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Community Security Group
ready for a busy Yomtov
MELBOURNE— The Community Security Group (CSG) considers the High Holy Days its busiest time of the year, according to executive director Amit Bar Giora.
Rosh Hashanah and the other yom tovs see synagogues packed, but Bar Giora says the CSG is readier than ever, with more enthusiastic volunteers trained to protect the community.
"This is the time when all of the CSG's resources and all our volunteers' time is devoted to doing the best we can to protect our community," he said.
CSG will be at more synagogues for more hours this year, providing peace of mind to community members as they pray.
Cooperation with Victoria Police has also begun in earnest in preparation for this year's holiday period.
"The community will definitely see us this year," Bar Giora said.
And from shulgoers, Bar Giora has a request.
"This is also a time when the community needs to be more vigilant and report anything suspicious they see to CSG. All reports are followed up," he said.
Speaking last week, Bar Giora said the CSG is in a strong position and praised the level of volunteerism in the community.
"If I look at the past two years, the number [of volunteers] is growing at a rapid rate," he said.
"We have a capability today to better cover all the venues in the community that we want to cover. And it is not only volunteers, we have also added more experienced staff to our organisation."
With nine Jewish schools in Melbourne, a large community centre and plenty of other buildings, the CSG certainly has its work cut out for it protecting the community from attack.
And it comes at a cost, Bar Giora said.
The level of security we provide is strongly influenced by the contributions of community members," he said.
"The CSG's resources are constantly expanding to keep up with the security needs of the community."
Round Challas for
festive celebrations
MELBOURNE - Baker Mark Lichtenstein kept busy preparing round challahs for Rosh Hashanah.
Round challahs are symbolic of the cycle of the year and are eaten from Rosh Hashanah until Simchat Torah.
Located on Carlisle Street in Balaclava, Lichtenstein has tripled his production of challahs for Rosh Hashanah compared to a regular Shabbat.
Based on his sales over the past seven Rosh Hashanahs, Lichetenstein said the sweetness of his sultana challah makes it one of the most popular choices for the holiday.
In addition to the plain and sultana challahs, Lichtenstein's also bake wheat-free, spelt, dark rye and wholemeal challahs, as well as a water challah, which is free of egg and sugar.
New Rabbinical presence in town
MELBOURNE_- - Blake Street Hebrew Congregation (BSHC) has appointed Rabbi Ian Goodhardt as its new rabbi, with members ratifying the decision at the annual general meeting Sunday, Sept. 13.
The appointment ends more than a year without a permanent rabbi, after the shul terminated its arrangements with Rabbi Yirmi Garfunkel, a move that caused turmoil within the 560-strong Caulfield-based congregation.
Rabbi Goodhardt, who had been BSHC's interim rabbi throughout 2009, "emerged as the successful candidate after a comprehensive process that began in Melbourne almost one year ago, becoming a national, then international search", said
outgoing shul president Andrew Davis.
BSHC hosted four rabbinical candidates this year for a week of activities, including a communal question-and-answer session and shiurim, with Rabbi Goodhardt emerging as the choice of a review committee.
"We are delighted to welcome Rabbi Ian Goodhardt to Blake Street to be our spiritual leader," said Davis, a sentiment echoed by newly elected president Eugene Berkovic.
Rabbi Goodhardt said he was looking forward to joining BSHC, "a community that is united and strong and has a very bright future".
The rabbi gained his s'micha from Jews' College, London now known as the London School of Jewish Studies and has served congregations in Leeds and Reading in the UK, as well as Melbourne Hebrew Congregation.
He is an experienced mediator, and has been working for the federal Government-funded Family Mediation Centre, as well as running a small private practice. He is married to Sharon and has five sons.
BSHC's former rabbi, Rabbi Garfunkel, who had served the shul for 11 years, was dismissed in August last year after refusing an offer from the board to resign.
The board said at the time it had plans to make BSHC more attractive to members in terms of youth programs, education and fundraising.
Seven disgruntled supporters of Rabbi Garfunkel vowed to stand for election at the 2008 AGM, but later dropped their plans when they realised they would not have the representation they needed to rescue the rabbi's job. Threats to start a breakaway shul failed to materialise.
Rosh Hashanah messages from Australian political leaders
CANBERRA—Following are messages for Rosh Hashanah from various Australian political leaders:
Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia— It gives me very great pleasure to send my best wishes to the Australian Jewish community, and to all the readers and staff of The Australian
Jewish News during the celebration of Rosh Hashanah.
This celebration provides an opportunity to gather with family and friends to reflect on the past and prepare for the future. At this important time in the Jewish calendar, the wider
Australian community joins with the Jewish community in celebration.
I hope the year ahead is a good year for the Jewish Community.
