PM Rudd to address UJA campaign launch

By Garry Fabian

MELBOURNE—Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will speak at the launch of the United Israel Appeal's (UIA) 2008 Victoria Campaign next month. The gala dinner will be held at the Palladium ballroom at Crown Towers and will mark the prime minister's second address to the Jewish community in as many months.

Last week, Rudd reaffirmed his Government's commitment to the school's security program in a taped video address screened at the Yeshiva Centre's annual gala dinner in Sydney.

President of UIA Australia Jack Smorgon said he was thrilled the prime minister had taken up his offer to speak at the dinner. "We are delighted that Prime Minister Rudd will deliver one of his first major speeches at this UIA event," Smorgon said.

"We are aware that he is focused on implementing many of his pre-election undertakings, and we very much appreciate the special respect he is paying the Jewish community in Australia in attending and addressing this function."

Organisers are expecting in excess of 1,200 guests at the event, which will include Israel's Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog and the Israeli Defence Force Entertainment Troupe to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence.

While still in the infancy of his prime ministership, Rudd appears to be following in the footsteps of his predecessor John Howard, who was also a vocal supporter of the Australian Jewish community.


Change of Leadership for Anti-Defamation Commission

MELBOURNE—Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) Michael Lipshutz resigned from his position this week citing work pressures. He was replaced by deputy chairman John Searle after a vote at an ADC board meeting on Wednesday night. Searle has a long history of community involvement with Melbourne’s Community Security Group and Blake Street Hebrew Congregation. Searle also has a long association with B'nai B'rith, having been a member of AZA and BBY in his teenage years.

Lipshutz, a former president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), stood down following two years at the helm - he has been head of the ADC since December, 2006. He presided over a busy period at the ADC and has been at the helm while an apparent rift has opened up between the ADC and other communal bodies including the Executive Council of Australia Jewry (ECAJ).

The controversies began two months after Lipshutz took over from former chairman Dr Paul Gardner. Lipshutz had to cut a “national anti-Semitism hotline” after Grahame Leonard, then president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, vehemently criticised the move to set it up.

Then, in December last year, the JCCV and the ADC, which acts as the JCCV’s anti-defamation arm, held conflicting views on the visit of Croatian rock band Thompson. The ECAJ got involved as well when Manny Waks, executive director of the ADC, criticised a new Government minister on behalf of the Jewish community.

Nonetheless, Searle, who was deputy chairman of the ADC under Lipshutz, denied that the chairman’s decision to step down was based on these incidents.

“Sometimes people just take on a bit too much,” Searle said, citing Lipshutz’s work commitments and duties as a Glen Eira councillor as a reason for his early departure. Searle expressed confidence that there would be a seamless transfer at the ADC to a new leader.

“The ADC has a board of very highly talented individuals … it is business as usual, the rest of the board is very capable,” he said.


A Jewish wedding—a first for Parliament

CANBERRA—The halls of the Federal Parliament House in Canberra were the setting for the wedding of Jewish MP Michael Danby and Amanda Mendes Da Costa on Sunday. About 200 guests watched the ceremony start in the Marble Hall and moved to the Queens Terrace where the chuppah had been erected.

Presiding over the ceremony were Rabbi Reisenberg, Rabbi Dovid Rubinfeld and Rabbi Mordechai Gutnick, all of whom had travelled to Canberra from Melbourne. It was an historic occasion marking the first time that a Jewish wedding has been held in the halls of the Australian parliament.

Among the guests were Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem, Health Minister Nicola Roxon, Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy and new MPs Mark Dreyfus and Mike Kelly. Many Jewish community leaders were among the invited guests.

The guests dined on a three-course kosher meal in the Mural Hall. The food was brought by truck from Melbourne by Unger Catering Services.

Mendes Da Costa, a descendant of Marranos, recently converted to Judaism.

Danby, 53, has two children from his first marriage. He has been a parliament member since 1998 representing Melbourne Ports.

The couple chose the Parliament House venue because it was central to many of their friends and family.

"Michael has friends from all over the country ... [Canberra] seemed a nice, central place," Danby's spokeswoman said.

