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JCCV takes next step in interfaith relationships building
MELBOURNE— Initiated by the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, the first ever meeting between Victoria's organised Jewish and Buddhist communities took place recently.
According to its president John Searle, the JCCV has adopted a more comprehensive and considered interfaith strategy.
"Following analysis of Census data which demonstrated a rapidly changing Victorian society, our executive director Geoffrey Zygier presented a plan to the JCCV Executive. Without neglecting its positive relationships with the Christian and Muslim communities, he proposed that the JCCV engage more with the growing faith groups which have emerged in Victoria. This meeting with the Buddhist Council of Victoria
followed a get-together with members of the Baha'i community in late July."
Office-bearers from the Buddhist Council of Victoria met with members of the JCCV executive for a casual meal at the Beth Weizmann community centre on the evening of 31 August
2009. Although formalities were kept to a minimum, brief and informative presentations were made on Jewish and Buddhist teachings by Moorabbin Hebrew Congregation's Rabbi Elisha
Greenbaum and The Venerable Phra Maka Boonsom
respectively. Questions and discussion followed.
"While our paths often cross at various functions and meetings, there is usually little opportunity for developing greater mutual understanding" said Searle. "Our focus was on getting to know each other better for two primary reasons. Firstly, this bridge-building exercise was a concrete example of the Jewish community's commitment to Victoria's culturally diverse society. Secondly, the Buddhist community is the largest non-Christian faith group in Australia and we see
potential for our communities to undertake joint activities in the future."
The JCCV also has a meeting scheduled with the Executive of the organised Hindu community in October.
MDA launches annual appeal
MELBOURNE —Magen David Adom (MDA) Victoria has launched its 2009 appeal with a gala dinner at the St Kilda Town Hall.
The function on the weekend was attended by more than 200 people, including members of Parliament.The appeal launch featured guest speakers including the president of MDA Israel, Professor Yehuda Skornick.
Prof Skornick, an oncological surgeon and head of surgery at the Sourasky Tel-Aviv Medical Centre, spoke of the work done by MDA's paramedics and the importance of the collaboration between MDA Victoria and MDA Israel.
Echoing these sentiments, master of ceremonies and deputy dean of Monash University's faculty of medicine, nursing and health sciences, Professor Leon Piterman spoke of the valuable work done by MDA.
Cardiology registrar at the Alfred Hospital Dr Dion Stub gave a humorous address, urging guests to donate to the cause which was followed by closing remarks by Federal MP Michael Danby.
With an appeal target of $150,000, MDA hope to refurbish the medical emergency station in Ramat Gan and purchase urgent medical supplies.
Serving an area of some 400,000 people, the Ramat Gan station encompasses a paramedic training school, training both MDA personnel and Israel Defence Force soldiers, as well as a blood
donation centre, ambulance base and medical library.
More kosher food choices
MELBOURNE- As one of Melbourne's kosher cafes closes, another opens.Brothers Daniel and Eli Grosberg have opened Daneli's Deli on Carlisle Street, next door to Glick's Bakery
Specialising in American deli-style food, the cafe is fleishig, open six days a week, and on Saturday night from an hour after Shabbat ends."We lived in New York for a few years and
ate at many of the delis there, and we thought it was something that Melbourne really needed," Eli Grosberg told The AJN. "We enjoyed it so much we wanted to bring it here."
The menu at Daneli's includes southern chicken wraps, buffalo wings and pastrami egg rolls, salads and soups.
More substantial meals are also on offer, such as burgers and hot dogs "from the grill", as are deli sandwiches including a kosher version of the famous Reuben. The cafe is under the certification of Kosher Australia.
Meanwhile, Sabra Israeli Cafe, which was located further down Carlisle Street, closed its doors last week, with the owner moving back to Israel.
Melbourne's kosher scene has grown in recent months with the Israeli-style fleishig Laffa Bar and milchig Shemesh Pizza both opening their doors, on Hawthorn and Glenhuntly roads respectively.
New editor for Jewish newspaper
MELBOURNE - The Australian Jewish News (AJN) has appointed a new national editor. Zeddy Lawrence, the current editorial director of The Jewish News in the United Kingdom, is
expected to take up the post later this year.
Based in Melbourne, Lawrence will bring plenty of experience to the role, having previously worked in print, online, television and radio.
