The Melbourne Jewish Report | August 2025 by thejewishreport

speaker at JNF Australia’s annual campaign launch (see pages 4 and 5).

Eli Sharabi, who endured 491 days of captivity at the hands of Hamas, will be the special guest

Photo by Blake Ezra.

JULIAN NATHAN HOLD REAL ESTATE ISRAELI NEWS

Why Israeli real estate is a good investment for your future

For more than 25 years, our team has been tracking the Israeli real estate market and helping foreign buyers invest with confidence. We’ve seen the cycles, the growth, and the shifts and we continue to handpick developments based on prime locations, reliable developers and long-term potential. If you've been thinking about investing in Israeli real estate, there’s never been a better time to do so. Despite global uncertainty, the Israeli market is thriving. A growing population, ongoing housing shortages and major infrastructure projects like the Tel Aviv Metro are driving strong demand and setting the stage for solid returns.

Here are just a few reasons why the so-called “bubble” isn’t likely to burst anytime soon.

A global Jewish shift: investing in a future in Israel

Since October 7, 2023, foreign investment from Jewish communities around the world has been on the rise. With growing uncertainty and antisemitism abroad, more Jews are turning to Israel not just as a homeland, but as a secure and meaningful place to build a future.

For many, buying property in Israel is more than just a financial move – it’s about connection, identity and legacy. From Sydney or Melbourne to Toronto and Johannesburg to Paris, families are purchasing apartments with the goal of securing a future home for themselves or their children. There’s no place like home and for many that home is Israel.

Supply vs. demand: the driving force behind rising prices

One of the main drivers behind the surge in Israeli real estate is simple: there just aren’t enough homes to meet the needs of a growing population. By mid-2024, Israel was already short about 200,000 housing units. With the population expected to reach 13.2 million by 2040, demand is only going to rise. While the government has taken steps to speed up construction and ease zoning rules, progress has been slow. The number of new apartments built each year still falls far short of what’s needed. This ongoing gap between supply and demand has been pushing property prices higher year after year. Since the 2008 financial crisis, values have risen steadily and for investors that’s a strong signal. It suggests prices will likely keep climbing, making this a smart time to get into the market.

Urban renewal: a major investment opportunity

Urban renewal is one of the most promising areas in Israeli real estate. Programs like **Tama 38** and *Pinui Binui**are designed to modernise ageing buildings, especially those built before 1980.

These initiatives increase housing supply, improve safety and offer residents

There’s no place like home

upgraded or new apartments. *Pinui Binui**projects go further by demolishing outdated buildings and replacing them with new ones, often multiplying the number of units by up to four. This isn’t just about building more – it’s about revitalising entire neighbourhoods, especially in high-demand areas like Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya and Jersusalem. Another major push is the redevelopment of old military bases. Projects like Sarona in Tel Aviv have already transformed former army sites into thriving residential hubs, with more to come, including the former Sde Dov airport.

Infrastructure: the game changer

One of the biggest factors set to shape the future of Israeli real estate is the country’s investment in infrastructure, particularly public transportation. The upcoming Tel Aviv Metro is a perfect example. Once completed, it will feature two lines and 109 stations, covering 150 kilometres and connecting key cities across the Gush Dan metropolitan area. The Metro is expected to serve up to two million passengers daily and will dramatically reduce travel times. For

instance, a commute from Petach Tikva to Tel Aviv that currently takes 72 minutes by bus or nearly an hour by car will be reduced to just 27 minutes on the Metro. This kind of convenience will increase demand for properties near the new stations. As an investor, proximity to these Metro lines could become a major selling point, significantly boosting property values in those areas.

Investing in new developments: a flexible option

For those interested in new developments, there are plenty of attractive opportunities. Not only do these properties tend to appreciate quickly, but they also come with favourable financing options. Many new projects require only a 20 per cent deposit upfront, with the remaining balance payable upon completion. This extended timeframe gives investors more flexibility to secure financing, while benefiting from the property’s appreciation over time.

The rental market: a steady income stream

The Israeli rental market is another area seeing tremendous growth. Almost

a third of Israeli households rent their homes and rents are steadily increasing as the housing shortage continues. Rental yields are currently around three to four per cent per annum, but they’re expected to rise as demand grows.

The potential for steady, long-term rental income is strong, especially as tenants in Israel tend to rent for longer periods, often until they’re in their mid 30s. For investors, this means stable cash flow and less turnover.

Plus, with property values steadily appreciating, there’s also the potential for significant capital gains.

Is now the right time to invest?

In short, “yes”. Israel’s real estate market is poised for continued growth, thanks to a unique combination of factors: a booming population, a persistent housing shortage and significant infrastructure improvements. Additionally, an increase in Aliyah due to rising antisemitism worldwide is expected to further fuel demand.

As the country continues to grow and evolve, real estate will remain a key driver of economic prosperity. Investors who act now stand to benefit the most from these trends.

So, if you’ve been considering getting into the Israeli property market, there’s no time like the present. Because, when it comes down to it, there’s no place like home.

Meet us in person at one of our private parlour presentations in Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth between 1–9 September, 2025.

Contact us to book a quick introductory call. Exact locations and meeting times will be shared after this brief conversation, designed to better understand your needs and provide relevant options.

Email: info@hold.co.il

HOLD Real Estate CEO Ari Shapiro (far left) and managing director Julian Nathan (far right) with their executive team at the site of their new development in Florentine, South Tel Aviv (photo taken in May 2025)

Not even missiles from Iran deterred these buyers from the United States from purchasing a new apartment in the heart of Tel Aviv, set for delivery in four years (photo taken in June 2025)

There are moments that divide history into “before” and “after”. October 7, 2023, was one of them. On that day, Israel’s border communities bore the unimaginable – families torn apart, homes destroyed, landscapes scarred. But as the dust settled, something else began to emerge: a quiet determination to rebuild, to heal, to rise.

In Australia, the JNF community didn’t hesitate. Since that devastating day, JNF Australia has supported more than 60 urgent projects across Israel’s north and south, restoring water infrastructure, creating therapeutic spaces for children, providing trauma recovery support and helping families return to their homes and land.

Now, with the launch of its 2025 campaign, Together, We Rise With Israel, JNF Australia renews its commitment to turning devastation into renewal, with more projects, more partnerships, and more purpose than ever before.

This year’s campaign will be headlined by an extraordinary voice of resilience –Eli Sharabi, a survivor of Hamas captivity, who endured 491 days as a hostage, after losing his wife and daughters in the brutal attack on Kibbutz Be’eri.

Sharabi will share his story publicly in Australia for the first time, appearing live in Sydney on 2 September, Melbourne on 4 September and Perth on 7 September. In Sydney and Melbourne, he will be interviewed on stage by acclaimed Israeli journalist and podcast Call Me Back regular, Nadav Eyal, in what promises to be an unforgettable evening.

Eyal brings deep insight and empathy to the conversation. A winner of Israel’s prestigious Sokolov Award, he is widely known for his sharp analysis and humancentred reporting.

“Sharabi is not just a survivor – he is a symbol of Israel’s unbreakable spirit, a living testament to endurance, courage, and hope. This will be more than just an interview. It will be a deeply personal account of his time in captivity and his vision for a stronger and thriving Israel,” says JNF Australia national president, Pam Krail.

“I lost everything – my wife, my daughters, my home. But I haven’t lost my voice,” Sharabi says. “What was taken from us on October 7 will not define us. What we rebuild together will,” he says.

Sharabi’s presence in Australia is more than symbolic. It’s a personal call to action. This year’s JNF Australia annual campaign is not only about hearing a story. It’s about becoming part of the next chapter. From Kibbutz Nahal Oz to Kiryat Shmona, the needs are real and the time to act is now.

Over recent years, under the leadership of JNF Australia’s immediate past president Steven Salamon, the organisation has worked closely with communities on the ground in Israel to

A voice of survival, a vision for renewal: Eli Sharabi headlines JNF’s annual campaign

carefully select high-impact projects that the Australian Jewish community can proudly support.

“For many years, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how every dollar donated from Australia transforms lives in Israel,” says Salamon. “From donation to destination, we’ve focused on projects where we know we can make a real and lasting difference, not just today, but for generations to come.”

JNF's approach has always been strategic and compassionate, ensuring that each initiative supported offers both immediate relief and longterm sustainability. “It’s not just about responding to crisis,” Salamon says. “It’s about helping to rebuild communities in a way that’s smarter, stronger and more resilient than before.”

Among the many projects JNF Australia will support in 2025 is the restoration of the water reservoir in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, vital infrastructure for agriculture and survival in a region that was ravaged during the October attacks.

In Kibbutz Be’eri, where Sharabi lived, an outdoor educational space will provide children with a place for play, learn and heal. In Nir Oz, the ImagineBox

Learning & Treatment Space will offer an immersive therapy for emotional recovery.

Further south, Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha will benefit from a nature-based trauma recovery garden, a green space for mental and emotional healing, surrounded by resilience and rooted in community.

Projects will support a wide range of initiatives beyond infrastructure, from therapeutic gardens and wastewater systems to youth empowerment programs and environmental education in the Eshkol region. Projects like the restoration of the Gaton River in Nahariya, an Olive Grove at Ein Habsor and ecological rehabilitation in Kibbutz Malkiya are testament to JNF’s holistic approach to recovery, healing the land, the people, and the spirit of Israel.

Israel’s north suffered massive devastation and destruction after October 7, leaving communities displaced for more than a year. In Kiryat Shmona, where thousands were displaced by Hezbollah attacks, JNF Australia is committed to supporting a Community Stress Prevention Centre, an

innovative hub for emotional wellbeing and mental health support. In Misgav Am, ecological restoration is underway through replanting initiatives and the revival of community gardens, helping to heal both land and spirit.

Each of these projects has been chosen not just for what they rebuild, but for what they represent – safety, renewal and hope. These are not abstract concepts. They are tangible outcomes, shaped by the generosity of the Australian Jewish community and the direct engagement of JNF’s on-theground partners in Israel.

What sets JNF Australia apart is its model of compassion in action. Funds raised go toward projects that are carefully selected in consultation with the affected communities. It’s not just about building structures; it’s about restoring futures. From donation to destination, JNF Australia provides full visibility, ensuring that every contribution leads to meaningful, measurable impact.

JNF Australia CEO Doron Lazarus says: “We don’t just respond to crises – we invest in resilience. We don’t just raise funds – we are grounded in the belief that rebuilding is not just about what was lost: it’s about what can be bigger and better.”

When the JNF Annual Campaign events conclude next month, the real work of rising with Israel continues. Supporting JNF Australia’s wide-ranging projects is more than a donation. It’s a commitment to Israel’s future. It means becoming part of a movement that turns compassion into action and belief into impact. It’s the understanding that these families are our families. We see them, we hear them and we stand with them as they rebuild their lives and communities.

