side, Jewish Australian leadership still hasn’t managed [...]
Dec
17
2009
17
2009
Dec
3
2009
3
2009
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 [...]
Sep
10
2009
10
2009
Sep
9
2009
9
2009
Sandilands, The Holocaust, and our Leaders’ Response:The Smart, The Stupid, and The Very, Very Ugly
Kyle Sandilands is the product of a commercial media environment that has abandoned even the pretence of caring about public decency. Only the threat of advertising dollar withdrawal seems to have any power to influence his management.
The appalling treatment on air of a teenage rape victim should have been indication enough that this was a [...]
Sep
6
2009
6
2009
AJN 1 – Transforming Trauma: Congratulations Nomi Blum
Nomi Blum has won the B’nai B’rith Bernard Lustig scholarship (AJN, page 12), which enabled her to take part in a Monash intensive course in South Africa and Rwanda to study apartheid and genocide.
In itself, winning this scholarship was a commendable achievement. What struck me as particularly interesting, was Blum’s personal path to this academic [...]
Aug
30
2009
30
2009
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 [...]
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 [...]
Homosexuality, Judaism, and Hypocrisy – by Rabbi Yaron Gottlieb
Gay.
This is a word that seems to unite religious people of all backgrounds around the world.
It also drives a knee jerk reaction, causing them to panic, babble incoherently, or simply pretend the word doesn’t exist.
I’ve been asked to explain the Orthodox Jewish response to homosexuality, and while I’m not going to panic or babble, I [...]