"We're thrilled to announce Zeddy's appointment," AJN publisher Robert Magid said. "Zeddy's experience working closely with the local Jewish community in England, combined with his knowledge of Israel, will see The AJN go from strength to strength."
Lawrence, 39, has held the top job at The Jewish News in the UK for four years. After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics, he began his media career in television as a script writer.
He moved in to radio, where he worked for Mercury FM and News Direct 97.3 FM.
Lawrence is also the brother of Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, chief minister of Sydney's The Great Synagogue.
Precious material
returned to the ground
BENDIGO— When the gold rush hit Victoria in the 1850's The Victoria country town of Bendigo, some 120kms from
Melbourne was the centre of one of the richest goldfields ever discovered, with vast quantities of gold extracted from the earth.
Now some 150 years later, something precious has been returned to the earth, when last week Temple Beth Israel's Rabbi Fred Morgan buried books and sacred texts near Bedigo. Organised by the Victorian Union of Progressive Judaism (VUPJ) and officiated by Rabbi Morgan, the event saw
siddurim, haggadot and other books containing G-d's name and words of the torah buried, as it is against Jewish law to otherwise dispose of G-d's name.
The burial was a joint event between Temple Beth Israel and Bendigo's Progressive congergation Kehilat Sdot Zahav and was followed by a casual picnic lunch where VUJP members met and socialised.
A zaide remembers
the outbreak of war
SYDNEY - Grandfather Jack (Yitzchak) Sukiennik, 81, has vivid memories of the first days of September 70 years ago -- a
time that changed his life forever.
On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and when a British ultimatum to withdraw went unheeded, Great Britain and its empire declared war on Germany on September 3.
Mr Sukiennik, then 11, remembers the terror that beset Grabowiec, the Polish shtetl where he lived with his parents and five siblings.
"People started to run, coming in from other villages. There was a big panic," he said this week from his Sydney home.
From the west came news of the German land invasion and air raids, although Grabowiec was not bombed. To the east, the Soviet Union invaded on September 17. Ten days later, Warsaw fell to the Nazis.
"In between were the Poles. I saw some of the Poles throwing away their rifles and running," he said.
"I remember the Russians coming, and they stayed for around two weeks. Later they retreated back across the River Bug, which became the border between the Soviet and the German zones."
Mr Sukiennik's father Nachum, a tailor, decided the family had to flee in the direction of the Russians. He bought a horse and droshky and piled in some possessions.
"He put us six kids and my mother Malka into the cart and he closed up the house. He took his Singer sewing machine. My cousin Zlata, who was 17 or 18 years old, was running after us, wanting to come with us, but her parents wouldn't let her
go because she was an only child. Everyone in our family who stayed behind, they all perished."
In 1942, the Nazis transported around 1400 Jews from Grabowiec to the Sobibor death camp, said Mr Sukiennik. "Everyone went to the ovens."
For the Sukienniks, a fateful journey across the Bug, skirting Soviet troops, took the family into the Russian zone.
"The Russians put us in a hostel and registered us. We stayed there a few weeks and they asked us if we wanted to go on to Russia or back into Germany. Those who registered to go back were sent straight to Siberia.
"My father was very clever and said he wanted to work in the mines at Dombas, so they allowed us to come in, and we settled in Russia, in a city called Furmanov."
Nachum and his older sons were taken to the labour camps, but later, when the Soviets raised a Polish army in exile, they drafted him, and sent him to the front, where he died in combat against the Germans in 1944.
Mr Sukiennik still has a copy of the Polish records he was able to obtain, noting his father's death in combat.
After the war, Mr Sukiennik travelled back to Poland, but the family feared returning to Grabowiec, which was near Kielce. A pogrom had broken out there against the remaining Jewish population in 1946.
"A cousin of ours was killed in a little town near Grabowiec after the war, when Poles threw a grenade through her first-floor window," he said.
After a period in Israel, Mr Sukiennik, by then married, was able to join his wife Karoline's family in Australia in 1959. He became a fitter and turner in Sydney, and the couple today still
lives in the North Bondi house that became a haven for the family in their new country.
"Australia is one of the best countries in the world. If a person has their health and can work, they are free to do anything they want with their life."
Mr Sukiennik's daughter Ruth Jacobs visited Poland earlier this year to see where her family came from.