Since its founding in 1901, JNF has helped shape the physical and emotional landscape of Israel. From planting trees to building towns, JNF’s legacy is one of vision and action. In 2025, JNF Australia continues that mission by focusing on the future – funding what matters, with people on the ground.

As the JNF campaign declares, Together, We Rise With Israel, because rebuilding is not just about the past –it’s about what we create next. Every donation, every act of solidarity is a step closer to a brighter future for Israel. Now is the time to turn compassion into action.

Join JNF Australia, hear Eli Sharabi’s extraordinary story in conversation with Nadav Eyal and be part of rebuilding the lives and the land of Israel.

Last remaining seats are available, so to secure your tickets visit www.jnf.org. au or call 1300 563 563.

Photos show people and projects supported by JNF Australia

CONSIDERED OPINION

DR. DVIR ABRAMOVICH

She lives in the attic now. Not the one above Prinsengracht 263, but the one that exists beyond time.

Eighty years have passed since her voice was silenced, yet the room remains just quiet enough to hear everything. Close enough to listen. Too far away to reach into the darkness that keeps spreading. And today, in a café that could be anywhere, but feels like Amsterdam, I imagine her climbing down.

Anne Frank. Not as she was when her voice was stilled, but as she might be now: 96, with a face that has lived, not only endured.

Her eyes, still wide, but no longer innocent. Her hands resting on a napkin, as if on a page from the diary she never finished.

The window beside us fogs up with breath and from the rain cascading down. Outside, a tram rolls past like a steel heartbeat. Inside, Anne leans forward, not with urgency, but with presence.

I remind myself that this conversation never happened. But if it could, if Anne had survived Bergen-Belsen, come of age, lived through everything we promised her would never be repeated, I believe she would want to know what became of her legacy. “I didn't think I'd be remembered,” she says.

What do you say to that? What do you say to a girl who died of typhus in a liceinfested barracks? Who was stripped of her name, her hair, her family and left to vanish as a number, until her words found their way back?

I try to answer. I tell her that her diary, the red-checked one she began at 13, has been read by more than 30 million people. That it's been translated into more than 70 languages and that schoolchildren study her words.

She nods, once. “But are they still hearing me?”

I hesitate. I tell her about Australia. About the terrifying surge in antisemitic incidents, about the synagogues in Melbourne that were firebombed and about the 10-year-old Jewish students on a school trip that were called "dirty Jews". About the graffiti. The threats. I tell her that each morning brings fresh entries to this grim ledger.

Then, I move on to October 7, 2023. The 1,200 Israelis murdered by Hamas. The families dragged from their homes. The children taken hostage. The babies, musicians and peace activists. I tell her that many of them are still underground.

I recount the 100,000 people marching across Sydney Harbour Bridge and the King Street Bridge in Melbourne last week, shouting and banging pots to mimic hunger. It was called the March for Humanity. I explain that there were signs comparing Jews to Nazis. That some shouted "Death to the IDF" and "Long live the Intifada”. That a giant portrait of Ayatollah Khamenei was waved above the crowd, like a flag of virtue. That no one recounted the names of the hostages still trapped beneath Gaza.

Anne's fingers press lightly into the napkin. “And the crowd made room for them?” she asks. Yes. She closes her eyes. “There is no neutrality in the face of

What would Anne Frank say if she saw the world as it is today?

hatred,” she says. “Only the silence that makes it easier.”

Her voice tightens, like a wire drawn between rafters. She looks at me and then past me, as if watching a world she once believed in take another ugly turn.

I tell her about Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski. Two boys. A music festival. October 7. They had gone to dance for the feeling of being young and unafraid.

Then Hamas came. The boys were dragged into Gaza. And for nearly two years, the world heard nothing.

Until now. Evyatar, 24. Rail thin. He holds a shovel. He digs into the floor of a tunnel. He looks at the camera and says, "What I’m doing now is digging my own grave”.

Rom, 22. Sobbing, skeletal. He says he's starving. He says he cannot walk. He says he is dying.

Anne doesn't move, but the air around her shifts.

I tell her about Tami Braslavski, Rom's mother, who said, “They broke my boy. I want him home now.” About Ophir, his father, whose voice broke. “You see your child dying before your eyes and you can’t do anything. It drives you crazy, it’s unbearable.”

David's brother Ilay called the video “a new form of cruelty”, that the sight of his brother reduced to a human skeleton has shattered their parents.

Anne folds the edge of the napkin. Carefully. “They're digging graves again,” she says, almost to herself. “And we are watching.” She is quiet for a time. When she speaks again, her voice carries the weight of decades. “You know Dvir, when I was hiding in that attic, I used to imagine what the world would look like when the war ended. I thought surely, after seeing what hatred could do, people would make better choices.” She looks up … and there's something almost tender in her sadness. “I was so

young then. I believed that once people knew what happened to us, really knew, it would be like a vaccination against cruelty and antisemitism.”

“But hatred doesn't learn from history, does it? It only learns to disguise itself better. I wrote once that despite everything, I still believed people were good at heart. I still believe that. But goodness requires courage and courage requires choosing to see. Most people, when they watch hatred march past their window, simply close the curtains.”

Her eyes, older now and darker, remain still. “I hear them yelling again. I just never thought it would be in English.”

“They always think they're saying something new," she says. ”But, they're only repeating what the world has heard before, just with different slogans and different excuses. The melody is old. Only the chorus changes.”

I sit with that. The way one sits with a final line in a film that doesn't resolve, but reverberates.

And then she speaks again, this time with a different tone. Not to me. But to the non-Jewish world, the friends, the allies, the neighbours who've read her diary and nodded solemnly, but have not yet asked what it demands of them.

“If you love what I wrote, if you quote me in your speeches, then remember that I was not a metaphor. I was a girl. And girls like me are still in hiding.”

She stands. “You don't have to understand everything. You just have to stand for something.”

And then she is gone. I remain at the table.

Anne Frank died in February 1945, skeletal, lice-ridden, wrapped in the stench of disease. She was 15. Her sister died days earlier. Her mother died in Auschwitz. Her father survived. What she left is not just a diary. It's a kind of

unfinished sentence, one that each generation is asked to complete. Not with tributes. Not with hashtags. But with action.

Her words have crossed borders her body never did. Nelson Mandela read her diary so many times in prison that the pages wore thin. Malala Yousafzai, shot for going to school, once said she felt Anne beside her, like a friend who understood. Elie Wiesel called her writing “the voice of six million souls.”

But the truth is that the world has failed her test.

There is no final paragraph where Anne's eyes soften with peace or where distant tunnel doors swing open to reveal the hostages stepping back into the land of the living. There is only what we do next.

Anne once wrote that she wanted to go on living after her death. She has. It's now Australia’s turn to earn the privilege of sharing her words, by standing up when it counts and defending what they meant. By saying that anti-Jewish hate in the name of any cause is still hate. That the safety of Jewish children is not a footnote to anyone else's agenda. Anne is gone. But her voice is not. I stand up and walk to the window. In the reflection, I see not just my own face, but the faces of everyone that has ever chosen silence when they should have spoken. Outside, the tram fades into the horizon, carrying people that may never know that they passed a café where a ghost reminded the living what courage looks like. I wonder how many of them would stop if they heard a teenage Jewish girl calling from a hidden window. I push open the door. There is work to do and the attic is listening.

Dr. Dvir Abramovich is chair of the AntiDefamation Commission and the author of eight books.

Anne Frank

Dr. Dvir Abramovich

THE COMMUNITY

DR. PHILIP BLISS OAM PJV AROUND

The growing division within the Jewish community is a reflection on how we view the Hamas/Israel war and the effect on the Israelis and the Palestinians in Gaza. The differences politically and religiously between the old Left and Right wings has seen a seismic upheaval, different influences have created division and, believe it or not, even a harmony not seen previously.

In the midst of this turbulence, we begin to see who our real friends are, who definitely are our enemies and those who are so ambivalent that we have stopped trying to guess which side they are on.

The recent cases of anti-Jewish violence, whilst really affecting our community, have also shown that there is a core of Australians who are sympathetic and supportive. There has been an overwhelming response to the awful violence at the Israeli restaurant Miznon, in the city. That has especially come from non-Jews, who are wining and dining at their two establishments.

The night a group of us from Temple Beth Israel attended most of the clientele weren’t Jewish. The day after the attacks, a table of Muslim women in full hijab occupied a large table to show solidarity.

Can we agree to disagree?

Some in the wider community have separated their support for the Jews in Melbourne from that of the State of Israel. Interestingly, a growing number of Jews who have sat more on the Right wing of Israel politics are now openly talking about their distress at the growing reports of hunger in Gaza. Even this is distorted with the doctored photo of an emaciated child, first published on the front page of The New York Times, who was actually suffering from cerebral

palsy and other genetic illnesses. If starvation in Gaza is such a reality, why use a false photo that has been easily disproved and where the child’s brother and mother look well fed?

While many media outlets have published corrections over the photo, the ABC and SBS, after emphasising the hunger, have hardly responded with any correction.

On the other hand, many of the Jews on the far Left have used every

opportunity to undermine other Jews and the State of Israel to the point of cosying up to many antisemites.

Another interesting aspect of commentary about the Gaza war has been the large number of articulate, welleducated young women making their case for Israel, both here and around the world. I do not ever remember such an open display of such Jewish and nonJewish “ambassadors” for Israel and the Jewish community here. There have also been evangelical Christian, Right wing men who have made it their business to speak up on Israel’s behalf. What motivates them we can only speculate.

In the background have been extremists in the Netanyahu government who have made some of the most vile, racist comments that have undermined Jewish communities in the diaspora. Their fascist-like vision has been used as anti-Jewish propaganda that has added to the attacks and violence being perpetrated against us.

We must remain strong, speak up when we know actions and events are antithetical to our own Jewish beliefs and values, and continue to advocate for the suffering hostages who have now been in pitiful captivity for nearly two years. We must never forget that Hamas and the other terror groups, whilst hugely weakened, have achieved many of their goals by painting Israel as a pariah.

“ The wound of grief is the price we pay for love ”

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

ELIAS CONSIDERED OPINION

Much like happiness, sadness and fear, anger is a basic human emotion. It arises in response to situations that are perceived as threatening, unfair or obstructive. From an evolutionary perspective, anger has survival value. It prepares individuals to defend themselves, take action and correct wrongs.

U.S. freelance writer and photographer Alexandra Marvar wrote: “My therapist once told me anger is the part of you that loves you the most. It shows up when you’re being mistreated, ignored or disrespected. It’s a signal calling you to step away from what’s harming you. Whether it’s a room, a job, a relationship or an old version of yourself, anger lets you know when it’s time to walk away. If you learn to listen to it, to trust it and make it your ally, it won’t need to shout so loudly”.

It is important to differentiate between anger and aggression. Some people may express anger in an aggressive and/or violent way, which is not helpful or recommended.

Psychologically, anger often reflects unmet expectations, unfulfilled desires or violations of one’s values or boundaries.

