SBS Hebrew

Find out about Passover, rituals and customs with Rebbetzin Fruma Schapiro, Chabad North Shore (St Ives)

The Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, himself a son of a Holocaust survivor mother, announced a $10 million grant for the Melbourne Jewish Holocaust Centre and Museum, to enable them to grow and modernise and to reach double the number of 23,000 students they now educate about the Holocaust every year. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks set for a fifth term in office.Nearly complete election results put him and his right-wing Likud party on track to form a governing coalition. Mr Netanyahu's election victory sets him up for a record-breaking fifth term as leader...Find out more from Peta Jones Pellach

The Australian media, TV, radio and internet reported widely and intensively about the Israeli elections and especially the close contest between the incumbent and ultimately victorious Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his main rival Benny Gantz of the Blue and White Party.

The Age newspaper reported on the sharp exchanges that took place in a debate between the Jewish candidates in the coming elections on the 18th May, Kate Ashmore for the Liberals and Josh Burns for Labor, for the Melbourne Federal electoral seat of Macnamara, the seat with the largest number of Jewish voters in Australia, particularly on the questions to do with their pride in their Jewishness and support of Israel and Zionism.

The Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, himself a son of a Holocaust survivor mother, announced a $10 million grant for the Melbourne Jewish Holocaust Centre and Museum, to enable them to grow and modernise and to reach double the number of 23,000 students they now educate about the Holocaust every year.

There was disappointment in Israel and Australia over the Israeli Breshit space ship’s crash on the moon, a daring mission which also involved Australian space tracking stations and data analysts, but those involved took pride in being only the 7th country to reach the moon and to live up to the slogan painted on the space ship under the Israeli flag: “Small Country, Big Dreams”. Wishes for a good week and Happy Passover

Peta Jones Pellach reports on the funeral of Zachary Baumel, 37 years after he was killed in the Lebanon War. Also, the final election polls and the success of the Bereishit spacecraft.

Prof Rafi Mann: The Clock is ticking...Final countdown to Israeli 2019 Elections...

The Australian Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, a son of a Holocaust survivor mother and the first Jewish parliamentarian to hold such high office, delivered the government’s budget speech before the country’s media and received prior advice from his father Harry, a surgeon, to drink plenty of tea, honey and ginger.

The Australian and Israeli treasurers signed a new taxation agreement that will allow the already healthy trade and investment exchange between the two countries to grow and to benefit both nations in the future.

Jewish voters in the Melbourne Federal electoral seat of Macnamara, the seat with the largest number of Jewish voters in Australia, were outraged over a FB post by an aid to the Greens Party’s candidate in that seat, that claimed that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.

Mt Scopus College, the largest Jewish school in Australia revealed that they are investigating  the feasibility of moving from their Burwood campus, currently far from Melbourne’s Jewish community, to its centre in Caulfield, if the Caulfield Hospital rebuilds its facilities within a smaller area of its current extensive grounds and if the school’s current neighbour Deakin University buys the Burwood campus, which the school has occupied over the past 70 years.

The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) finally and unreservedly apologised to the Jewish LGBTIQ+ advocacy and support group Aleph–Melbourne, for rejecting their application to become a member of the Victorian Jewish community’s roof body 20 years ago.

Beginning this week FB will ban the posting of white supremacy materials that promote race-hate, to its FB and Instagram sites and whilst the Executive Council of Australian Jews welcomed the move, they stated that a similar ban should apply to such postings from extreme Islamic and leftist groups, including those that disguise their anti-Semitism as hatred of Israel.

I’ve opened my conversation with Shane Desiatnik, senior Journalist of the Australian Jewish news, about the big question facing Israelis in two days’ time, Bibi or Benny?

Peta Jones Pellach reports from Jerusalem on the rocket fired from Gaza that hit a house north of Tel Aviv, on the US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan and on millions of butterflies crossing the country.

The Australian Jewish community and leaders condemned the barrage of rocket fire fired from Gaza against Israel during which one rocket destroyed a house near Tel-Aviv and wounded 7 occupants including two babies.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short his visit to the USA because of the rocket attacks, but he managed to receive President Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 6 Day war in 1967 and annexed in 1981.

The Australian Government was praised by Australian Jewish leaders for being the only member country to vote against all 5 anti-Israel resolutions at the UN’s Human Rights Council, including one that condemned Israel’s retaliatory actions against the rocket fire emanating from Gaza.

The Sydney Beth Din, Orthodox Rabbinical court accused the Jewish Board of Deputies with having a history of effectively undermining the theological basis of Orthodoxy and Halacha law, after the Board voted to hold a review of the Beth Din, following the contempt of court judgement and very negative assessment of the Beth Din at the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The lawyers acting for Malka Leifer, who is wanted in Victoria to stand trial over 74 accusations of sexual abuse and rape of female students at the ultra-orthodox Addass Israel Girls’ School in Melbourne, have told the court in Jerusalem, which held the 49th hearing into her ability to be extradited, that they may sue the State of Israel if the case is dismissed and/or if evidence given against her is proven to have been false.

Anns:  Sunday March 31, 10am - 5pm

“A Taste of Yiddish – “Mit A Yidishn Tam”
The full program for this exciting new day-long celebration of Yiddish language and culture is now available! Here you will find all the details you need for the day’s program of workshops, games, arts & crafts, drama, music and food aimed at teaching a bisl mameloshn to those interested in reconnecting with or tasting the joy of Yiddishkayt for the first time.  Co-presented by the Kadimah, Sholem Aleichem College, SKIF & Bund, Monash University’s Yiddish program and the Penina Zylberman Foundation.  Details www.kadimah.org.au