Malcolm Turnbull,Leader of the Opposition
It gives me great pleasure to wish the Australian Jewish community a happy and prosperous new year and well over the fast.
Rosh Hashanah is a time of thanksgiving, reflection, celebration and recognition of the value of family and friends. It is a time to reflect on past actions, to make commitments to
achievements in the year ahead, and to demonstrate a renewed commitment to faith.
May the promise of the new year be bright with hope and filled with peace and security for Israel.
Australian Jewish Community concern about UN report
MELBOURNE - Local response by the Australian Jewish community to the United Nations report into the Gaza war has been quiet, with community leaders taking time to mull over its implications.
The report, released on Tuesday morning by South African legal expert Justice Richard Goldstone, found evidence of war crimes from both the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hamas.
Among the findings, were that Israel was engaged in "wilful killings and wilfully causing great suffering to protected persons" during the conflict in December and January.
It also said Hamas' rocket attacks on southern Israel involved "the application of disproportionate force and the causing of great damage and destruction to civilian property and
infrastructure, and suffering to civilian populations".
Philip Chester, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said on Wednesday morning that it was too soon to have a clear understanding of the implications of the report.
"I'm very cautious about assessing this report until I see an official Israel government response," he said. "I take this all with a very large grain of salt."
While Israel's Ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem had not yet prepared a public comment on the UN report, the embassy distributed the official Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs response.
"The report effectively ignores Israel's right to self-defence, makes unsubstantiated claims about its intent, and challenges Israel's democratic values and the rules of law," the Foreign Minister's spokesman's office said.
But Australian National University international law expert Professor Don Rothwell warned against dismissing the inquiry's report.
"If an inquiry of this type had been undertaken by someone who might have been seen as a political partisan, or someone of a political nature as opposed to someone of a legal nature,
then clearly there would be a capacity to dismiss the report," Prof Rothwell said.
"I think in this instance, the composition of the inquiry team and the eminence of the people involved make it more difficult to dismiss than might otherwise be the case with this type of inquiry."
Further delay in hearing
Rabbi's case
ADELAIDE - A case involving criminal charges against Adelaide's Rabbi Yossi Engel and his wife Rebbetzin Chana Engel has been adjourned to October 28.
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In a brief appearance at Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday, lawyer Ron Bellman sought an adjournment for the Engels, who were not present in court.
He said the rabbi's legal counsel had not had sufficient opportunity to view key documents in the prosecution's case against him.
Magistrate Grantley Harris accepted Bellman's application for more time to review the prosecution's documents on behalf of the Engels, and adjourned the case until October 28.
In what is almost certainly the first time an Australian rabbi has faced criminal charges, Rabbi Engel faces 39 counts of dishonestly dealing with documents, as set out in South Australia's crime statutes.
Rebbetzin Engel was jointly charged on the same number of counts. No pleas have been entered by either of the defendants.
Rabbi Engel was the Adelaide Hebrew Congregation's rabbi from 1998 until 2006.
Tougher hate crimes legislation introduced in parliament
MELBOURNE- Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls has introduced the Sentencing Amendment Bill into the Victorian Parliament.
If it passes, Victorian judges will be required to take hate motivations into consideration when sentencing offenders.
The Bill implements the Sentencing Advisory Council's recommendations on crimes motivated by hatred, including anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice.
"Our courts must have regard as to whether offences are motivated by hate for, or prejudice against, a particular group of people with common characteristics," Hull said.
"That is why our Government is providing leadership to build respect in our society."
Member for Southern Metro-politan Region Jennifer Huppert welcomed the Bill's introduction.
"The Government has consulted with the Jewish and other community groups, and concerned individuals in the process of developing this legislation, which will act as a deterrent to potential offenders and result in a safer environment for our community," she said.
The Bill was introduced in response to community concern about assaults on Indian students and people of other ethnic or religious backgrounds, including Jewish people.
One step too far
for fatherly support
MELBOURNE - Retired plastic surgeon Leo Rozner revealed that he was "still in shock" following death threats from Michael Abay, the father of Jewish aspiring Formula One (F1) racing car driver Sam Abay.
Michael was sentenced to three years jail this week for threatening to kill and trying to extort $100,000 from Mr Rozner and Harvey Bierman, both members of Melbourne's Jewish community.
"We were absolutely harassed," Mr Rozner said. "It was so bad. I'm still in shock that I was a target. I wasn't so scared for myself, but my children. We were all threatened."
In August last year, Michael left a typed note in the letterbox of Mr Rozner's home asking: "How much is your life worth? How much is the life of one of your children worth? To us, $50,000." The note was followed by months of harassing phone calls and more letters.
Mr Rozner said Michael, who he had never met, tried to make out he was an Islamic extremist in the letter.