Anti-Semitic slur at junior football game

SYDNEY—A junior soccer player's dad has been banned from the game after yelling "you should all have been wiped out during the war" at parents from a rival Jewish club. And a football association appeals committee has also "strongly recommended" that Peter Quigley tour the Sydney Jewish Museum with a Holocaust survivor after his outburst during an Under-16s game last year.

Parents from the rival Maccabi club yesterday labelled Quigley's actions "disgraceful" and said incidents like the one he was involved in "have taken the fun out of junior sport."

"How can we get serious about getting kids and their families into junior sport, when something like this happens? It's disgraceful," one parent said.

Documents  reveal that Quigley, a registered team official and father of a junior player at the Maroubra United Soccer Club, was suspended from all football-related activities for six weeks by an appeals committee of the Sydney Eastern Suburbs Football Association.

The February 19 decision means Quigley must also write a letter of apology to the referee of the match between Maccabi A, a Jewish side, and Maroubra, which are both part of the ESFA. The rulings followed an appeal by Quigley and his club against an original judiciary committee decision on October 18.

No assistant referees were present for the match on September 2, so each club was asked to provide a linesman.

Quigley, as a registered team official, was nominated by his club to act as one of the linesman.

During the first half of the game, Quigley complained to the referee on several occasions, to the point where the referee told him he was "blatantly destroying the game."

Quigley admitted to yelling at the referee, who subsequently abandoned the game before the first half whistle.

The appeals committee was told that after the game, an argument broke out between members of both side, where it is reported that one Maccabi parent was told, "look at your nose, it's half the size of your head."

There is then suggestion that physical contact was made with Quigley's son, which caused his infuriated father to say, "all you people are the lowest form of life. You should all have been wiped out during the war," the committee heard.

Quigley, a teacher at a private college, yesterday said he acted in the interests of his son.

"I'm there to protect the kids and no one touches an underage kid," he said.

"I had people coming up to me and saying that I had caused the match to be abandoned. I was angry."

"Me and my son were just trying to get in the car and go home."

Both clubs and the ESFA declined to comment yesterday when asked about the fracas.

ESFA chief executive Mark Louis confirmed the appeal had been carried out, but would not comment on the nature of Mr Quigley's comments or anything to do with last year's match.


Party problems prompt warning

MELBOURNE—Young people are again being urged to remain vigilant after a couple of nasty incidents last weekend.

A group of five Mount Scopus College students were confronted by another group of youths as they left the Classic Cinema in Elsternwick. In addition the Community Security Group (CSG) has reminded young people to avoid using social networking websites to organise parties.

The Mount Scopus studends were allegedly harassed, one student had property stolen, and it is understood that another was assaulted.

The school's principal, Rabbi James Kennard, said that police arrived at the scene quickly and even managed to apprehend one of the suspected assailants. "The students are to be commended for their sensible behaviour" he said.

Rabbi Kennard said he had used the incident to remind the rest of the school's students to be vigilant.
The CSG's warning about using websites such as Facebook, to organise parties comes after a group of "undesirables" expressed interest in attending a party organised by a Jewish person.

The group, who were not invited to the party, were known to Victoria Poloce and CSG advised the organisers to call off the party for safety reasons.

CSG wished to remind people that it is preferable to use email when organising a party in order to keep control over who is invited. Victoria Police also advises party hosts to keep to a strict door list and register their parties with police to prevent trouble.

Jewish schools reject 'isolationist' claim

SYDNEY—Jewish community leaders are concerned after Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's most senior adviser said that faith-based schools divide the community.

Professor Barry McGaw, who was appointed recently as head of the National Curriculum Board, said in a recent speech, "These people often form a narrowly focused school that is aimed at cementing the faith it's based on. If we continue as we are, I think we'll just become more and more isolated subgroups in our community."