CROSSWORD

Understanding anger

While anger is a universal emotion, how people experience and express it can vary widely based on cultural norms, personality traits and learned behaviour. For a variety of reasons, including familial, cultural, gender bias or personal experience with abuse, you may not be able to recognise the feeling of anger or equate anger with rage and violence. Anger can also be described as frustration, irritability, exasperation, annoyance and rage.

When we experience anger, our body has a physiological response. Our heart rate and blood pressure increase, preparing the body for physical action.

Our muscles tense in readiness for the body to respond. Finally, our breathing increases to have more oxygen to supply energy for potential action.

These changes are adaptive in short bursts, but can lead to long-term health issues, such as heart disease or high blood pressure, should anger become chronic. Some people develop chronic anger when they can’t resolve issues or let go of events, people or situations.

There is also a thought process that we engage in when we feel anger.

Firstly, there is a perception of threat. Think about the rise of antisemitism since October 7th and your reaction to that.

At the deli clues

"You've got mail!" brand

23. Game show decision at the deli? 28. Activity for many a little girl 30. To be, in Paris

Like a Hasmonean coin 32. Mark Zuckerberg, for one

into

(flaky layers included)?

Feeling angry may be a response to a perceived injustice, lack of fairness or unmet expectations.

If you haven’t the tools to manage or express anger appropriately it is either internalised or externalised. When we internalise anger, it is suppressed and can lead to physical or mental health issues. If suppressed, the anger can erupt inappropriately.

Externalising anger manifests as rage with verbal outbursts and/or physical violence. So how should one express anger effectively?

1. Don’t hurt yourself.

2. Don’t hurt others.

3. Don’t hurt property.

Healthy expressions of anger involve:

1. Writing it out, using journalling, poetry or prose.

2. Artwork, such as painting or sculpture.

3. Breathing it out.

4. Counting to 10 – buy time so that you can talk it out.

Unresolved anger can lead to mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression or, even, substance abuse. Finally, we can’t resolve conflict while we are angry, which leads me to this quote from an unknown author: “When you let anger get the better of you, it brings out the worst in you”.

Anne-Marie Elias is a psychologist in clinical practice for 25 years.

11. The font, not the mermaid

12. "Brady Bunch" mom

13. A good thing to do on stage

18. Abner and Wayne

19. Congeal, as blood

24. Lyndon Johnson's younger daughter

25. Gp. that delivers crude material

26. One of the "Guardians of the Galaxy"

27. "Cash" or "cop" chaser

28. "Aw, heck!"

29. Big name in pasta sauce

33. Approves, briefly

35. "Holier Than Thou" and "One" band

36. Chief Asgard god

37. 1993 film where the title character's name is chanted

39. MLBers, e.g.

40. Function as a bank

41. Censor, say

44. Samurai sash

46. In any event

48. Where Doc Gooden often operated?

49. "Dumb and Dumber To" star

51. Day-to-day worker, for short

52. Like this, to Lior

53. Israeli brigade

54. Kind of chip

55. Stat. for Stockton

58. A Ghostbuster

59. MDs for sinus sufferers

61. Picture of health, for short?

62. Org. concerned with air quality

63. It coincides with Av: Abbr.

64. Longtime Labor Day telethon org.

ANNE-MARIE

Edinburgher

Shire who often co-starred with Stalone

Posing activity

Sits in the sun

Sneaker string

Great Talmudic Rav

Wandered aimlessly

Crummy feeling

Degree for many a GM

"That's soothing"

Israeli party

"Seinfeld" character with the catchphrase "get out"

Pose

Tefillin or tallit item

YONI GLATT KOSHER

Bravery medals to be given to MDA workers Adham Safadi returns to the place that changed his life

Oshrit Hadad, a 23-year-old Magen David Adom paramedic from the Ashdod station and a resident of Netivot, set out on the morning of October 7th, 2023 to treat the wounded. Together with MDA teams, she established a field hospital at Shuva Junction, where, under life-threatening conditions, they treated dozens of casualties for hours.

“There was a soldier who was critically wounded; he grabbed my hand and asked me to say Shema Yisrael with him,” Oshrit recalls.

Now, Oshrit has been selected to receive the President's Award for Civilian Bravery, along with Gilad Hunwald, a senior emergency medical technician with MDA.

In his case, on October 7th, while evacuating the injured from Kibbutz Alumim, where he lives, he also fought terrorists.

Around 6:30am that day, alarms were heard on the kibbutz. Gilad left his home with his son to search for casualties. Soon after, they heard gunfire from the direction of Nahal Oz and began receiving reports of terrorists in the kibbutz.

Without hesitation, Gilad and other members of the security response team ran toward the terrorists to defend the community – a battle that lasted over four hours.

Later, Gilad returned to treat the wounded and encountered four more Hamas terrorists, who charged toward him.

After narrowly escaping, Gilad received reports that members of the security team had been wounded and needed urgent medical care.

With courage and resourcefulness, Gilad picked up a weapon and while under live fire, began evacuating the wounded, while continuing to engage the terrorists. He evacuated 10 people.

A year ago, a rocket fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams (a predominantly Druze town in the Golan Heights), killing 12 children and teenagers, and injuring 34 others. Senior Magen David Adom emergency medical technician Adham Safadi was one of the MDA team members who arrived at the scene to provide medical care to the wounded. Among the chaos, he found his youngest daughter, Venes.

“It was a day that began with great joy –a wedding. I never imagined it would end like this,” Adham said. That afternoon, on his way home, Adham ran into Venes, who was wearing a soccer jersey and told him she was going to play with friends. Just a few hours later, a siren was heard in the area, followed by a loud explosion. Without hesitation, he and his wife rushed to the field, as thick black smoke covered Majdal Shams and the streets filled with terrified and anxious residents. “When I heard the explosion, I looked out the window and saw black smoke rising from where Venes had gone. I don’t remember much after that. I acted quickly and found myself at the field searching for her. There were many injuries, bodies … I recognised Venes by the jersey she was wearing. There was nothing to be done – she was lifeless. I took a deep breath and continued treating the injured at the scene,” he said.

Twelve months after the devastating tragedy, Adham opens his heart and shares

ISRAEL ON ALERT

the difficult months he and the community of Majdal Shams have endured. “A year has passed, but the mourning is still very present in our home … and throughout the council. Since that day, Majdal Shams has changed completely.

You can feel the sorrow in everyone’s eyes. The people here are kindhearted and supportive; they haven’t left the bereaved families alone for even a single day since it happened. They’ve stood by us throughout,”

Adham said, adding: “From the first day I joined Magen David Adom, I committed myself to the mission of helping others. For over 18 years, I’ve given everything I have. That day, I saw the MDA teams caring for the children with such devotion and since then, I’ve felt an even stronger calling to give more of myself.”

MAGEN DAVID ADOM

Oshrit Hadad

Adham Safadi

This year’s exhibition was the largest and most diverse in the event’s history.

It showcased more than 220 artworks, which were submitted by upwards of 180 Jewish artists in Years 6 to 12 from 18 schools, including, for the first time, interstate entrants.

A surge in participation from students at state schools highlights the growing reach and impact of the competition.

The exhibition featured a vibrant collection of works in a host of mediums: painting, drawing, portraiture and caricature, photography, sculpture and mixed media.

Fifty prizes were awarded across multiple age groups and artistic categories, reflecting B’nai B’rith’s commitment to nurturing and recognising the creative talents of young Jewish artists.

The Morrie Gold Prize for the overall winner was awarded to 13-year-old Amelia Griffin.

The Community Bank Bendigo Bank Caulfield Park Award for the overall runner-up went to Milo Friedman.

The recipient of the Thalia Hakin Memorial Prize for the best artwork across Years 6 and 7 was Toby Lopata, which was presented by David Southwick MP, on behalf of the Gandel Foundation.

Record participation and powerful community impact of B’nai B’rith

30th Year Youth Art

With more than 1,400 community votes submitted for the People’s Choice Award, Ester Bruce emerged as the clear favourite.

The B’nai B’rith Jewish Youth Art Competition remains a vital platform for nurturing young Jewish artistic talent, promoting cultural pride and strengthening community connection through creativity.

B’nai B’rith Victoria CEO, Ellana Aarons said the organisation’s ability to host the event is only made possible through generous sponsorships and donations.

“So, I call on the community to help ensure this cherished tradition continues for generations to come by donating to the B’nai B’rith Cultural Fund,” Ms Aarons said.

All donations over $2 are taxdeductible and directly support the competition and future exhibitions.

To view all artworks, the complete list of winners and for more information about how to support the competition, please contact: admin@bbvic.org.au or visit www.bnaibrith.org.au/Victoria

Competition

B’NAI B’RITH

B’nai B’rith Youth Art Competition overall winner Amelia Griffin

From left, David Robinson, Jade Karp, Milo Friedman (Milo was overall runner-up) and Marc Light

From left, Felix, Malia, Leon and Toby Lopata and Rebecca Werther (Toby won best artwork for Years 6 and 7)

The United Israel Appeal (UIA) has announced a partnership with Safewill, one of Australia’s leading online Willwriting platforms, making it easier than ever for Australians to create a legacy that truly matters.

Safewill and UIA believe that every Australian should have a Will. A Will is the most effective way to ensure that your wishes are honoured, your loved ones are protected and your legacy and values continue to shape the future. Yet, almost half of Australian adults don’t have a legally binding Will, leaving families vulnerable to uncertainty and legal complications at an already difficult time.

Through this partnership, the process of writing a Will has become both accessible and meaningful. Normally valued at hundreds of dollars, UIA supporters will be able to have their Will legally written up and reviewed at no cost, for a limited time. In this way, UIA is helping the community gain peace of mind, while also opening the door to leaving a legacy that supports the People of Israel.

Every gift left in a Will to UIA – even as little as one per cent of an estate – can make a real difference. Contributions

New partnership to help donors leave a lasting legacy for Israel

from a gift go directly to supporting Israel’s national priorities through UIA’s wide-reaching programs. These include helping new immigrants through Aliyah and absorption, mentoring at-risk youth, caring for the elderly, supporting victims of terror and aiding the rehabilitation of communities devastated by war.“Regardless of your stage of life, now is the perfect time to put weight behind the words Am Yisrael Chai,” said UIA Australia CEO, Yair Miller OAM.

UIA Victoria CEO Peter Horovitz said: “This partnership allows you to ensure the continuity of our shared legacy by guaranteeing that the People of Israel can thrive, even after you have gone.”

In return for a gift left in a Will, UIA has made a promise to use every dollar left with the utmost care and integrity. By writing your Will and including UIA, you are not only safeguarding your loved ones, but also helping to safeguard the destiny of the Jewish People.

Free Wills Week with Safewill runs from 1–15 September. To find out more about this partnership, visit https://uiaaustralia. org.au

How many common words of five or more letters can you spell using the letters in the hive? Every answer must use the centre letter at least once. Letters may be reused in a word. There is a term that will use all seven letters and is two words.

