THE JEWS DOWN UNDER
Australian children enlisted in battle against global warming
By Garry Fabian
 SYDNEY, Australia—Action against climate change starts with children - the future rulers of the planet.
This is the message Jewish businesswoman Natalie Isaacs has been sending to Jewish schools in Sydney in a bid to make every individual active in the global campaign to save civilisation from the effects of climate change.
"This issue needs action now and from everyone -from the top down and from the bottom up," she said. "You don't need to be a scientist to act onclimate change - you can just be a mum or a businesswomen or even a child."
Isaacs, who is the co-founder and CEO of Climate Coolers, a not-for-profit social enterprise led
by women, which focuses on cutting carbon dioxide pollution, has just launched a competition for
school children called The Eskies.
The competition, which is so far being run separately at the Emanuel School and Masada
College, is aimed at educating and engaging students and their parents on positive action to foster climate change.
"This climate competition for kids is about awakening them, getting them started and
empowering them on climate change," Isaacs explained.
The program involves a competition for a $1,200 prize by students on four climate themes,
including Climate through the lens, Art for Earth's sake, Letter to our leaders and Song for our future.
Climate Coolers is also running a kindergarten program that takes place over four weeks and
involves fun climate change awareness activities for children.
Isaacs moved to Sydney 17 years ago from Brisbane and launched the Natalie Group, a skin- and
body-care business. She said that, as a mother of four and a businesswoman, she felt compelled to
get involved in environmental issues.
"We were sitting around the table talking about how dire things are and not doing anything about
it. I realised that I had become one of the passive players on climate change and so I decided I wanted to be part of the solution.
"Having owned a women's business for 20 years, it was a natural thing for me to want to empower
women to act in their communities."
Isaacs was selected as one of 170 people by the Australian Conservation Foundation to become an
Al Gore ambassador on climate change. She participated in a three-day training course in
Melbourne where she was trained personally by Al Gore earlier this year.
The Eskies initiative is being supported by Maccabi and the Jewish National Fund (JNF). JNF
will be joining forces with Climate Coolers to reach Jewish students across the country with future initiatives.
Another rating system for political candidates:
how do their websites compare to each others'?
CANBERRA, Australia—As the election campaign gains momentum, the internet is one of the key ways for candidates to appeal to voters.
So how do the websites of the Jewish candidates - plus Wentworth MP Malcolm Turnbull - rate? Are
they well designed and do they provide up-to-date information?
Three experts in web design and marketing gave their rating on the websites of Michael Danby
(member for Melbourne Ports) and his Liberal challenger Adam Held; Malcolm Turnbull, the
member for Wentworth, and his Labor challenger George Newhouse; Mark Dreyfus, Labor candidate
for Isaacs (Victoria) and Sam Miszkowski, Labor candidate for the Queensland seat of Moncrieff.
Danby, Turnbull and Dreyfus have their own websites, while Newhouse and Miszkowski have
pages on the ALP website and Held has a page on the Liberal Party's website.
The managing director of leading web design company Gee Multimedia, Benjamin Goldhammer,
praised Turnbull's website as being "excellent" with clean and professional design, easy to
navigate and making good use of modern technologies.
"Overall it's a great modern effort that blends graphics and content into a friendly framework."
Goldhammer described Held's website as "a little old fashioned" with its use of elementary icons.
"From a design perspective, it's quite plain and boring, trying a bit too hard to be 'cool'. I
think the wrong colours have been used in the wrong places," he said.
Goldhammer was critical of Danby's website and found the poorly organised navigation and content
made using the site an "unpleasant" experience.
"Unfortunately, this website looks like it was designed by a matador. Too much red, it seems way
too angry! Overall, it's a pretty ugly site that the developers forgot to test thoroughly because
it yields some unsightly errors."
And Dreyfus' website also came in for some scathing criticism.
"This site does the job, but talk about making politics even more boring! The website is basic
html and has very poor design," said Goldhammer.
Victoria University marketing lecturer David Southwick was full of praise for Turnbull's website.