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On a visit to Europe a few years ago, Mr Sukiennik returned to Grabowiec. He also visited his father's gravesite near Warsaw. "I stayed only a very short time in Grabowiec. It was very emotional. I looked around, and then I moved on."
A possible shortage
of Jewish educators
SYDNEY -A string of non-Jewish appointments to head Sydney's leading Jewish schools has led to suggestions there is a dearth of Jewish educators in Australia ready to seize top posts.
Some school boards have argued their priority is finding the best person for the job, "regardless of religious affiliation".
This was the case when Sydney's Emanuel School announced plans last month to replace outgoing principal Dr Bruce Carter, who is not Jewish, with another non-Jewish principal.
Moriah College also opted for the same route when it hired principal/CEO Kim Fillingham last December, despite some parents' concerns that a non-Jewish head would struggle to push the school's "modern Jewish ethos."
All nine Jewish schools in Melbourne are headed by Jewish principals, although a number of them have been brought here from abroad to take up their posts.
A number of leading Jewish educators say the growing trend to hire outside the community is part of deeper problem plaguing Australia's Jewish education system - with only a handful of
Jews making a career in education, leading to a shortage of candidates vying for upper management positions.
"What Jewish mother has a dream of her son becoming the principal of a day school? Unfortunately, it's still true that education is not the chosen profession of the vast majority of
Jewish children, boys or girls," said Peta Jones Pellach, director of adult education at Sydney's Shalom Institute. "Jewish students are encouraged to aim for something that will be lucrative."
Reflecting on the latest appointments, she added, some Jewish schools have redefined the principal's role over the years, moving away from the traditional model of headmaster as "symbolic" leader, in favour of someone who is more of a business administrator.
As a result, it has become less of a priority to hire someone of the Jewish faith.
"Essentially, a principal needs to be an effective manager who will support the ethos of the school, but who won't necessarily have to live it," said Pellach.
Paul Forgasz, former headmaster at Melbourne's Mount Scopus Memorial College, now a Jewish history lecturer at Monash University, said he agreed there was a shortage of Jewish candidates for leadership roles.
He said he suspects most school boards would prefer to appoint Jewish heads, but not at the risk of sacrificing quality.
"Appointing the best person for the position hasto be the priority," said Forgasz. "The question of a candidate's Jewishness is only one of many factors that needs to be considered. I'd be worried if a Jewish candidate were appointed to a principal position on the basis of close enough being good enough."
Emanuel president Jonathan Sesel said securing the most qualified person for the job, regardless of religious affiliation, had always been the school's main consideration when it set out on its quest to appoint a successor.
But he stressed the key to such an arrangement was securing a Jewish deputy principal to manage the school's Jewish life, effectively giving the school the "best of both worlds".
He added the board considered a large field of applicants for the post, but declined to say what percentage of those were Jewish.
He denies, however, there is a shortage of skilled Jewish candidates "relative to the population."
"There are many excellent senior Jewish teachers. [But] if you don't have a pre-requisite for the person to be of the Jewish faith, then the statistical chances of a Jewish person getting
the job is [significantly less]," he said.
Regardless, Pellach believes the community should be providing more incentives to attract Jewish students to careers in education.
"If we want to have the next principal at Moriah or Emanuel to be a Jewish principal, then we should already be looking at a couple of candidates right now and taking those students
who would just be finishing school and giving them every incentive," she said. "It's a huge investment and it involves looking forward."
Passing the buck on racist graffiti
MELBOURNE - A suburban house covered in racist graffiti has had a local resident deeply offended and frustrated because the local council and a local politician have been dragging their feet in getting it cleaned up.
Graffiti, including the slogan "white power," swastikas and hate messages against Indians, was scrawled over almost all the outside of the dilapidated house -- some of it reportedly smeared on the fibro walls in blood.
The local resident, who is not Jewish and asked that his name be withheld, alerted the Banyule Council and his local MP -- Victorian Government Whip Craig Langdon -- about the hate messages, but his pleas for rapid removal seemed to fall on deaf ears.
"No-one needs to see that," the resident said. "We're almost in 2010, not 1910."
Writing to Banyule Mayor Tom Melican on August 30, he stated: "We as a multicultural society, in my opinion, have a moral responsibility to protect our community from such insulting prejudice."