Proper names and hyphenated words are not allowed. Score one point for each answer and three points for the mitzvah that uses all seven letters.

Rating: 5 = Good; 7= Excellent; 9 = Genius

SEE THE IMPACT OF UIA’S WORK PAY TRIBUTE AT OCT 7 MEMORIAL SITES WITNESS THE REBUILD OF IMPACTED COMMUNITIES UNDERSTAND THE SECURITY LANDSCAPE & CURRENT CLIMATE FIRST HAND SOUTH - 26 AUG | 17 SEP | 16 OCT | 26 NOV | 30 DEC NORTH - 15 SEP | 15 DEC

Yoni Glatt has published more than 1,000 crossword puzzles worldwide, from the LA Times and Boston Globe to The Jerusalem Post. He has also published two Jewish puzzle books: "Kosher Crosswords" and the sequel "More Kosher Crosswords and Word Games".

ANSWERS PAGE 22

A gift in your Will can support Aliyah flights for those fleeing countries where antisemitism is rising

CANDLE LIGHTING TIMES

Wellness, the Jewish way

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NOMI KALTMANN COURTESY: THE JEWISH INDEPENDENT

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Lately, I’ve realised that many of the things that help me stay calm and grounded come from Judaism. Not the big, dramatic parts, just the quiet, repetitive rituals I’ve done for years, without thinking too hard about them. In my 30s, with my job, kids and many demands, I notice that these rituals have become the scaffolding of my days.

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Then there’s Shabbat. In a world where digital detoxes are trending, Orthodox Jews have been doing this for centuries. For 25 hours, from Friday evening to Saturday night, we unplug – no phones, no laptops, no scrolling. And “yes”, sometimes that is hard. Especially in the past one to nearly two years, when major events in Israel often seemed to unfold just as Shabbat or as a Chag (holiday) began. There were times I didn’t want to switch off, but once I did, I noticed the difference.

For me, even the mundane parts of Jewish life have a surprising impact. Washing hands before eating bread, lighting candles on Friday night, pausing to say a blessing before I eat – these are small, physical acts, but they elevate the everyday. They help me notice what I’d otherwise rush through.

For those who mean the world to you, only the finest will do.

Judaism doesn’t let us forget the natural world and that’s a gift, especially now, when so much of our lives are lived indoors and online. One of the most effective mental health tips is to spend time in nature. Judaism, quietly and consistently, nudges us to do just that.

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Gratitude

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One of the buzzwords in wellness culture is gratitude. You’re encouraged to write affirmations about your body, your breath and the good things in your life. In Orthodox Judaism, gratitude is present from the minute you wake in the morning. The first thing I say every morning is Modeh Ani, a short prayer thanking G-d for returning my soul to my body.

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For me, on Shabbat, I’m more present. I read actual books. I play board games with my kids. My children pull out toys they’ve ignored all week. The screens go quiet and our house feels different, calmer, slower and more connected.

In fact, I’ve started to notice that these small rituals are sometimes the only parts of my day when I’m not reacting to something or scrolling through the craziness of the news. They’re moments that exist outside productivity. I don’t do them to get anything done, I do them because they’re part of the rhythm of Jewish life and somehow that makes them even more powerful.

To be clear, this is not a pitch to become religious. I don’t think Orthodox Judaism has a monopoly on these ideas. You can find mindfulness, gratitude and community in lots of different places and traditions. But I do think the built-in structure of Orthodox life offers a helpful framework, especially if you’re someone who thrives with routine.

Melbourne Jewish Report Disclaimer:

There’s a structure to it that I’ve come to crave. It’s not glamorous. It’s not always easy, but stepping away from the noise of the world each week has become one of the most valuable parts of my mental health toolkit.

It’s simple, but it shifts my focus. Before I’ve even looked at my phone, before the morning chaos begins, I’m reminded that life isn’t a given. That I woke up is already something to be thankful for.

Time to pause

Meditation is another wellness practice that’s constantly recommended. That is where you take the time to reflect, breathe and pause. And while I’ve never been great at sitting on a cushion in silence, daily Jewish prayer, tefillah, offers a similar experience. It creates space to think, to reconnect with something larger than myself. It’s structured and repetitive, which helps on the days when everything else feels overwhelming. There’s comfort in having a set rhythm to follow.

Except where expressly stated otherwise, content in The Melbourne Jewish Report is provided as general informations only. The articles in this paper have been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content here are presented solely by the author, and The Jewish Report assumes no responsibility for them. It is not intended as advice and must not be relied upon as such. You should make your own inquiries and take independent advice tailored to your specific circumstances prior to making any decisions. We do not make any representation or warranty that any material in the papers will be reliable, accurate or complete, nor do we accept any responsibility arising in any way from errors or omissions. We will not be liable for loss resulting from any action or decision by you in reliance on the material in the papers. By reading the papers, you acknowledge that we are not responsible for, and accept no liability in relation to, any reader’s use of, access to or conduct in connection with the papers in any circumstance. Photographs submitted by individuals or organisations are assumed to be their property and are therefore not otherwise credited. All articles in this paper have received the expressed consent of the author to publish in this paper.

We live in a time when loneliness is a public health crisis. People are craving community and connection, but often don’t know where to find it. In Orthodox Jewish life, community, a kehillah, is central. We celebrate together, mourn together and show up for one another. When I had each of my babies, friends from shul organised meal trains, dropped off food and helped me by popping over and entertaining my older children.

There’s also a strong focus in Judaism on altruism and acts of kindness. We’re taught from a young age that doing good for others isn’t just virtuous, it’s essential. There’s even a children’s song that says: “For 70 or 80 years a neshama [soul] wears and tears just to do a favour for another.”

These acts of kindness, gemilut chassadim, aren’t only about helping others; they’re about shaping ourselves, too. When I cook a meal for a new mum or visit someone who’s sick, it’s not just an obligation. It’s a reminder that my actions matter. That I’m part of something bigger than just my own worries.

If you’re not Orthodox, or not religious at all, there are still ways to tap into these benefits. You could try marking the start of Shabbat with a moment of pause, turning off your phone for a set time, or simply sitting down to a meal without distraction.

Connection with nature

Ian Sharp Jewellery Craftsmanship iansharpjewellery

You can take a minute each morning to acknowledge that you’ve woken up and that life is, in and of itself, a gift. These don’t have to be rigid or overwhelming. They’re small moments that can anchor your day, no matter where you are on the religious spectrum.

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Being part of a strong community reflects what so much of modern wellness advice is saying: if you want to feel grounded, find people who will show up for you and show up for them in return.

One area that perhaps gets less attention, but has deeply shaped me, is the Jewish connection to nature. There are blessings for thunder, for lightning, for rainbows. Our prayers change with the seasons. In Shemonah Esrei, one of our holiest daily prayers, we shift our language based on the time of year, acknowledging the wind, the rain and the needs of the land.

65 Toorak Road, South Yarra, VIC 3141 P: 03 9866 4983 e: sales@iansharp.com.au www.iansharp.com.au

As Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) says: “There is nothing new under the sun.” Today, wellness may be marketed in shiny, modern packaging, but so many of its core ideas have been there all along – woven into the rhythms and routines of Jewish life. Gratitude. Presence. Rest. Community. Purpose. Wisdom. These aren’t trends. They’re ancient tools, still useful, still grounding, still quietly holding so many of us together.

AROUND

THE COMMUNITY

The power of early learning

Early education plays a vital role in establishing the skills and qualities that will empower students for future learning.

The King David School offers opportunities for preschool-aged children to come together, play and learn in a joyful, Jewish environment.

Storytime with Savta is a regular, fun, free Sunday morning activity for children aged three to five. They can join Savta Hani for stories, music, games and arts and crafts in Hebrew and English, in a warm, relaxed setting. It’s a great way for little ones to develop their Hebrew skills, make new friends and connect with the community. It is open to everyone, but bookings are essential.

The next session is on 31st August at 10:30am at The King David School. Visit the school’s website: https://www.kds.vic. edu.au to register. Kef Kan ("Fun Here") is a welcoming ELC playgroup, held for an hour every Friday at 9.30am. The program is designed to support early development through play and connection. There are engaging weekly themes, celebrations for Shabbat and chagim, and sing alongs. Bookings are essential.

Visit www.kds.vic.edu.au/registrations-nowopen-elc-playgroup-kef-kan/.

For more on King David’s Early Learning Centre and the evidence-based practices and programs offered, contact the Admissions Department via email: admissions@kds.vic.edu.au

KDS Playgroup

Activities Include:

Kef Kan (fun here) is a warm and welcoming playgroup.

When: Every Friday

Time:

• Sing-along music sessions

• Age appropriate play-based activities

• Celebrations for Shabbat and Chagim

• Fun and engaging weekly themes

THE KING DAVID SCHOOL

Storytime with Savta being enjoyed by a growing number of families

Kef Kan playgroup celebrating Shavuot with festival-themed activities

Kef Kan is an engaging program for the youngest learners

AROUND THE COMMUNITY

YOASH DVIR CEO TECHNION AUSTRALIA

In the world of academia, where the pursuit of truth and knowledge should rise above politics, a disturbing trend is quietly gaining ground: the creeping academic boycott of Israel. This is not the highly visible and vocal campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ (BDS) movement rallies and fiery campus protests. Rather, it is a more insidious, silent form of exclusion, one that manifests as unreturned emails, rejected collaborations, missing invitations and research papers that are quietly declined without explanation. Israeli academics are feeling the chill and the world should take notice.

A recent report from leading Israeli scholars paints a troubling picture. They describe a growing sense of isolation within the global research community, with their European and North American counterparts increasingly reluctant to engage. Some institutions have halted collaborative projects altogether; others are making bureaucratic excuses to

Is there a silent academic boycott against Israel?

Students at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

grind to a halt. The damage is not just academic – it is moral. When the world’s universities, which pride themselves on

and openness when no one is shouting. But the absence of overt hostility does not mean everything is fine. The silent

Academic institutions across the world must reaffirm their commitment to universal academic freedom. Researchers should not be judged by the passport they hold, but by the value of their ideas and the integrity of their work. Scientific progress depends on cross-border collaboration, especially in an era where pandemics, climate change and technological disruptions demand global solutions.

Now is the time for academic leaders to stand firm. University presidents, grant-making bodies and international research councils must make it clear: boycotting scholars based on nationality or political pressure has no place in academia. Remaining silent is not neutrality – it is complicity.

The academic boycott of Israel, silent or vocal, is not just a political statement. It is a step backward for science, dialogue and the core values of the academy. If we allow it to grow unchecked, we risk turning our universities into ideological

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AROUND THE COMMUNITY

DAVID SOLOMON, CEO AUSTRALIAN FRIENDS OF TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

Study reveals a surprising new form of plant-animal communication

In a discovery that’s poised to transform how we think about the natural world, researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have revealed the first scientific evidence of direct acoustic interaction between plants and animals. While plants don’t speak in ways we can hear, the research shows that they do, quite literally, talk … and certain animals are listening.