"He said it all in the opening statement of his letter: 'How much is your, or your children's life worth?'. Then it went on to garbage and all sorts of rabble. He tried to make it out like it
was a [member of the] Muslim Brotherhood, [writing] 'Allah be praised' and all that sort of stuff."
The letter instructed Mr Rozner to take out an advertisement in The Herald Sun classifieds stating he was looking for a Mercedes CLK and was willing to pay $50,000 for it.
Mr Rozner immediately took the letter to the police.
Michael, 61, also tried to extort $50,000 from Bierman, making harassing phone calls and delivering several letters to his Toorak residence.
In sentencing on Friday last week, Judge Joe Gullaci called Michael's crimes "serious, reprehensible" and "well-planned".
Michael pleaded guilty and will spend nine months in jail, after the judge ordered 27 months of his sentence be suspended.
A psychiatrist reportedly found that chronic depression and alcohol dependency meant Michael's ability to exercise consistent judgement was impaired at the time he committed the crimes.
Known as the most expensive sport in the world, F1 aspirants need huge financial backing to progress -- money the Abays did not have.
While trying to keep his son's dream of becoming a F1 driver alive, Michael lost his business and his marriage broke down.
Sam rose quickly through the motor racing ranks, and in 2008 was racing British Formula 3, a breeding ground for F1 drivers.
Reflecting what could have been
in Hakoah soccer this season
SYDNEY - Hakoah coach Andrew Prentice does not know if he will be re-signed by the club after his side finished its 2009
campaign in 11th spot in Football NSW's 16-team State League Second Division.
It was one of the side's most disappointing seasons in recent memory.
The team faced a 10-game schedule over the final month of the season to try and salvage a top-five spot, but that hurdle proved far too daunting, with some players suggesting the side showed a "lack of passion" as the season faded.
The season was punctuated by Maccabiah football and futsal commitments and bad weather. By the time the fixture backlog was to be caught up, the depleted squad could not cope.
"It's hard to look back on this season with a great deal of joy, but that's compared to last season when we only lost three games and played some fantastic football," head coach Prentice reflected.
"This year, we played really good football, but only in passages . I don't think we performed to our potential. You can't make excuses, when it's all said and done, we only kept three clean sheets in 22; compared to seven in 18 last year
and therein lay our major problem."
Co-captain Adam Dinte lamented the side's slow start to the season, where the team knew they had to win to stay ahead of the pack post-Maccabiah.
"We let ourselves down at the beginning of the season . once we put ourselves behind the eight-ball, we were always chasing," he said.
"Then we were playing good football but results weren't coming our way and that's football. We were always playing catch-up."
Both captain and coach have been around the club for a long time. Was it the most disappointing year they can remember? "It probably was, to be honest," Dinte assessed.
"We've had a lot of success and set the bar pretty high. We expect to be one of the top teams. So it's definitely disappointing."
Prentice's biggest disappointment was that the side failed to build on last year. On a positive note, the club unearthed Jarred Rudman, Eli Port, Andy Kanchik and under-18s striker Daniel Toblib as genuine first-grade options.
Prentice praised Jordan Mundell, Gareth Martin, Jon Pillemer and Adam and Daniel Joseph for their work ethic over the daunting last month fixture list, but felt let down by some others in the squad who "left their team mates in the lurch and you just can't do that".
Mundell was the side's standout this season, but was also concerned by the "lack of passion" in the squad, despite having the foundations of a "great pre-season."
"A lack of passion, coupled with the interruption of Maccabiah caused a mid-season collapse," he said.
"After we returned from Israel . the team obviously wasn't happy with all the mid-week games and lost interest. This was apparent with the bad results that followed, which only led to a greater lack of passion."
Striker Doron Pozniak added that there was an "overall lack of intensity and loss of passion, which caused a rift in the team, which resulted in no one really caring as much as in other seasons."
Prentice's challenge is to galvanise the squad for next season -- if he is still at the club.
"I, as a coach, didn't succeed with the squad of players I had this year, so I'm not counting on the fact that they want me next year," Prentice said.
"Early indications are that they want me to stay on. If they don't, I can accept that the results aren't there."
Club president Jon Pillemer is overseas at the moment, but vice-president Mike Evans said: "This year is no different to any other year. The season is barely finished. We'll go over
everything that goes on throughout the club when we review the season."
Regardless of his future, Prentice has plenty of suggestions for Hakoah moving forward. The club has always maintained it wants promotion to Division One, especially with rumours of Football NSW streamlining Division Two, but Prentice says the time for rhetoric is over.
Unless the club reviews facilities, player recruitment and retention, pre-season training, alignment with youth development league and playing standards, he said the club will stay at the same level.
"It's an untapped gold field. I can't believe the potential that exists in this club, but there has to be a commitment to the cause."
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The Jews Down Under 