But the resident said a council officer replied to his email, suggesting that as the graffiti was on private property, its removal "may be a police issue".
A council spokesperson said this week the council had contacted the owner and the scrawls had been removed on September 4. The spokesperson said offensive graffiti is a criminal offence
prohibited under the Graffiti Prevention Act 2007.
The resident said Langdon, the Member for Ivanhoe, replied to an August 23 email he sent him, promising to "investigate this matter and get back to you in due course."
When the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) heard of the incident, it contacted Banyule Council and police to speed up the removal of the material.
ADC information officer Deborah Stone said that public messages that constitute racial vilification are a police matter, but that as the house appeared unoccupied, there were
expectations on the local council to remove the graffiti.
"When material like this is left around, people get used to it, and they fail to realise how distressing it is for those who are abused.
There's also a tendency for copycat crimes."
Meanwhile, homes, vehicles and stores in several Footscray ( a western Melbourne suburb) streets were reportedly daubed with anti-Semitic, anti-Indian and anti-gay slogans on September 5.
End of the road for the
season for AJAX team
MELBOURNE
- The AJAX Under-19 Australian Rules Football team bowed out of the finals race after suffering a heavy defeat to Old Mentonians 12.6 (78) to 23.16 (154) in the preliminary final on Sunday September 6.
After a solid first half where AJAX went into the long break three points up, the team was overrun by the fast-finishing Old Mentonians who kicked 16 goals to AJAX's three.
Jake Lew starred up forward with six goals and Adam Caplan scored three goals. Josh Ludksi battled hard in the midfield, and Michael Shafar and Joel Gocs were solid in defence.
The first quarter was full of strong tackles and lots of contests around the ground. Captain Ashley Kalb took advantage of a stoppage clearance and kicked the first goal of the game from 40 metres.
Lew kicked the next two goals, but the Jackas lost momentum as Old Mentonians slotted two in a row to reduce the margin.
In the second quarter it was goal for goal as Lew kicked one early for the Jackas, and then David Selzer won a free kick in the goal square. The Jackas got their hands on the footy first and scored another two goals through Josh Mendies and Caplan.
However, similar to the first quarter, Old Mentonians regained the momentum and kicked several goals, including one after the siren.
After half-time, Old Mentonians piled on the pressure and kicked nine unanswered goals to the Jackas' two points to lead by 53 points.
The Old Mentonians continued their scoring spree in the last quarter, kicking seven goals to the Jackas' three goals. Lew kicked two goals to take his match tally to six, and Caplan unloaded a massive torpedo from outside the 50-metre mark to convert.
The Under-19 team finished second after the home-and-away series, but lost its two finals matches to end its season at the Trevor Barker Oval, Sandringham, on Sunday.
Uncertain road ahead
for Sydney Hakoah Club
SYDNEY- The future of the Hakoah Club remains unclear following an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the White City Tennis Club in Paddington.
Hakoah president Phil Filler refused to comment on speculation the club would close the doors of its premises in Hall Street, Bondi in November while it continues to search for a home elsewhere in the eastern suburbs.
"It wouldn't be fair to say anything at the moment," he said. "If there was anything major to announce, we'd call an extraordinary meeting of our members to break the news."
Filler did confirm that some Hakoah staff had been retrenched earlier this year as the club prepared to move in a new direction.
"It was the same attrition as you would find in any business and the people we let go weren't going to be required even if the White City deal had gone ahead," he said.
The deal to purchase White City failed last month after the NSW Appeal Court ruled against tennis great John Alexander in a dispute with the White City Tennis Club over who owned the historic club.
The AJN understands that had the court ruled in favour of Alexander, he in turn would have sold the property to Hakoah for more than $12 million.
Hakoah is reportedly losing money every week and eating into the $18 million windfall it received after selling the property to the Toga Group in July 2007.
"We were on the verge of something wonderful, but
it fell over because of events out of our control," Filler said.
"So now we're back looking at other options in and around the Eastern Suburbs and when we have some news, we'll be making an announcement."
Meanwhile, the Wentworth Courier is reporting that the Toga Group and Waverley Council are in dispute over plans for the redevelopment of the site after Toga attempted to bypass the council and deal directly with the state Government.
Wishing all readers of San Diego Jewish World a
Le-Shana Tovah , well over the fast and a healthy, happy and peaceful Year in 5770
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