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New life for Holocaust Museum
MELBOURNE - The Jewish Holocaust Museum is
getting a $1 million make-over in a bid to appeal to the "iPod generation."
Thousands of photographs, documents and text will
be removed from the current premises and replaced
with inter active technology such as digital displays, touch screens, videos and "story pods".
The upgrade is part of its 25th anniversary celebrations at the museum. Curator Jayne Josem said museums have moved on in the way they presented information. "The whole idea was to combine the traditional story telling of the
older generation with the modern iPod generation".
The museum opened in March 1984, to keep the memory of the victims of the Holocaust alive. Work will start in December 2009, with a new look museum opening its doors in February 2010. Ms. Josem said the technology was essential to keep survivor stories alive. The story pods are
interactive screens with digital "objects" such as letters and photographs visitors can touch to learn more about someone's plight.
Accounts of non-Jewish people who risked their
lives to help Jews would also be available. Centre spokesperson Frankie Pinch said the building's interior would also be ungraded. A fundraising campaign involved
applying to philanthropic trusts and seeking grants. A "sizable grant" from the Ian Potter Foundation (which is not a Jewish foundation) has already been received.
Zentai takes lie detector test
Perth - Accused Nazi war criminal Charles (Karoly) Zentai -- who is fighting extradition to Hungary on charges relating to the alleged wartime murder of a Jewish man in Budapest -- has taken a lie detector test in an effort to prove his innocence.
Zentai took a polygraph test last week and claimed it found there was a 96 per cent likelihood that he was telling the truth
regarding his alleged involvement in the death of
Peter Balazs, 18, on November 8, 1944, in Budapest.
Zentai, 87, told the ABC's PM program he understood that polygraph tests were not admissible as evidence in court, but said it was something he needed to do.
"Everybody was throwing accusations at me. I was
just getting tired of it all and I thought I had to do this," Zentai said.
The European-born Australian appeared before Justice John Gilmour in the Perth Federal Court on March 10 to appeal the court's previous finding that the Magistrates Court has
jurisdiction to conduct his extradition trial.
His lawyers argued that murder was not considered
a war crime in Hungary when Zentai was alleged to have killed Balazs.
His legal representative was reported to have argued that Hungary could apply to have the law enacted retrospectively, but had not done so.
Perth magistrate Barbara Lane ruled in 2008 that Zentai's case met the requirements of the Extradition Act and that he was eligible to be extradited to Hungary to stand trial.
But Zentai's lawyers argued the Magistrates Court
did not have the jurisdiction to make the ruling on the Extradition Act.
Zentai's family have said, despite the cost of continuing legal proceedings fighting the extradition, they would continue to appeal the judgement.
The final decision on extradition is in the hands of federal Minister for Home Affairs Bob Debus.
After investigations through Israel's Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Australian authorities located Zentai in Perth in 2005, after which he was arrested and charged. The Hungarian Government consequently requested his extradition.
The Perth hearing is currently ongoing.
Turnbull urges immediate withdrawal from Durban II
CANBERRA - Australian opposition Leader Malcolm
Turnbull has urged the federal government to
immediately announce Australia's withdrawal from
next month's Durban Review Conference.
Turnbull told around 1100 guests at the United
Israel Appeal's (UIA) Victorian appeal launch at
Crown Palladium on Thursday night that the
conference lacked any credibility and that Australia should take no part.
"[Foreign Minister] Stephen Smith should not be
going to Geneva and Kevin Rudd should not be sending him there," Turnbull said.
The federal Government is waiting to see the final wording for the draft outcome document before making its final decision on whether to attend. It is not expected to make the decision until at least Tuesday.
Smith met with Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot and Zionist Federation of Australia president Philip Chester this week to discuss the conference's latest draft outcomes document, which some observers
believe to believe more toxic than the motions passed at the first conference in 2001.
Turnbull said the conference would again cast a poor light on the United Nations. "It will be an appalling example of anti-Semitism and Israel bashing, tragically under the auspices of the UN."
"The United States has already decided that the conference is not salvageable and has decided not to attend. We in the Liberal Party agree and believe that Australia should withdraw immediately."
The Opposition has lambasted the Government's hesitation to make a decision. Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop asked Smith in Parliament on Wednesday why the
Government has not yet withdrawn.
Smith replied: "As I have indicated publicly and privately over recent days and weeks to those people who have raised it with me, unless we see qualitative improvements made to the [draft outcome] text Australia will not be attending either".
"If we form the view that the text is going to lead to nothing more than an anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic harangue, and an anti-Jewish propaganda exercise, Australia will not be in attendance," Smith said.