The “silent” sounds of nature

In this groundbreaking study, researchers found that female moths, on the hunt for safe places to lay their eggs, can detect and respond to distress signals emitted by dehydrated plants. The plants’ cries for help come in the form of ultrasonic sounds, beyond the range of human hearing, but audible to many insects. The moths then actively avoid laying eggs on plants that are sending out these silent distress calls. The discovery, led by Professor Yossi Yovel and Professor Lilach Hadany at TAU’s Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, marks the first verified case of cross-species acoustic communication between plants and animals, a new frontier in ecological science.

Whispers in the tomato patch

The research team worked in collaboration with the Plant Protection

Plants have a voice – and insects are paying attention

Institute at the Volcani Institute to design a series of experiments focused on female moths. These moths typically lay eggs on plants so their larvae can feed on them once hatched, a process highly dependent on the health and vitality of the host plant.

In controlled experiments using recorded ultrasonic emissions of tomato plants in various stages of health –played through hidden speakers – the researchers demonstrated that moths clearly preferred to lay their eggs on healthy or silent plants, interpreting

Tel Aviv University Optimism at work

A healing solution

distress signals from unhealthy plants as a warning. This suggests a survival strategy that benefits both insect and plant.

Other experiments underscored the fact that the insects were specifically responding to plant-emitted frequencies, not just any high-pitched noise in their environment.

Nature’s hidden language revealed “This is the first evidence we have of plants not only emitting sounds, but of animals detecting and responding to those sounds in a meaningful way,” said

Countless TAU students have lost loved ones or endured unimaginable trauma, and many now suffer from PTSD. To address this crisis TAU established Israel’s most advanced post-trauma clinic, providing cutting-edge, evidence-based treatments developed by our globally-renowned researchers over the last 30 years. The clinic has become a critical resource for Israel, treating many TAU students struggling to rebuild their futures.

Professor Yovel. “We’ve opened a door to a vast world of bioacoustics that we’ve only just begun to explore.”

Professor Hadany said: “We suspect that this kind of interaction is far more common than previously imagined. Insects, birds and, possibly, even mammals may be tuning into the soundscape of plant life in ways we are only beginning to understand.”

The implications of the research are wide-ranging. If insects avoid laying eggs on stressed plants, farmers and agronomists could one day use plant acoustics to guide pest management or monitor crop health without chemicals or invasive procedures. Likewise, sound-emitting technologies might be developed to simulate stress signals and deter insect infestations naturally.

A landmark year for TAU and AFTAU This cutting-edge research is emblematic of Tel Aviv University’s position at the forefront of innovation, pushing boundaries in fields ranging from neuroscience to climate science, from cybersecurity to plant bioacoustics. It also comes during a milestone year for the Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU), which is celebrating 50 years of connecting Australian supporters with Israel’s premier research institution.

From left, Professor Yossi Yovel and Professor Lilach Hadany listening to their plants

The Australian Friends of Tel Aviv University

CONSIDERED OPINION

Fighting antisemitism

Menachem Vorchheimer is a tireless advocate for human rights and a prominent voice in the battle against antisemitism. With a background rich in both personal experience and professional dedication, Menachem brings a unique and compelling perspective to fighting hate and promoting tolerance. He is willing to confront the authorities for failing to deal with racist incitement in our society.

David

Recently we’ve seen many different incidents of antisemitism – the Miznon Israeli restaurant in the Melbourne CBD where there was vandalism and people throwing all sorts of paraphernalia at each other. In the suburbs, three cars were set on fire and one completely destroyed at a Jewish business. However, the government has been struggling as to whether they should call this terrorism or not. What do you say about the way that the government and the authorities are dealing with this spate of antisemitism?

Menachem

It's interesting that you start with the idea of terrorism because people don't know what terrorism is. It's actual violence or threatened violence for the purpose of intimidating people for political or religious gain. Whether we've had a physical attack or the threat of an attack on Jewish institutions, these have ultimately intimidated the Jewish population. It's done for political purposes in relation to advancing an agenda, in relation to the narrative in terms of the war in Gaza or to the future of a Palestinian state. Let's not forget that a lot of these protesters use the chant 'from the river to the sea'. At the heart of that chant is the premise that the state of Palestine should be imposed upon the Jewish state, that the Jewish state should be eradicated.

That is their agenda. It’s their political purpose. Within that context, we need to look at all these acts, all this violence and all these slogans and see them for what they are. They are driven by a political agenda, with a political purpose and a political aim.

David

There's been a 15-point plan put out by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry to combat antisemitism, which the Prime Minister has rejected outright, but there are signs that he's cracking, that he's talking with Jillian Segel, the envoy for dealing with antisemitism, and some of the items in this 15-point plan are perhaps going to be taken on board. This plan is a way of dealing with antisemitism in a coordinated fashion.

Something might emerge because all these incidents are putting more pressure on the government.

Menachem

The ECAJ plan is quite thorough and detailed. I welcome those 15 points, but there is only one thing that matters – that is enforcing the law.

On the 10th November 2023, there was a riot outside Central Synagogue in Melbourne that caused the evacuation of 150 worshippers. What people don't necessarily know is that section 21 of the Summary Offences Act 1966 makes it a criminal offence to disturb religious worship.

Had police enforced the law then and charged those individuals who had caused the evacuation of the synagogue on that Friday night, they would have enforced the principle at law that religion is protected, that religious places of worship are protected, that they're holy. They're not places for protest.

Coming back to your question about the ECAJ's 15-point plan, I say there's only really one thing that matters and that is to enforce the existing laws and the existing principles of our constitution about protecting religion. In November 2023, the government should have enforced the law and said that a synagogue is a holy place. If you come here and you disturb it,

David

I'm totally dismayed. I have very little confidence in our governments. I've seen that our community leadership is trying to work together with government because they say we have no choice. To be dismissive of the government, would that not be giving up the ghost completely?

Menachem

Isn’t it better to be honest with the government and say, “hey, it's not working”? There was a parliamentary inquiry into the existing legislation and recommendation 21 thereof was to empower Victoria Police by removing a legislative requirement that necessitated the approval of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) before laying charges for racial or religious vilification.

When you first introduce legislation, it's not uncommon to have a hurdle such as DPP approval to ensure that it's not misused. But this legislation was originally introduced in 2001 and there's been only one prosecution under that act. Fast forward 24 years and we would say that the police should now know enough to enable them to charge using the legislation. The Victoria Police doesn't require DPP perusal to lay charges for murder, manslaughter or armed robbery, or so many other crimes because we've given them those tools.

and you cause the synagogue to be evacuated, we're going to charge you. If they had, then maybe we wouldn't have had the terrorist attack on the Adass shul, the East Melbourne shul, the Newtown or Illawarra shul or any other shul in this country.

David

There's been an anti-racism task force launched by the Victorian government. You would be aware that the Victorian government has recently introduced new legislation to deal with hate and vilification. Is this more of the same from the government that has lost control dealing with antisemitism?

Menachem

Well, David, what do you think? Do you have confidence in Jacinta Allan?

David

I'm actually asking you, Menachem. I want to hear what you say because you've got a hand in the fire, much more than I have.

Menachem

I'd like to think that the views I have aren't singular. They're not just Menachem Vorchheimer’s views, rather my views represent the silent majority about how we, as all members of the community, feel.

The parliamentary inquiry said that it's time to let those shackles go, but the government hasn’t done that. When we talk about new legislation, they’ve failed to adopt what has previously been recommended to empower police, to be able to charge people for racial and religious vilification without the approval of the DPP. Even if the DPP was to grant fresh approval, there can be a considerable delay between the time of an event and when that DPP approval is granted. We come now to when we've got this chant of 'death, death to the IDF' or 'All Zionists are terrorists'. Once the police put together a brief, the brief must go to the DPP. By the time they it’s assessed the chant 'death, death to the IDF’ will spread around the country. It doesn't take long for the chant to move from the UK on a Saturday to rear its ugly head here on Sunday.

The following Friday, Miznon is attacked. In the interim, Victoria Police probably wouldn't even have a chance to put together a brief for the DPP. By then, the violence has already happened. If Jacinta Allan is genuine about addressing antisemitism, she should have taken on board what the parliamentary inquiry had said and declared it's time to empower the police. The only way to move on hate is to move quickly. If you move slowly, it becomes normalised.

This is a slightly modified extract from an extensive interview David Schulberg conducted with Menachem Vorchheimer on ‘The Israel Connexion’ program on J-AIR community radio.

DAVID SCHULBERG

Menachem Vorchheimer

ADVENTURES CONSIDERED OPINION

RAMONA FREEDMAN

ALIYAH

After years of rewarding communal work in Sydney, upon arriving in Israel I officially went back to school – Hebrew school that is – for many months. As of this week, my formal Ulpan classes come to an end.

This is just as the sizzling summer dial here in the holy land is turned up more than a few notches. It is hot. Baking desert hot right now in August.

Luckily, we are all blessed when it comes to modern conventions. Well, mostly. Last Shabbat the air conditioner in my bedroom, which feels like a dear, loyal friend, had some sort of moody meltdown and started raining many, many drops of water onto the floor in dramatic fashion. One towel, two towels, then when a third was needed, I abandoned ship and went to sleep in the bomb shelter room. Yes, here we are considered very fortunate to have one within our home, rather than sharing a communal one.

It’s not just about location, location, location!

When I mentioned to our landlord that the AC was on the blink, he said his main man Dror, who intriguingly is both a ‘qualified’ plumber and electrician simultaneously, was far too busy to pop in for the next six weeks. Dear Dror, what are you good for?

Recently I held court in my penultimate Ulpan class. Usually I am quiet (truly!) as my command of Hebrew grammar is still elementary, at best. That day I told a story, I explained to my fellow classmates who hail from Russia, Ukraine, France, Brazil, Mexico and America that I was moving apartments in two days, and it would only be for a couple of months until we plan to move into our more permanent home on Yehuda Halevi Street.

I shared that it was a hassle to effectively move twice in such a short span of time. I shared that our new home was being renovated as the bathrooms and kitchen were unliveable. I shared that there are boxes everywhere and it is all a little hectic. A Ramona story told in broken, but earnest Hebrew. I paused, as I was oh so proud of myself. That is until cool, blue-eyed Ukrainian Tetyana piped up. I was royally schooled. With perfectly memorised Hebrew grammar, she trumped me big time.

Tetyana somehow was able to comprehensively explain to us all that when the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, she was forced to move seven times. She caught buses, which broke down en route, and trains that stalled. She journeyed through the snow, sleet and bitter rain. Extraordinarily, sometimes she carried possessions on her back.