Professor McGaw's comments were criticised by shadow treasurer and Wentworth MP Malcolm Turnbull, who said the excellent secular studies at Jewish schools achieve "speak for themselves".
"Contrary to Professor McGaw, my observation is that Jewish education is well-balanced and covers secular subjects, as well as it does the specifically Torah-based part of the curriculum" Turnbull said. 
Robert Goot, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, added that Professor McGaw's comments were a "back door plea for assimilation."

"It is an argument that has long been advanced and is as fallacious today as it was in the past. Australia has been built on integration, not assimilation and I see no change to that well established trend "Goot said

New South Wales Board of Deputies president David Knoll said that Professor McGaw's comment was clearly wrong. "Had he seen the faith based school symposium held at the University of Sydney in 2006, he would have discovered educators from a range of faiths committed to building an inclusive Australia, just the social cohesion that the new labor Government quite rightly is pursuing" Knoll said.
He conceded that there may be a handful of Australian faith-based schools with an "isolationist approach," but they are not Jewish schools.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, spiritual dean of Yeshiva College in Bondi, agreed with these sentiments.
He said he was surprised by the comments, especially after an address by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week at the Yeshiva gala dinner showed his unequivocal support for the newly registered Orthodox school.

Follow up on prison bashing

MELBOURNE—The recent report regarding an alleged assault on a Jewish prisoner by a guard for wearing a kippah, has prompted a statement by the Victorian Department of Correction.

The statement quoted the Correction Act 1986, which states "Prisoners can practice their religion while incarcerated and have items that are necessary for the practice of their religion."

Timmy Rubin, a prison chaplain who has visited the Port Phillip Prison on a regular basis, said that kosher food is available and Jewish prisoners can keep Shabbat.

Rubin said that she takes books on Judaism into the prison on each visit. "The prison is multicultural and I know of Arabic-speaking Jewish prisoners who are very friendly with Moslem prisoners."
according to the Act, prisoners are permitted to wear religious garments including kippahs inside the correctional facility.

However at Port Phillip Prison they are required to remove headwear and change into a special uniform before entering the visitor's centre.

The police are still investigating the prisoner's complaint against the prison guard.

Archibald-honored Hitler portrait stirs up fury
 
MELBOURNE—The Archibald Prize is Australia's top award for portraiture, that is awarded annually, and receives entries from a very long list of artists.

Artist Sam Leach knew that painting a portrait of himself in Nazi attire imitating a famous pose by Hitler would be controversial. What he didn't expect was that he would be selected as one of 40 finalists ­ from 693 entries ­ for this year's prestigious Archibald Prize. Nor that the self-portrait would be denounced as offensive by Melbourne's Jewish community. "I thought it was a long shot to be shortlisted because of its controversial nature and because it's only a small painting but I've been wanting to put it into a public arena for a while and obviously this is the biggest chance you get to do something like that," he said.

The 35-year-old artist said "Self in Uniform" was not meant to glorify Nazism but to warn against it happening again, adding that he had great respect and sympathy for Jewish people. "Personally, as a white Australian, I inherit this Western European cultural tradition and the one of the products of that tradition was Nazism. In a nutshell, what I'm trying to say is that I think that we can't take for granted that Nazism can't happen again essentially."

But the president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, Anton Block, said Leach was "deluding himself" and trivialising evil as pop culture. "I take at face value what he intended to convey, but the conclusion one reaches more readily when looking at the painting is that he is trying to draw parallels between himself and the Fuehrer," Block said. "When I look at the picture of this painting, I did not have a good feeling about it at all and I think there will be many people within the Jewish community who will find it offensive because of what that man did to their families, to their friends and to the Jewish people generally."

Criminal proceedings weighed against Holocaust denier

SYDNEY—A barrister has asked the Federal Court to begin proceedings for criminal contempt against Holocaust denier Dr Fredrick Toben.

In a hearing at the Federal Court in Sydney on February 28, Robin Margo told the court that allegations made by Dr Toben on his website and in a document given to the court take the matter beyond a civil complaint against him.

In the document, the Adelaide-based Holocaust revisionist accuses well-known Australian Jewish judges of being "heavily involved in propagating the Jewish Holocaust-Shoah".