Meanwhile, Turnbull also took the opportunity at the UIA function to lambast the federal Government for voting against Israel in a pair of UN resolutions late last year. He expressed concern that it was part of Australia's bid to
win a seat on the UN Security Council in 2012.
"It has been tradition for Australian governments of both persuasions to solidly support Israel in every forum, which is why we haven't supported the one-sided motions that are presented in UN forums," he said.
"We hope that this change, which we were very disappointed with, does not have anything to do with the current effort by the Prime Minister to garner support for us winning a seat on the UN Security Council."
"Let me be very clear about this: Australia should never get into the business of trading on principle our support for Israel to win the support of those who favour we seek to win a seat on the Security Council."
El Al direct Australia
link still a possibility
SYDNEY - EL AL, Israel's national airline, will beef up its Asian service from the end of March, but according to El Al's regional manager for Asia and Oceania, Yair Berrebi, there are no short-term plans to fly direct and return routes to Australia.
Berrebi, who was in Australia for a brief visit to meet El Al representatives and travel industry executives, said El Al sees the local Jewish community as its "core business" in Australia.
Long-term hopes for direct flights from Sydney or Melbourne into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv remain high, after El Al recently announced direct flights to Israel from Sao Paolo, Brazil, which has a sizeable Jewish community.
However, Berrebi said the Brazil connection was planned before the current economic downturn, and the airline would wait to see how the global picture developed before planning any new direct routes.
"I don't think it's a disconnect from reality that one day El Al will be in Australia," Berrebi told The AJN, citing the size and level of support for the airline nationally.
Meanwhile, Australian travellers can take advantage of a comprehensive network of connecting flights to Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangkok and Mumbai, with outbound carriers including Qantas (which has a frequent-flyer partnership
with El Al), Cathay Pacific and Thai Airlines, he said.
A fifth weekly El Al flight from Hong Kong will commence from the end of this month.
Berrebi said a code-share agreement with a major
airline is being negotiated, with El Al set to make an announcement soon.
When the Gaza conflict flared up in December, El Al's Asian division was hit with more than 2000 cancellations in 72 hours from some 16 countries.
Although the Gaza crisis has now subsided, the impression in Asian markets is that "tourists, pilgrims, and some from the Jewish community feel too uncomfortable to come to Israel".
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In 2008, El Al recorded a rise of 60 per cent in Australian passenger volumes over the previous year's figure.
"I see it as a salute to Israel to have this kind of support from this community."
El Al's general manager for Australia Romy Leibler said support from Jewish organisations was a vital element of the relationship.
"We don't have a moral exclusivity, but we make sure we do our best to be seen as the airline of the community and the airline of Israel."
Business and trade travel between Australia and Israel is becoming a growing part of the passenger mix, he said.
Divided opinion about
hosting Israel critic
SYDNEY—A synagogue has cancelled a March 23
appearance by an Israeli academic who described
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as "a countdown to apartheid."
American-born Professor Jeff Halper, who condemned Israel as a country of "nefarious ideologies," is coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions (ICAHD).
The organisation was set up 12 years ago to oppose the practice of house demolitions.
Emanuel Synagogue executive director Allan Glazerman said on Thursday the decision to withdraw Prof Halper's invitation was made at a special executive meeting on Tuesday this week.
The synagogue had planned to make a decision at its scheduled executive meeting on Thursday, but Glazerman said the shul's management wanted an early resolution of the matter.
Prof Halper had been invited by Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Emanuel's senior rabbi, to address a Torah class of about 12 people who study the weekly parshah and related issues.
"I guess people in that class who are maybe connected with [Prof] Halper ... somehow wanted to open it up as a community forum. We never had any interest in that," Glazerman said.
"Our rabbi thought that for a regular class to hear his views about the demolition of Palestinian homes was important. He certainly never intended it as a forum for the community."
Jews against the Occupation spokesperson Vivienne
Porzsolt said the synagogue's reversal was due to "the noxious culture of silence, fear and suppression that dominates the organised Jewish community in relation to Israel" and said the organisation would set up an alternative meeting between Prof Halper and the Jewish community.
She also slammed a decision by The AJN not to publish an advertisement listing Prof Halper's speaking engagements. The newspaper's management said it acted within its legal right to refuse to publish the advertisment.
Prof Hapler is on an Australian speaking tour. During his Sydney and Melbourne visits, he will speak at several universities, the title of one of his lectures is "Countdown to Apartheid in Israel/Palestine".
Supporting his visit are Jews Against the Occupation, Independent Australian Jewish Voices, Australians for Palestine, and the Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine.