"This has been brilliantly designed to capture all markets from young to old. The videos and
advertisements are great, but the dog blog about the family pets wins it for me. I have not seen
this anywhere before and it is a great way to display the human side of politics," he said.
"The site has plenty of links and reasons to want to come back to it. It also looks like the
information is kept up to date and constantly changes."
Southwick, who tasted election campaigns first-hand when he stood as a Liberal candidate
in Melbourne Ports at the last election, said that Dreyfus had a "clever political website"
which was simply designed with clean messages.
"Is the website content up to date? It's hard to tell as no dates appear in the content," he said.
"Although it gets a message across there is nothing that would make me come back."
Southwick found Danby's website disappointing, considering that he is the sitting member for Melbourne Ports.
"Too much content has been squeezed into the front page and not all is up to date," he said.
"The videos of Michael's speeches in parliament are over a year old and the weekly news section is from May and June."
Southwick added: "If you want to read the readers' feedback, you need a magnifying glass."
For Newhouse and Miszkowski, Southwick said the Labor Party website was clean, easy to navigate
with a good mix of images, graphics and print.
"On Miszkowski's page, there doesn't seem to even be an email contact - is he serious?"
AJN new media manager Stephen Smorgon praised the design of Turnbull's website, commenting that he seems to have a team working constantly on the site to keep it fresh and current.
"It is easy to navigate, has the most recent stories and is packed with a lot of features. It provides transcripts of his speeches and videos of interviews," he said.
In contrast, Smorgon found Danby's website somewhat boring due to the lack of images.
"The first thing that I noticed about this site is its use of html. It is very template looking and very structured."
Smorgon said that the websites for Newhouse and Miszkowski are based on the same platform.
"I think that they work well and are easy enough to navigate. The Labor TV link at the top is
worth checking out. It contains all the videos from the campaigns and I found it interesting to
watch the ones I didn't see on TV."
While Smorgon found that the Liberal Party website has a fresh new web look, Held's page has
limited information and interactivity.
As for Dreyfus' website, Smorgon said he found the site very boring.
"It's a one-pager that gives Mark's views on various issues. There is hardly any interaction
in the site and it seems to link a lot to the Labor website."
Taking all our expert comments into account, Turnbull has the Rolls Royce of the websites with
excellent design and the news updated daily, while Danby's website is more conservative in design, yet still informative.
If you want to see a clip of Danby speaking in parliament on electoral reform, just follow the
link to YouTube. Someone has given it a five-star rating!
Newhouse's web page has a minimal amount of information, but suffers from containing
out-of-date material. In the first paragraph of his biography it states that he is currently the
mayor of Waverley Council, yet Newhouse resigned before the Federal Election was announced.
And on Sam Miszkowski's website there is no link to his catchy election jingle. You have to log on to ajn.com.au to hear it.
South African rabbi visits Queensland
BRISBANE, Australia— South-east Queensland's Progressive Jewish community recently hosted Rabbi Hillel Avidan, senior rabbi of the South African Union for Progressive Judaism.
Brisbane Progressive Jewish Congregation and Temple Shalom Gold Coast hosted Rabbi Avidan and
his wife Ruth during their visit.
The Avidans spent Friday night with the Brisbane congregation, before traveling south for a
Shabbat service and lunch on the Gold Coast.
Rabbi Avidan, who is the spiritual leader of the Durban Progressive Jewish Congregation, is in
Australia to attend the Union for Progressive Judaism Regional Conference in Hobart.
Israeli ambassador's comments may have been 'reason' for vandalism of Jewish cemetery
WELLINGTON, New Zealand—For the third time in as many years, Jewish graves in Wellington have been desecrated.
Vandals used vivid blue paint to horrifically deface six graves in Karori Cemetery with
anti-Semitic vitriol. "Hitler RIP", "Rot you filth" and "Juden swine" are just some of the
hate-filled phrases that were emblazoned in stencil and free-hand onto the graves of
Wellington Jewish community's loved ones.