On his Adelaide Institute website, Dr Toben stated that the Australian legal system is "used as a proxy for Jewish supremacism's revenge" and claims there is "a desire/lust to kill off the non-Jews".

He appeared by video link from Adelaide in yesterday's hearing.

Judge Michael Moore said he could not take evidence relating to Margo's application in yesterday's directions hearing and adjourned the case to June 3.

Margo was representing Jewish leader Jeremy Jones, who is asking the court to compel Dr Toben to pull Holocaust denial material from his Adelaide Institute website.

In a Federal Court hearing on November 27, Dr Toben agreed to remove the offensive material and also issued an apology to the court for violating its 2002 order for him to remove the material. The 2002 judgment was the result of a case brought by the ECAJ, of which Jones was then president.

But Dr Toben has since reneged on his November 27 undertaking and has withdrawn his apology.

The latest round in a six-year battle to have Dr Toben remove offensive material from his website began early last year after the Holocaust revisionist returned from Tehran where had taken part in a conference denying the existence of the Holocaust.

Fabian is Australia bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World and B'nai B'rith governor for Victoria








Lecturer says Sydney Taylor’s children’s books intrigue audiences of all ages

By Yvonne Greenberg

SAN DIEGO—"In the five-book All-of-a-Kind Family series by Jewish-American author Sydney Taylor, “children are portrayed as friendly, warm, sociable, a little bit adventuresome, honest and good," notes June Cummins, an associate professor at San Diego State University, where she specializes in children's literature and Jewish-American Literature. "They are not always little angels, sometimes they make mistakes and get into trouble, but they learn from their mistakes and have very good hearts."

The All-of-a-Kind Family series, Taylor's most famous books, were the first to feature Jewish children that reached a mainstream audience. Beginning in 1951 and continuing today, the series has been read by millions and are often young readers' first introduction to Jews.

Cummins, a recent lecturer in the Mandelbaum Family Lecture Series sponsored by the Agency for Jewish Education in Coronado, said that  Taylor carefully infused her stories and characters with Jewish values. In doing so, Taylor contributed to creating a post-war American Jewish identity through children's literature.

"I would say Sydney Taylor's dream for American-Jewish children would be to be American without giving up being Jewish ,” the professor told an interviewer. “She believes in strong family ties, in education, and in following your dream.  Through her characters, she encouraged her readers to be active and fully engaged in all their endeavors, whether an endeavor was putting on a play, or helping someone in need, or celebrating Jewish holidays, or even just playing games.  Throughout her stories Taylor also subtly advocated ideals we would consider progressive, such as feminism, social work, and respect for blue-collar workers, I believe Taylor's softly progressive politics stem from the strong involvement she and many other young Jewish people of the early 20th century had with socialism and other liberal perspectives."

Cummins said that "I and many others were influenced by the author. So it's not surprising we agree with her! 

She reported that interest in Taylor transcends age barriers: “I have talked to many audiences about Sydney Taylor, ranging from fourth graders in elementary schools to academic colleagues at national conferences to senior citizens at public libraries (such as the Coronado Public Library).”

Her next public lecture on Jewish children's literature will take place in June in Cleveland at the Association of Jewish Libraries meeting.The AJL is the organization that gives the Sydney Taylor Award for excellence in Jewish children‘s literature.  This upcoming talk will focus on what I call ‘Jewish chick-let lit', "that is, books for Jewish pre-teenage and young teenage girls."

Cummins her Ph.D. from University of California Berkeley.  Her research interests include multiculturalism, ethnic identities, feminism, and consumerism, among others.

Greenberg is a freelance writer based in San Diego










ANIMAL OR VEGETABLE—Elephants at the San Diego Zoo may be found in the flesh or as major examples of topiary (SDJW photos by Donald H. Harrison)

THE JEWISH CITIZEN 'A Jewish Story Everywhere'


The Zoo as textbook for religious studies

By Donald H. Harrison

SAN DIEGO—Just as in Jerusalem, different passages of Jewish scriptures can be brought to life by visiting the zoo here-- especially if one brings along a listing of biblical animals such as is easily available on Wikipedia or from other web sources.