She arrived in Israel and since then has moved five times. All exhausting. All against the odds and, yet, here she was recounting it all triumphantly. One dozen moves in a span of three years due to war in one land and “yes”, war in another. Tetyana, you are amazing. You win. My small story of moving once because the electricity and water are still turned off

Yoffee Toffee

in my Ra’anana home is sweet nothing compared to the numbing navigation you have endured.

She ended with: “Ramona you are so lucky that is all you are dealing with. No wonder you always smile. You’re the first Australian I’ve ever met. Do all Australians smile like you?” I smiled back, but mostly because my brain actually translated the words she had said in realtime.

My paternal side hails from eastern Europe – there were great struggles and battles during the Holocaust and well beyond. In a way, despite being close in age, Tetyana and I are a couple of generations apart from each other when it comes to experiences in our country of birth. I was strolling along a local beloved beach. She was dodging missiles in war ravaged Kyiv. And yet here we are both as new immigrants, both learning and communicating in a new common language. She doesn’t speak one word of English. My Ukrainian is … non-existent. Hebrew it is for each of us.

Ulpan has been a lot of fun. It’s been, as many say here: ‘yoffee toffee’. Technically the word ‘yoffee’ means beauty, but as the Hebrew language comprises far fewer words than English, each word can have multiple meanings. As my teacher, Nira says: it is all about context. Well, the word toffee refers to sweetness in English, but actually has no meaning in Hebrew. Yet, stringing these two together creates assonance and voila, we have a phrase that roughly

translates to our Aussie expression “Beauty, she’ll be right mate”.

When we look at the macro situation here in Israel, it is complicated, complex and difficult. War on several fronts simultaneously. Enemies. World opinion taking a skydive. And yet, on the ground, when you are somehow about to lug the world’s sweetest watermelon to your car in sweltering heat, Moshe, the older seenit-all-and-then-some type appears from the back of the fruit shop and carries it for you, all-the-while raining Sephardic blessings down on every Israeli soldier, as if each is his own child.

We get to the car. I am grateful. He just says two words: yoffee toffee. It just sums it all up.

To help brighten the mood and lighten the vibe, at the moment Israelis tend to watch TV shows that are not too serious. This week the number one series on Israeli Netflix is called Off Road. It features two famous Israeli actors, Lior Raz (from Fauda fame) and the intelligent and beautiful actress, Rotem Sela. As a bona fide member of the Israeli public, I can personally attest to the fact that this show is exactly what we needed.

Off Road is a candid, gentle meander of these two famous friends through Central Asia, examining both the beauty (yes, the yoffee) and the cultural landscape of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Along the way, it shines a light on the theme (and limits of) friendship too in a really endearing way. Here, no one is eagerly waiting for the next season of Fauda. Some say many

of our heroic soldiers are living in a realtime version of Fauda. Some say we all are. Truth be told, they are not wrong. And yet, at the right time, we will love that new season too. Just not right now.

In fact, this spills into the life of everyone in Israel. Here is a case-inpoint: to improve my Hebrew, I have been consciously clicking onto Israeli radio stations each time I am in the car. But, as my language skills have been improving, I have realised that very often, throughout the day, broadcast programs are actually just communal therapy sessions.

One morning, you have distraught family and friends of the hostages calling up and telling their stories and making their desperate pleas. One afternoon, you have bereaved families recalling how incredible their loved ones were: their loved ones who have fallen in battle so Israel can be an eternal safe space for us all. It is heavy and intimate and honest. They cry and you find yourself crying with them.

Sometimes, when you are just driving to a supermarket and are suddenly searching for tissues, it can be a tad overwhelming. We are all one family, yet not everything is yoffee toffee.

Yet when they can, Israelis celebrate with more joy than anyone. It is a swinging pendulum of emotions here, but I can honestly say it is on the upswing far more than the down. Yoffee toffee.

With that, for now, it is over and out from Ramona in Ra’anana.

Israeli actor Lior Raz in the new Israeli hit show Off Road

RABBINIC THOUGHT

RABBI GABI KALTMANN

This week there is love in the air! Can you feel it? It’s a great feeling knowing that the saddest part of the month of Av is behind us and we are celebrating Tu B’av, the Jewish Valentine’s Day. In Israel and around the world, it is seen as an especially auspicious day for weddings, and many couples will eat at restaurants or go to attractions that provide discounts for this minor festival. Each Jewish month has a reputation. When Adar begins, we increase our joy. When Elul starts, we begin repenting. In Shvat, we celebrate the trees and new harvest season.

And yet, Av is known as the saddest month. With the three weeks and Tisha B’av, as well as a litany of sad occurrences that happened to the Jewish people, it is not exactly an auspicious time. In fact, the first part of Av is the saddest part of our Jewish calendar. But then, Tu B’av appears, bringing a silver lining to the heavy clouds of sadness.

Originally, Tu B’av was a celebration that took place as the dry harvest season began. Imbued with thanks to G-d for the brilliant crops and harvest, there would be dances in the fields, where young men and women would meet and fall in love. After our recent period of mourning, it’s nice to have something to celebrate. The festival of love in Judaism got me thinking

The festival of love

about the types of love language that exist. Some people enjoy gifts. Others appreciate acts of service, where you help them with something. Another type of love language is speaking kindly and praising others. It’s so important to let people in our immediate circle know that we do not take them for granted –that they are important and valued.

These love languages help convey emotion and affection, and communicate a sense of thankfulness and appreciation. By doing these small things, we convey the message that we care and that we are in it for the long haul, committed to the happiness of the relationship.

Sometimes, if you are not paying attention, the years can just fly by, before you suddenly realise that you have taken someone for granted. Again, our Jewish calendar comes in to rescue us from this mistaken idleness by asking us to take the time to show affection and admiration. Instead of going with the flow, the day demands a little bit more attention and refinement in showing gratitude and appreciation to our partners.

I’m so glad that the sadness of Av is behind us and that we are now galloping towards the high holiday period. It’s going to be a great one. I know that as we come off the high of celebrating Tu B’av, there will be so many more opportunities to get together and celebrate our upcoming festivals.

When in knead

St Kilda Shule's Young Adults group, SKY, recently partnered with Moishe House for a challah bake we called “Knead for a Feed.” The aim of the night was to support Chag in a Box, an initiative that brings the joy of Shabbat and the festivals to individuals and families who are doing it tough. Every loaf of challah prepared on the night would be packaged and delivered to someone in need, offering not only food, but comfort, dignity and a tangible expression of community care. The room was full of young Jewish adults from across Melbourne. It was heartening to see so many people carving time out of their week to engage in a mitzvah and to give back. Some had never made challah before. Others had grown up baking regularly with parents or grandparents. But experience wasn’t what mattered. As people gathered around mixing bowls and baking trays, a beautiful sense of connection emerged. Everyone was focused, hands deep in dough, laughing, chatting and sharing stories.

For me, the evening had personal significance. My grandfather, Mr Glick, whose yahrzeit took place the following evening, was a baker. He arrived in Australia after surviving the Holocaust and began building a new life with determination and humility. He started what would later become Glick’s Bakery, a name many in our community

know well. But to him, it was never about the business or the brand. It was about nourishing others, bringing people together and honouring Shabbat in the most literal way — by preparing challahs that would grace Jewish tables across the city. That night, we used his original challah dough recipe. It’s a recipe I’ve known since childhood, one he spent years perfecting. When I saw dozens of young people shaping that same dough with their own hands, to be sent out and shared with others, I felt something shift inside me. I paused to share a few words with the group about my grandfather’s story, his values and what I believe he would have felt seeing his recipe used in this way. I truly believe he would have been proud, not because the recipe was being used, but because it was being used to help others.

There is something uniquely powerful about Jewish young adults coming together to do something so rooted in tradition and so outwardly focused on kindness. This generation is often spoken about as being disconnected or distracted, but that evening told a very different story. The commitment, generosity and enthusiasm I witnessed were remarkable. These were young people who care deeply about their faith and their community. I left the shule that night deeply moved, filled with pride in our young adults and grateful for the chance to witness such goodness in action. It was a true moment of Jewish unity, memory and purpose.

RABBI YAAKOV GLASMAN AM

From left, Ethan Gilmore, Rabbi Yaakov Glasman AM and Udi Mayer prepare their challah dough

Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann with his wife, Mushka

RABBI DR BENJI LEVY RABBINIC THOUGHT

Tisha B’Av is behind us. The fast is over, the kinot are folded back into the bookshelf and life begins to resume its rhythm. But we’re not meant to simply move on. The purpose of mourning in Jewish tradition isn’t despair – it’s transformation. The question we must ask now is what do we build from our grief?

This was the heartbeat of our project, 9 Days, 9 Legends. Each day, leading up to Tisha B’Av, we shared the voice of someone who suffered unimaginable loss in the wake of October 7, 2023 and who is still choosing to live with meaning, purpose and faith. These were not stories of people who have “moved on”. They are stories of people who are moving forward. That’s what we’re called to do now. We heard from Chava Zenilman, a doctor and mother of three whose husband, Ari z”l, fell in Gaza. She continues to show up for her patients, for her family and for her community. Not because the pain is gone, but because her values are strong. She is not waiting to be healed before she heals others. We heard from Senai Guedalia, whose husband Yosef z”l was killed rescuing others on October 7. In her quiet strength, Senai reminded us that love can outlive death and that we carry those we’ve lost in how we live. We heard from Ambassador Yechiel Leiter,

After Tisha B’Av: what comes next

speaking about his son Moshe z”l, with a voice full of brokenness and dignity. His words show us how mourning and leadership can exist in the same breath. These are the kinds of people we now walk with into the post-Tisha B’Av world – Jews who don’t just survive tragedy, but respond to it by building something lasting. It’s no accident that the word churban (destruction) shares the same root letters as boneh (to build). From the rubble of Jerusalem, Jewish history teaches us to pick up the pieces and begin again. Our tears are not the end of the story. They are the beginning of rebuilding.

This is why we created 9 Days, 9 Legends, as part of our larger project Legends Among Us. These aren’t just tributes to the fallen; they’re invitations to the living. We are invited to step up, to find meaning, to live with more integrity and more courage. So, now that Tisha B’Av has passed, the real work begins. Let’s build communities where people feel seen. Let’s raise voices of resilience. Let’s teach our children that from even the deepest darkness, light can still rise.

We don’t need to be legends to follow in their footsteps. We just need to start.

Explore the full series and discover more stories at https://www.rabbibenji. com/legendsseason1, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Let’s move forward together – with memory and mission.

Dealing with pain

Tisha B’Av has passed, but its echoes remain. The pain of destruction, exile and heartbreak is not confined to a single day on the Jewish calendar. It lingers in memory, in ritual and, for many, in personal experience.

Recently, I heard words that will stay with me forever. Rav Doron Perez, head of World Mizrachi and father of two soldiers, one of whom fell on October 7, spoke not as an academic or a rabbinic authority, but as a father, a leader and a Jew who has lived through unimaginable loss.