The desecration was reported to Wellington Hebrew Congregation Chevra Kadisha on October 7. It
refrained from publicising the incident, for fear of prompting copycat incidents. And the following
day, the Wellington City Council's anti-graffiti response team removed almost all evidence of the attack.
But in a discussion several weeks later, the Wellington Regional Jewish Council overturned the
Chevra's decision and acknowledged the incident in the wider community. The vandalism is believed
to be clearly linked to a front-page article published in Wellington's Dominion Post two days prior to the incident.
The article was based on an interview with Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem where he said he
would like to employ a Maori in his Canberra office to improve relations and understanding.
Journalist Hank Schouten focused on this indiscretion and used the headline: "I need a
Maori." In the article, Rotem was criticised for being unaware of New Zealand law relating to
discrimination. Schouten asked NZ Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres for his impartial
opinion, and the commissioner said it was laudable that the ambassador was looking for
somebody knowledgeable about indigenous people and culture, "but I would have thought he would
need to look for a competency rather than an ethnicity".
Together with the usual anti-Semitic phrases, the vandals included Rotem, Schouten and de Bres as
targets in their painting spree. "In my mind, there is no doubt about the connection [between
the article and the desecration]," said Wellington Regional Jewish Council chair David
Zwartz. "I was disappointed that Hank Schouten picked up on a throwaway line at the end of a
one-and-a-half hour interview and made it the focus of his article. But to my mind, there is no
doubt that someone read it with malicious interest and acted."
Zwartz added that it was ironic the vandals vilified Schouten himself, along with de Bres,
who supported the focus of the article. "It shows a low level of understanding by the desecrators,
that they apparently associated Joris de Bres with Jews and the Israeli ambassador, when in
fact, his comments criticised the ambassador," said Zwartz.
"It is symptomatic of a general negative New Zealand media attitude towards Israel, that what
was an unwittingly inappropriate suggestion by the ambassador, became a calculatedly critical
article from The Dominion Post," he added.
Israeli Embassy spokesman Dor Shapira concurred: "The article took the idea in the wrong
direction. It was antisemitism. The ambassador's idea to hire someone who could give an insight
into the culture and history was a good idea. Of course, he would be hiring someone for his skills
and not his family." He said the ambassador had suggested this idea to many of the ministers that
he met while in New Zealand, all of who had loved the idea. "We've received a lot of CVs from
people wanting to work here since then," Shapira added.
Three years ago, Jewish graves at the Bolton Street and Makara cemeteries were desecrated with
more than 80 graves overturned and vandalised. The attack took place over a period of two weeks.
The damage to both sites has since been repaired.
Police have not found the perpetrator(s) but have kept the file open.
Same-sex unions attacked by Orthodox rabbi
SYDNEY, Australia—Rabbi Chaim Ingram launched an attack on Australia's Progressive rabbis when he said that by allowing same-sex commitment ceremonies, the rabbis are being hypocritical and questioning God.
The itinerant rabbi from Surfers Central Synagogue claimed progressive rabbis who met at
the Union for Progressive Judaism's biennial conference recently were clearly confused by
their own ideology, because they read from the Torah on a weekly basis, but did not listen to its teachings.
"On erev Pesach next year its spiritual leaders will take out the Torah and read Leviticus
chapter 18, which prohibits homosexual unions and liaisions. If they do not belive the Torah is the
word of God, why do they not expunge it from the scrolls? If they do believe the Torah is the word
of God, how can they condone, let alone promote, homosexual commitments ceremonies"? Rabbi Ingram said.
He also said the decision would divide the Jewish community. "By approving same-sex ceremonies, the
Liberal and Progressive movement has distanced itself yet further from Orthodoxy and from authentic historical Judaism."
Fellow Orthodox Rabbi David Freedman said that there was nothing within Orthodox Judaism that
recognises or condones homosexual activities, but stressed that he welcomed people of all religious
observances and sexual orientation into his community.
< BACK TO TOP
Pre-school playground was a wonderful venue for teaching at Jewish Book Fair
By Sherry Berlin
LA JOLLA, California—From my viewpoint, the best day of the San Diego Jewish Book Fair, housed at The Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center, is always the Family Day “Book-A-Palooza,” a day just for kids (of all ages)!