When I parked this morning at the San Diego Zoo, it was in section 10, marked by an elephant sign.   As I walked up to the Zoo, I noticed a giant topiary reproduction of an elephant.  Passing that, the sign over the entryway featured a large elephant among other animals.  Okay, okay, I thought, an elephant it is.  Assuming my walking companions—Shimon Camiel, Ron Reff and Dan Schaffer—agreed, we would hoof it to the elephant enclosure. 

Ever agreeable, my fellow walkers had no trouble remembering where in Scriptures one can find references to an elephant.  The Book of Maccabees, they said.  When Judah and his brothers are fighting the Syrians, Eleazar sees one elephant that is bigger and is outfitted with fancier accoutrements than any of the others.  Assuming that was therefore the elephant of the king, Eleazar maneuvered through the battle lines, got under the elephant, and speared it.  Down crashed the elephant, crushing the brave Eleazar.  But it was for naught; the king was not aboard the great beast. (I Macabees 6: 43-46).  The Macabees thereafter withdrew their battle line.

It’s a sad yet instructive story: both Eleazar and the magnificent elephant died as a result of mistaken identity. Clearly, in battle as well as in peacetime, it’s a good idea to have proper intelligence, to know your facts before you jump into a situation from which possibly you may be unable to extricate yourself. 



Besides lessons from scriptures, the visit to the elephant pens, which soon will be relocated to another part of the Zoo, offered additional opportunities for learning.  Zoo signage informed that “African elephants have larger ears than the Asian species. Their skin is wrinkly, their back is swayed and the end of their trunk has two fingers.  Both males and females have visible tusks. … The elephant is the largest and heaviest land animal.  Its trunk—a combination of nose and upper lip—can grab leaves from a tree or suck up water from a pond.  Ivory tusks used for defense and for digging are its only front teeth. Flapping those huge ears helps keep an elephant cool . Asian elephants have smaller ears than their African counterparts; their skin is smooth, their back is dome-shaped, and they have one finger at the end of their trunk.  Usually only the males have visible tusks…”

Aware that San Diego is a semi-desert, the San Diego Zoo tells how elephants are made to participate in a water conservation program.  “There is no way around it,” declares a sign.  “Elephants are big water users.  They drink as much as 50 gallons per day per elephant. They dip their hay in water and they squirt it and splash in it.  So how do we save a mammoth amount of water here?  We clean the elephant’s pool less often. Instead of every other day, we now drain the 60,000 gallon pool only when necessary.”

The Zoo also shows how it plans to move the elephants.  It has a structure which elephants may enter and exit – a play environment if you will.  Eventually the elephants will become so used to the structure that they will not hesitate to go inside.  On moving day, the entrance and exit will be closed, making a rolling cage for the elephants.  Then they will be towed to their new home in another part of the zoo.  It should be fascinating to watch.

.

As I took photographs of the elephants, I remembered the old tale about the three blind men and the elephant.  Each felt a different part of the animal, and each came up with a different description of what the creature might be.  As I  looked at the tusk, the wrinkled skin, a large eye, I thought how easy it might be to concentrate on a small part of something and completely misapprehend the whole. 

Harrison is editor and publisher of San Diego Jewish World



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HOUSECLEANERS—Well actually only the actress in the middle plays the housecleaner, but all
the rest are cast members of The Clean House: From left, Ron Choularton, Ivonne Call, Claudia Vazquez, Rosina Reynolds and  Annie Hinton


ARTS IN REVIEW

The Clean House plays to a pleased house

By Carol Davis

SAN DIEGO—I hate inside jokes…especially when they are told in Portuguese; and that’s not a joke. No kidding. Playwright Sarah Ruhl has a new play called The Clean House that now is being given its West Coast Premiere at The San Diego Repertory Theatre downtown through March 22. It’s the last show of the season for the Rep. and a fun way to end it at that. It won her a Pulitzer Prize along with the Susan Smith Blackburn prize for Best Play by a Female Playwright. Ruhl’s new comedy is whimsical, witty, wacky, and wickedly funny, sometimes. And OH! The first five minutes of the show were taken up with the telling of a joke, in non-translatable Portuguese.