“We don’t get over it,” he said. “We get on with it.”

There was a profound pause in the room. Because that word – it – carried so much. It was the grief. The empty space at the Shabbat table. The moments of joy that will never be fully complete. It was the unfixable and the irreversible. And Rav Perez was teaching us, in that moment, that moving forward does not mean forgetting, and healing does not mean erasing.

This is not a new idea in Judaism. It is, in fact, woven into the very heart of our sacred history.

When Moshe descended Mount Sinai and saw the people worshipping the golden calf, he shattered the luchot, the tablets. Later, after a process of repentance and renewal, God instructed Moshe to carve a second set.

But what became of the broken ones?

The Talmud tells us that both sets, the whole and the shattered, were placed inside the Holy Ark. Judaism makes space for brokenness. It doesn’t discard it. It honours it.

That’s not just a theological point. It’s a deeply human one. We all carry broken tablets. Losses that shape us.

Wounds that never fully heal. Grief that resurfaces in the quiet moments, in unexpected places.

Judaism doesn’t demand that we silence that pain or pretend we’ve moved on. It teaches us to carry the brokenness with dignity, to walk forward while acknowledging what is forever missing.

Rav Perez’s words were not just poignant because of his loss, but because of what he has chosen to do with it. He continues to lead. He continues to inspire. And he does so not by pretending the grief is gone, but by integrating it into his life’s mission. That is what made his words hit so deeply. They weren’t polished quotes from a podium – they were raw, honest and profoundly real.

His message made me think about the people I carry. The cracks I walk with. And how maybe the goal in life isn’t to restore ourselves to some imagined wholeness, but to live with meaning, even when the tablets are broken.

As we move beyond Tisha B’Av and into the comfort of Shivah D’Nechemta, the seven weeks of consolation leading us to Rosh Hashanah, this message feels especially timely. Judaism doesn’t offer cheap comfort. It doesn’t offer clichés. It offers depth. It offers space. And it offers a pathway through the pain, not around it. We emerged from the fast not with empty stomachs alone, but with full hearts, ones that ache and hope, all at once.

To those carrying broken tablets: may you find strength in knowing that you are not alone … that your pain is held in the holiest of spaces, and that from within that brokenness, a deeper kind of wholeness can be found.

RABBI DANIEL RABIN

From left, Rav Doron Perez, head of World Mizrachi and Rabbi Daniel Rabin

Rabbi Benji sat down with these nine legends over nine days to talk about their heroic stories of loss and strength

RABBINIC

THOUGHT

RABBI ARON MOSS

Question:

I am looking at creating a digital version of my late grandmother. I am gathering all her text messages, voice notes and videos and feeding them into AI, which will create a life-like version of her. I will be able to have conversations with her, ask her questions and hear her voice again. It will allow me to keep up my connection with her. What would the Torah say about that?

Answer:

Your intentions are good and your desire to see her again is understandable, but no one can replace your grandmother, including her digital double.

We are more than the sum of our text messages. Humans are spontaneous, original and ever-changing. We have free choice. We have a soul. The unique spark inside each one of us can never be accurately simulated by technology. There are risks involved in creating a simulation of a person you love.

What if you have a disagreement with them? Would that sour your relationship? And if you program it not to argue, would that be true to who they were?

Cherish the real conversations that you had with your grandmother. Let the

Bringing grandma back

memories remain with you as memories. As for the ongoing connection you seek, an AI bot can make you feel like you are in touch with your grandmother, but it is only one way. Your grandmother is not there.

However, there’s a different technology that can connect us with our dear departed relatives. It is a spiritual technology, not modern but as old as the world. It requires no device and can work anywhere, anytime. It’s the power of a mitzvah.

When you do a mitzvah in honour of your grandmother, she feels it. When you say a prayer in memory of your grandmother, she is lifted by it. And when you ask your grandmother to stand by your side and send down strength from heaven, she hears it.

Death is not the end of life. It is the end of the body’s time on earth. The soul lives on in another realm, not visible to us, but accessible to us. Whenever we connect to our own soul, whenever we enter a more spiritually in tune state, we can commune with those souls who have moved on to the next world.

Do a mitzvah for your grandmother. Awaken your soul and elevate hers. Send her your love and she’ll send hers back. Your soul connection lives on. Next-gen tech will not revive previous-gen loved ones. Your mitzvah will.

Gaza and the cult of conquest Why civil resistance never stood a chance

civil resistance. Not martyrdom, but the dignity of peaceful protest. It is not an impossible scenario. Israel is not a tyranny.

There is a narrative, popular in certain quarters of Western intelligentsia, that presents Gaza as a victim of circumstance – as though history simply happened to it. But this is a lie. It has had consequences beyond the realm of polite discussion.

The ground in Gaza did not split with the force of some divine retribution. It gave way, slowly, under the accumulated weight of choices. Or more precisely, under the long refusal to make any choice other than war.

Before the bloodletting of the October 7, 2023, when civilians were butchered in their homes and a nation was left in horror, Gaza was under a blockade, but not a hermetic one. Goods flowed through crossings with Israel and Egypt. Aid, from Qatar, continued without interruption. There were no shortages of funds. Only of moral imagination.

For nearly two decades, the rulers of Gaza, Hamas, have held the territory not merely with force, but with the mandate of a population that chose them. And chose them again. Hamas did not seize power. It was elected. The eradication of the Jewish state was not whispered. It was announced from minarets, broadcast on children’s television and etched into charters and sermons.

And so a question arises, though few dare ask it: What if Gaza had chosen differently? Imagine, for a moment, a leadership that pursued not war, but

It is a democracy with a fractious press and merciless self-criticism. It has made painful concessions before, and would again, were it presented with a partner, rather than an adversary. But that is not the path Gaza took.

The problem is not simply Hamas, but with the ideology it represents, one that holds peace to be treachery, compromise to be sin and coexistence a betrayal. Even if, by some miracle, a non-violent movement had emerged, it would not have been welcomed as a revolution. It would have been seen as a tactical feint: a temporary sheath over a blade.

Israel, hardly naïve, would have responded accordingly. A population that dances in the streets when Jews are killed is not easily mistaken for a nascent peace movement.

And so, we return to the silence. Not the silence of diplomacy. But the silence of the grave.

There was, once, a window. Brief. A chance to reach beyond vengeance. That window was boarded up by men who feared peace more than war, who saw in every olive branch as a dagger to be turned inward.

The garden did not die because of siege. In Gaza, the soil was reserved for rockets, the schools for propaganda, the children for sacrifice. And when you raise generations not to live, but to die, not to coexist, but to conquer, then do not feign surprise when the harvest is ash.

AB BOSKANY

Ab Boskany

BY DR. YVETTE ALT MILLER COURTESY: AISH.COM CONSIDERED OPINION

For years, the singer-songwriter – and math professor – Tom Lehrer kept a “dead” file on his desk, in which he placed all the newspaper clippings which erroneously described him as “the late Tom Lehrer”. It was an understandable mistake: Lehrer first came to prominence in the early 1950s with his zany, irreverent songs and added to his absurdist repertoire for decades. When he passed away on July 27, 2025, he was 97.

His absurd, often ridiculous, songs have thrilled and entertained people for decades.

Lehrer grew up in a warm Jewish family on the Upper East Side of New York. He took piano lessons as a child and remembered being drawn to pop music. Always a prodigy, Lehrer graduated from high school at the age of 15 and earned an honours degree from Harvard in Mathematics in 1946 when he was just 18.

He embarked on a Ph.D. but found a new outlet for his talents when he and a group of friends entered a music contest at Harvard Law School. They were the only entry, so the event’s organisers revoked the prize they’d promised to the winning act.

Lehrer wrote absurd lyrics, making fun of everyday life. His songs proved so popular that he gave up graduate school to become a full-time entertainer, singing his own songs in New York City. Then, in 1960, at the height of his fame –he’d sold over 1.5 million records by then – Lehrer quit performing to finish his Ph.D. (an endeavour he later abandoned). For the next several decades, he taught math at Harvard, MIT, and the University of California, Santa Cruz, and also wrote uproarious songs.

“I don’t like people to get the idea that I have to do this for a living,” he once mock-confided at a concert. “I mean, it isn’t as though I had to do this. I could be making, oh, $3,000 a year just teaching.” The audience roared with laughter, as

Tom Lehrer and his irreverent songs

they always did when listening to Lehrer. His biting, irreverent way of looking at the world appealed to audiences seeking a riposte to hypocrisy and cynicism.

Although he seldom shared details about his private life, he reflected on his family’s connection to Judaism in the liner notes of a compilation album released in 2000:

“More to do with the delicatessen than the synagogue. My brother and I went to Sunday School, but we had Christmas trees, and ‘God’ was primarily an expletive, usually preceded by ‘oh’ or ‘my’ or both.”

Some of Lehrer’s funniest songs were written about the Jewish community he knew so well, skewering topics like antisemitism and the lack of interest in Jewish culture.

In the 1990s, Lehrer lamented the fact that there were no well-known American Chanukah songs. All the famous Jewish

songwriters were busy composing Christmas music, Lehrer noted, with only a hint of sarcasm, instead of writing music about Jewish holidays. So, Lehrer wrote Hanukkah in Santa Monica, which was his answer to White Christmas (written by Jewish composer Irving Berlin).

I’m spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica / Wearing sandals / Lighting candles / By the sea … Amid the California flora I’ll be lighting my menorah / Like a baby in his cradle I’ll be playing with my dreidel / Here’s to Judas Maccabeus / Boy, if only he could see us / Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica / By the sea. The song includes other Jewish holidays too (Shavuos in East St. Louis), which are seldom mentioned in mainstream American songs.

Sometimes Lehrer’s embrace of Jewish themes is darker. In National Brotherhood Week, he enumerates all the different ethnic groups which traditionally have disliked each other.

Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, And the Catholics hate the Protestants, And the Hindus hate the Moslems, And everybody hates the Jews.

Lampooning SS officer Wernher von Braun

In 1945, the US Army quietly brought SS Officer Wernher von Braun, a senior Nazi engineer, to the United States. Von Braun’s recruitment was part of Operation Paperclip, a top-secret plan to transfer hundreds of Nazi scientists to the US, erasing their Nazi pasts and allowing them to escape punishment.

In Germany, von Braun used slave labourers to build the Nazis’ fearsome V2 rocket program, which devastated London; in the US he was feted and given the opportunity to run some of the Army’ most important missile programs. Despite his many accolades (after his death, President Carter eulogiwed von Braun as a great American patriot), Lehrer wasn’t impressed, and wrote a harshly comic song lampooning this supposed American hero: Gather ‘round while I sing you of Wernher von

Braun / A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience. / Call him a Nazi, he won’t even frown. / “Nazi, Shmazi!” says Wernher von Braun. / Don’t say that he’s hypocritical / Say rather that he’s apolitical / “Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?” / “That’s not my department!” says Wernher von Braun. / Some have harsh words for this man of renown / But some think our attitude / Should be one of gratitude / Like the widows and cripples in old London town / Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun….