While many spent their Sunday (November 4) indoors listening to the speakers in the Garfield Auditorium, the real action was on the preschool playground. There were children with their parents and grandparents learning about the latest Sammy Spider book, Sammy Spider’s First Haggadah, from the author Sylvia Rouss. Local klezmer musician Yale Strom, teamed up with author Ellen Kushner, playing the violin while she read from her latest book, The Golden Dreydl. Watching grandparents and parents share in the joy of their children, was just as much entertainment. It was a wonderful multi-generational event.
My greatest thrill was meeting the author Amy Hest, whose many books I love to share with my students at the San Diego Jewish Academy. Ms. Hest read to the group from her latest book, a novel entitled Remembering Mrs. Rossi. This is the fictional story of eight-year-old Annie and her professor father after her mother unexpectedly passes away. Annie and her father are invited to the winter assembly at the school where her mother taught, and the students of her mother’s class present her and her father a book they wrote, Remembering Mrs. Rossi. Annie and her father often read this book of memories, while they learn to live their life without Mrs. Rossi.
After the reading, Amy Hest signed books for a new audience of fans. While waiting in line, I was able to share my favorite Amy Hest book, When Jessie Came Across the Sea, with some girls who attend my school. This immigration story is one of the most beautifully written and illustrated picture books in my library. While people have asked Amy to write a sequel to Jessie, she responds that the rest of the story is everyone’s story of settling and creating a life in America.
I also enjoyed meeting Fiona Rosenbloom, a young author who has written two books about the experience of thirteen-year-olds in their Bar/Bat Mitzvah year. You are so Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah and the sequel, We are so Crashing your Bar Mitzvah, are the stories of young adults dealing with peer pressure, exclusion, rejection, and all the other pubescent feelings. Rosenbloom shared a chapter of each book, and answered questions from the young audience.
This day also included an “Appreciation of Diversity” featuring a musical program by the San Diego Children’s Choir. Under the direction of Margie Orem, this choir is open to boys and girls ages six to eighteen from all over San Diego, representing all racial, ethnic, religious, and economic backgrounds. They sang a Native American song, as well as an Italian lullaby. To add to the “Appreciation of Diversity” program, author Carolivia Herron shared her books, Nappy Hair, which has caused controversy in many schools and communities all over the country, and Always an Olivia: A Remarkable Family History (Jewish Identity), her latest, written about her Jewish African-American background. Carolivia Herron wrote this story about her conversation with her elderly black grandmother and her family's Jewish origins. Her family members fled the Spanish Inquisition, were kidnapped by pirates and eventually sailed to America mixing with the black community on an island off the coast of Georgia. One daughter in each generation of her family is given the name Olivia, from the Hebrew Shulamit meaning “peace,” to honor the Jewish part of their ancestry.
The program for this day was outstanding, so everyone should look forward to next year.
Berlin is the librarian at San Diego Jewish Academy
< BACK TO TOP
SAN DIEGO JEWISH BOOK FAIR
Audience kvells over Tony Kushner
By Joel A Moskowitz, M.D.
and Arlene S. Moskowitz, J.D.
LA JOLLA, California—Playwright Tony Kushner captivated an adoring audience at the Lawrence Family JCC on Monday night. You could sense the kvelling in the laughter, admiring, agreement of a mostly senior crowd. When Tony experienced a ‘catch’ in his throat, the matriarch of the San Diego Jewish Book Fairl, Jackie Gmach, ran to the stage with a sucking candy (“This must have been in your purse a long time.”) and when that was not enough, lacking a ready source for chicken soup, tea was provided.
Kushner, no less the thespian himself, entertainingly read a piece where a New York lawyer, in the presence of his very Jewish mother, reads his simulated legal pleading to a higher power. After 9/11, Lefkowitz’s firm has been retained to ask G-d’s understanding. His chest-pounding‘al chet’ is in counterpoint to his mother’s typical Bronx editorializing— commentary that Lefkowitz aka Tony Kushner tolerates and may even enjoy. This humorous reading explicated Kushner’s view as a Jewish agnostic.