No welcome by Jewish community
for Iran's former president Khatami
MELBOURNE - The Victorian Jewish community is
critical of a former Iranian president's visit to Australia, as expressed in the letter by the president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria responding to an invitation during Khatami's visit to Melbourne.
13 March 2009
The Archbishop Philip Freier
The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne
209 Flinders Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
Dear Archbishop Freier
I write to thank you for your kind invitation to attend the Anglican Diocese's morning tea to honour HE Seyed Mohammad Khatami, presumably for his supposed commitment to dialogue. I must decline, however, and I wish to take this opportunity to advise you why I do so.
As you would know, Khatami was the president of Iran from 1997 to 2005 and is a candidate for this position again. You may not be aware, however, that Iran became less democratic and free during his presidency. From 1997 to 2002, for example, more than fifty newspapers were
closed, internet services were banned and satellite dishes confiscated. The Government continued to harass and kill intellectuals, students, and dissidents. Public executions
increased and Iran's Jewish community and other
minorities were harassed and intimidated.
Khatami's anti-democratic ways have not been confined to his own people. He resembles his successor, President Ahmadinejad, in his public hatred of Israel, describing it, amongst other things as a "plague" and "the greatest enemy of
Islam and humanity." In a televised address on 24 October, 2000, he declared, "In the Koran, God commanded to kill the wicked and those who do not see the rights of the oppressed... If we abide by human laws, we should mobilise the whole Islamic World for a sharp confrontation with the Zionist
regime... If we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilise to kill." And only last year, this supposed champion of dialogue called Israel "an old, incurable wound on the body of Islam, a
wound that really possesses demonic, stinking, contagious blood."
It is also noteworthy that Khatami has often expressed his support for Hezbollah and for terrorist Palestinian factions - including Hamas and Islamic Jihad - which not only oppose peace with Israel, but are blatantly and proudly antisemitic.
I respectfully suggest to you that a person with this track record could not have a commitment to honest dialogue nor to peace. You may respond that Khatami may have changed his views since 2005. Given the nature of Iranian society,
however, I would argue that this is impossible.
Quite simply, Iran is a totalitarian theocratic state. In 2008, Amnesty International reported the following:
The authorities continued to suppress dissent. Journalists, writers, scholars, and women's rights and community activists were subject to arbitrary arrest, travel bans, closure of their NGOs and harassment. Armed opposition, mainly by
Kurdish and Baluchi groups, continued, as did state repression of Iran's minority communities. Discrimination against women remained entrenched in law and practice. Torture and other ill-treatment were widespread in prisons and detention centres. A security clampdown announced
in April was marked by a sharp rise in executions; at least 335 people were executed, among them seven child offenders. Sentences of stoning to death, amputation and flogging
continued to be passed and carried out.
It is also common knowledge that Iran is developing a nuclear capacity and has threatened on numerous occasions to wipe Israel off the map. In 2007 its Jew-hating Government sponsored both a conference debunking the Holocaust and a cartoon competition that mocked it.
This is the country that Khatami wishes to lead.
Iran's mullahs forbid dissent. If Khatami did not support such heinous policies and ideologies, he would not have been president before and certainly would not be permitted to be a
candidate again. While he may spout pious words of coexistence, his actions certainly belie them.
Frankly Archbishop, our community finds it inconceivable that the Anglican diocese would choose to host such a man or even to meet with him. On behalf of the Victorian Jewish community, I respectfully ask that you reconsider.
I look forward to your response.
Yours truly, John Searle. President
________________________________________
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Jews Down Under ... Australian Jewish news roundup
SAN DIEGO—San Diego County Sheriff Bill Kolender and Christopher J. Murphy, director of the California Office of Safety—a Jew and an Irishman—have sent warnings through media outlets urging people to remember not to drink and drive on St. Patrick’s Day today, but instead to designate “a sober driver before heading to a local celebration or pub.”
SAN DIEGO—So far, on this website, I have tendered a wide variety of Jewish music: “chazzones” (Eastern Europe cantorial style), Ladino folk songs, Holy Day selections, Chanukah songs, Oratorio, orchestral music by Ernest Bloch, Opera (La juive), and Blues/ Jazz (Charles Davidson). While I love to sing the old time “chazzonos,” I am also eager to introduce music of our contemporary Jewish composers.
Nancy Harrison
SAN DIEGO—In my Weight Watchers class, addiction is a word never mentioned out loud. It’s the eight thousand pound elephant in the middle of the room. No one wants to carry that baggage around. But addicts we are and our goal is to break the cycle of what caused it. I wouldn’t even venture to say how many self-help groups there are out there to help as many addicts. In fact, most addicts cover their tracks fairly well. 
