The Zionist Federation of Australia has sent a letter to MPs and Govt Agencies to clarify the position of West Jerusalem, as the undisputed capital of Israel and other facts, in order to aid them in the growing debate over the PM Scott Morrison’s and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s statements and  debates regarding considerations to move the Australian Embassy from Tel Aviv to West Jerusalem. The Jewish community of NSW lost a highly respected and effective leader with the premature passing of the 36 year old former President of the Jewish Board of Deputies of NSW, Jeremy Spinak e”h, to whom tributes were paid by the Govt, the Opposition and community leaders in NSW and beyond.

The remaining Dunera Boys, mainly young Jewish men who escaped Nazism in the 1930s and who were deported to Australia from the UK in 1940, as “enemy aliens” on the ship Dunera, held their 78th annual reunion in Melbourne and heard historians talk about a project to digitalise some 2,000 photos from their time of internment at the Hay (NSW) and Tatura (VIC) holding camps, and the upgrade of the Dunera Museum located at the Hay Railway Station.

Statistics of the growing number of anti-Semitic incidents and crimes in France and the USA confirmed the worrying trend, with an increase of 69% in such crimes in France and some 33% in the USA, over the past year or two. The Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met Pope Francis in the Vatican and amongst other discussions concerning Jerusalem and peace negotiations, Rivlin also reassured the Pontiff that Israel offers full freedom of worship for all religions, in all holy places.