A deft interview by UCSD Literature Prof. Steven Cassidy lubricated Kushner’s commentary on his work with Steven Spielberg in the writing of the movie Munich, and with Maurice Sendak in the development of Brundebar. Nor was any opportunity missed by Kushner to satirize President Bush as“a functional illiterate" to the appreciative glee of the audience. Kushner said it is a paradox that First Lady Laura Bush, who is at home in any library, is married to a Chief of State said to be unacquainted with the written word.
It is readily evident how this Columbia University and NYU graduate has won the accolades of the cognoscenti of the literary and theater world (He has so many awards that reciting them would have eclipsed the time available for Kushner himself speaking). In his epic work, “Angels in America, a Gay Fantasia…” he takes on sex (gay matters and AIDs), religion (does G-d exist); politics (he has little use for the current administration); and ethnic issues (Blacks and Mormons).
The range of Kushner’s attentions seems infinite. He praised the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address which spoke to religious elements in a war where more Americans died, 600,000, than in all the subsequent wars in which the country has become embroiled. Lincoln’s recitation is a theme for another work in progress.
Whereas not everyone will enjoy the opinions and provocative thinking of author Tony Kushner, it is a sure bet that next to having the proverbial son ‘the doctor.’ having a son like Tony Kushner,who is“oy so smart” would be likely to thrill most Jewish parents. One thing is certain; he is a thinking person’s writer.
< BACK TO TOP
SAN DIEGO JEWISH WORLD
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6
Donald H. Harrison in La Jolla, California: "An internationalist makes Israel his cause."
J. Zel Lurie in Delray Beach, Florida: "Not only enemies but some would-be friends believe the Jewish stereotypes."
Joel A. Moskowitz, M.D. and Arlene S. Moskowitz, J.D. in La Jolla, California: "How Jews became Germans: they didn't."
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Shoshana Bryen in Washington, D.C.: "Oil prices are so high, it's time to pull out the stops in behalf of alternative fuels"
Cynthia Citron in Los Angeles: "For tsuris like Sheldon and Mrs. Levine's, you can stay home and save your money"
Judith Apter Klinghoffer in Cherry Hill, New Jersey: "Israel's peace dividend could be dwarfed by impact on the Palestinian economy."
Norene Schiff-Shenhav in Fallbrook, California: "Our unforgettable week of fire, stress, separation, love, kindness and relief"
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Donald H. Harrison in San Diego: "Shanghai Jews experiences varied greatly depending on their countries of origin"
Joe Naiman in Lakeside, California: "Jewish owners brought pro basketball to San Diego County but couldn't sustain it"
Sheila Orysiek in San Diego: "City Ballet's 15th season in San Diego provides several views of classical ballet"
Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem: "Olmert's optimism on the eve of the Annapolis conference mystifies 'realists'"
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3
Dov Burt Levy in Salem, Massachusetts: "3 wishes from deep inside Red Sox Nation"
Ira Sharkansky in Jerusalem:""Breakthrough in Annapolis? Don't hold your breath that anything will happen"
Dorothea Shefer-Vansonin Mevasseret Zion, Israel: "A trip into my unknown German past"
David Strom in San Diego: "Collection of Chanukah essays stirs memories of family trips and gelt"
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2
Shoshana Bryen in Washington, DC: "Convicting the foot soldiers while giving master terrorists virtual immunity."
Judith Apter Klinghoffer in Philadelphia: "Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Muslim moderate, inspires Federation"
Rabbi Baruch Lederman in San Diego: "She took a phone to bed with her and saved the lives of her neighbors."
Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal in San Diego: "The best way to reduce your own troubles? Help others!"
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Shoshana Bryen in Washington, D.C. "A Town Meeting at Foggy Bottom"
Rabbi Wayne Dosick in Carlsbad, California: "Some hints for fire victims and their friends from two who went through it"
Larry Zeiger in San Diego: "Monty Python-style riff on the Bible offered at San Diego Rep"
|