That aside, artistic director Sam Woodhouse and his talented cast of five (four women and one guy) are giving Ruhl’s piece a capricious and entertaining airing. The set up is as follows: Lane (Rosina Reynolds) and Charles (Ron Chularton) are both doctors who met in Medical School. Theirs is not what one would call a close relationship at present. He works all the time and she manages to get home once in a while. Home is stark, a rather sterile looking place that is need of constant cleaning up. (Victoria Petrovich designed an all white furniture living room with plexiglass and glass tables and ornaments, a short flight of stairs off in the back side for exits and entrances)  Lane confesses that she did not go to Medical School to clean houses. Her cleaning girl is Matilde (Claudia Vázquez). She hates to clean, is depressed about it but loves to tell jokes. Her mother died laughing at one of her father’s jokes. Virginia, (Annie Hinton) is Lane’s sister. She is a compulsive cleaner. “Those who give up cleaning their own houses are insane” (Please commit me!) She even wanted to sweep up old ruins of an archeological finding.

Virginia convinces Matilde to let her come and clean Lane’s house while Matilde searches out the ‘perfect joke’ and still collects her paycheck from Lane. While folding the laundry one afternoon, both women discover some suspicious looking underwear in the basket. You guessed it. Charles has a lover. Bada bing!

While operating on one of his older patients (Ana) for breast cancer, Ana (Ivonne Call) and Charles fall in love. It gets more bizarre. Charles brings Ana home for a kumbayah moment over the objections of Lane, who doesn’t seem to ‘get it.” Sitting on their all-to lily-white living room sofa, trying to explain it, Ana says, “There’s a midrash that says when a baby is forty days old in its mother’s stomach, God picks out his soul mate, and people have to spend the rest of their lives running around to find their mates.”  We have found ours. In other words, they have met their Beshert! Appalled, Lane snaps back, “You’re not even Jewish!” (That got the biggest laugh of the evening, and was one of the funniest lines as well).

To say that things go from bad to worse would undermine the telling of Ruhl’s play. In fact, things go from weird to weirder, from reality to fantasy from an underlying need to come to grips with one’s life, or ‘clean house’ to the compassion needed to allow it to happen. How it all comes about is at the crux of the play that you need to see to believe. With three very strong women, each powerful in her own right, Ruhl’s The Clean House is in good hands.

Rosina Reynolds is no slouch in the steely eyed, strong capable woman category. She is stunning in her all-white pant suits with matching tops (Jennifer Brown Gittings) very much in control until she meets up with Ana, when her world does an about face. Ivonne Call’s Ana (she plays Matilde’s mother as well) is an absolute pleasure to watch. She is warm, so engaging and so convincing that you almost forget she is a character in a play. Embracing Ana as she does helps tone down the hard edges of Lane’s outer crust and brings reconciliation and change by play’s end. Both actresses are pros and know how to bring the audience into their worlds.

Annie Hinton’s Virginia is as quirky as can be as she waltzes through her days as the polar opposite of her sister in both looks and stature.  Her outfits are as much at odds with themselves (with busy designs) as she is to her sister Lane but to watch her you get the idea that you are the eccentric one, not the other way around. She is a hoot to watch. Claudia Vázquez is just OK as the Brazilian housekeeper in search of the ‘perfect joke’, one that’s so funny, it’s rumored to be deadly to those who hear it.  She’s too aloof and was not completely convincing on opening night. Ron Chularton’s Charles often looked like the deer in the headlights. Maybe the joke was on us though, as he was able to pull off his character as both shallow and caring at the same time. He does double duty as well as Matilde’s father. Both he and Call looked great doing the tango as her parents and were a scream as Dr. and patient singing in harmony while in the operating room as he is removing her breast in the opening scene of Act II.

For what it’s worth, there is a message hidden in The Clean House about hope, love, compassion and humor which, as we know, goes a long way. It’s worth a try.

See you at the theatre.