Political action

Lehrer’s Political Action Song, written in the early 1950s, could have been written today about anti-Israel protests being fashionable on campuses: Now when it comes to anything political / We’re int’rested, we’re militant, we’re critical / Though it’s not quite evident / Who it is we represent, / We take stands and issue statements by the score.

Whether comically absurd or bitingly political, Tom Lehrer’s unique songs changed the way his listeners understood the world and gave them confidence to mock the false pieties of the age. We need his darkly funny songs and the confidence they gave us today more than ever.

Dr. Yvette Alt Miller holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and has taught at Northwestern University, London Business School and lectured around the world. She is the author of Angels at the Table: A Practical Guide to Celebrating Shabbat, which had been praised as "life changing" and compared to having a friend guide the reader through a typical Shabbat and Portraits of Valor: Heroic Jewish Women You Should Know, which describes the lives of 40 remarkable women who inhabited different eras and lands, giving readers a sense of the vast diversity of Jewish history and experience.

Tom Lehrer lampooned false pieties with his comic music

CORNER

ALAN BENDER SOUL GOURMET FOODIE

I cooked this fairly small, rolled shoulder for three hours, but if you really love your meat to fall apart, you could extend the total cooking time to four hours. I would also suggest that if you have a large piece of lamb, then, you should definitely go for the longer cooking time.

By the end of the roasting, there will be a large amount of buttery juice in the pan and you will want to give the meat a good few bastes in it. Then, allow it to settle and pour the fatty layer off, preserving the delicious pan juices that lie underneath. These will serve as your gravy.

Because there is so much butter in the roast, steamed green beans will round things off nicely.

Ingredients:

Deboned shoulder of lamb approx. 1.5kg

6 small rosemary stalks

A few thyme stalks

6 garlic cloves, roughly crushed with the back of a knife

12 peeled baby carrots

500 grams of baby potatoes

2 red onions peeled and cut into quarters

¾ cup of water or lamb stock

Spicy "butter"

1 – 2 cloves of garlic

130 grams of Nuttelex or coconut butter

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp thyme leaves, removed from stalks

Spicy “butter” roast lamb roll

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Zest from half a lemon (optional) 1 tsp fresh lemon juice (optional) Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 220 C.

Mix all the spicy butter ingredients until they are well combined.

On the lamb shoulder, spread three quarters of the butter across the surface. Place the rosemary, smashed garlic and thyme stalks in the bottom of a

CANDLE LIGHTING TIMES

small high-sided roasting dish and put the meat on top. Then arrange the vegetables around the roast. Spread the remaining butter mixture over the lamb and add the water/stock to the pan.

Cover tightly with tin foil, so the dish is completely sealed and put it in the oven. Roast at 220C for 10 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 160C and continue to roast for three to three and a half hours. Remove the foil, turn the oven up to 180C and then finish off

Spelling bee answers

browning/roasting the meat for another 30 minutes. Baste the roast a couple of times during this final half hour. This recipe is also perfect for a beef roast. If you ever do a beef roast and find it is still tough, slice it and put it into the fridge overnight. When you reheat it, it will be fall apart soft.

Alan Bender is head chef at Soul Gourmet. To find out more, go to https:// soulgourmet.com.au

Jewish term: MAH PITOM?! Here is a list of some common words (“yes”, we know there are more words in the dictionary that can work, but these words are common in today’s vernacular): HIPPO, HOTPOT, OOMPH, PATIO, PHOTO, PITAPAT, PITOM, PITOT, POMPOM, POTATO and TIPTOP Questions/comments/compliments: email Yoni at koshercrosswords@ gmail.com

Crossword answers

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MTC keeps lifting the bar. Kimberly Akimbo is a superb, zany, comical and tender production.

The five-time Tony Award winner, which included Best Musical, concerns a lonely girl about to turn 16 who has a very rare genetic condition.

She ages four to five times faster than normal, which means she looks old long before she is.

Truth be told, the average life expectancy for someone with her affliction – which is unnamed, but similar to progeria – is only 16.

The year is 1999. Her name is Kimberly Levaco and she lives in New Jersey.

She and her dysfunctional parents have just moved, after leaving their previous home in a hurry.

The reason they did becomes clear late in the piece.

Kimberly’s father, Buddy, is unreliable and perpetually drunk.

Her mother, Pattie, is pregnant, a narcissist who complains a lot and records videos for her unborn child.

Much to Kimberly’s father’s initial chagrin, Kim is befriended by Seth, who shows her kindness and more.

Seth works at the local ice-skating rink, shares a biology class with Kim and is obsessed with anagrams.

Also making an unwelcome reappearance in Kimberley’s life is her crooked aunt, Debra, who has spent time behind bars.

Now, she is plotting to get Kim and some of her school mates involved in the latest scheme she has cooked up.

While Kim dreams of adventure, she never had this in mind. Yet, circumstances dictate otherwise. The question posed in Kimberly Akimbo is how to live your best life

Super talent on show

when you have only limited time.

The odds are against Kim in more ways than one – think health, family and isolation.

But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the same needs and wants as everyone else. The result is pure gold, with all elements coming together seamlessly to create an unforgettable theatrical experience. First up, there is the off-centre book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, based on his play of the same name.

Then, there is the music by Jeanine Tesori, who brings diverse styles to bear.

While the pair has created the environment, the eccentric nature of the script requires adept performers to pull it off … and have they what!

A magnificent, super talented cast, including several big names, deliver big time. How does the leading lady of musical theatre – Marina Prior – convincingly play a 15-year-old, going on 16? Not just with supreme vocalisation (was that ever in

doubt?), but with mannerisms reflective of a teen. I kid you not. It is beautiful, amusing and moving.

Opposite her is a newbie going places, who makes a huge splash in his professional debut. I speak of Darcy Wain, who is the awkward Seth … and plays the tuba. Wain is charming and potent, and enjoys a fine dynamic with Prior.

Christie Whelan Browne’s ability to emote – to pour out her character Pattie Levaco’s frustrations from the get go on video – is mighty impressive. Her facial expressions are priceless.

Pattie’s husband, Buddy, is realised in equally fine style by the deliberately offkilter Nathan O’Keefe. In a decidedly physical showing, he does a great job of enacting Buddy’s struggles to control his many shortcomings. Who better to play the larger-than-life aunt than the big, big voiced Casey Donovan. She revels in realising the bad girl of the piece,

Strange happenings

The mysterious, dastardly story unfolds via a child narrator who says the events spoken about occurred at her school two years ago.

So, what happened?

In short, 17 primary school age children –all from the one class – simply disappeared.

It was 2:17am when each of those kids got up from their beds and fled out the front door of their homes with their arms spread, never to be seen again.

As dawn broke, only one child from that class was at school, along with his teacher.

Police have no leads.

The parents of the missing children are understandably distressed – sick with worry. Suspicion falls on the teacher who was close to the kids.

For her own safety, the principal asks her to take a leave of absence.

She is intent on speaking to the one remaining youngster in her class, but the principal forbids her from doing so.

Not that that stops her and that is when the first teaser appears.

That only happens when the teacher turns up at the boy’s home and peers through a small slit in a window that has been covered with newspaper.

All the other windows have also been papered over.

There is much more to this story, but to say any more would be to spoil the surprise, which I am not about to do.

The narrative unfolds from the different perspectives of key players in the conundrum.

There is the principal, the teacher, a father, the surviving child, a policeman and a homeless drug addict.

Their stories cross over. Gradually, more and more is revealed, before a frenzied

immediately letting her presence be felt, with no let up or beg pardons.

Finally, we have the four actors who play Kimberly and Seth’s school mates – straight and gay characters – all trying to find their way. They inject youthful enthusiasm, drive and trepidation.

I speak of Marty Alix as Martin, Allycia Angeles as Delia, Alanna Iannace who is Teresa and Jacob Rozario as Aaron. Individually and collectively, they “pop”, generating laughs and poignancy.

I must also credit the efforts of musical director Kym Purling and the strong band in finding the beating heart of Tesori’s musicality.

The sets by Jonathon Oxlade, inspired by Kimberly’s collection of snow domes, are a feast of movement and colour, with pieces wheeled in and out.

The starting point is an ice-skating rink, but we also have the lounge room of the family home, Kim’s bedroom, the school lockers and library, among others.

Costuming is bright and gaudy, unmistakably reflective of the ‘90s. Bravo to Ailsa Paterson.

With sight and clarity being paramount, plaudits to Matt Scott for the lighting and Andrew Poppleton for sound design.

Fine choreographer from Amy Campbell and immaculate direction from Mitchell Butel see the conceit realised with aplomb. Kimberly Akimbo (the title is drawn from an anagram of Kim’s full name) is a timely reminder of making the most out of every moment we have.

It rocks. It is fun, funny and fantastic, exploding onto the stage and leaving a lasting and most favourable impression.

It is on at Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne until 30th August, 2025.

ending. It is a seriously well told, if twisted tale, one where you can’t possibly guess what is going on.

The man responsible for the script and direction is Zach Cregger (Barbarian).

He is a master at twisting the knife, without pushing it in too soon.

Weapons is weird, wacky, occasionally gory and humorous.

The actors certainly play their parts.

As teacher Justine Gandy, Julia Garner refuses to be silenced. That is not to say that, from time to time, she isn’t intimidated,

just that she will keep going regardless. She is gutsy.

Josh Brolin, too, brings a “refuse to die without trying” attitude to bear as builder Archer Graff, the father of one of the missing children.

Benedict Wong is level-headed in his portrayal of the pragmatic principal who is not looking to create waves.

It feels like Alden Enhrenreich has the weight of the world on his shoulders in his role as Paul Morgan, a policeman not sold on his job.

Austin Abrams is on edge as drug addict and rough sleeper Anthony.

Cary Christopher is impactful, even though he plays a boy of few words, in realising the one youngster who is still with us, Alex Lilly.

Complete with evocative, deliberately overly applied make up, Amy Madigan is arresting as Alex’s aunt, Gladys.

There is much to admire in the restraint that Cregger shows as we try to piece together the puzzle.

And then we have an all guns blazing ending that has us cackling in our seats.

Rated MA, Weapons scores an 8 out of 10.

For more of Alex First’s reviews, go to https://www.itellyouwhatithink.com

A girl ages far too quickly in Kimberly Akimbo (photo by Sam Roberts)

Josh Brolin is a parent on a mission in Weapons

When Dr. Zachary Daitch decided to make Aliyah in the summer of 2023, he wasn’t just relocating his family; he was transitioning an entire medical career across continents. Now a practicing gastroenterologist at Hadassah Ein Karem in Jerusalem, Dr. Daitch’s story is one of professionalism, purpose and a deep desire to contribute to the Israeli healthcare system.

Originally from Philadelphia, Dr. Daitch earned his medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College. He went on to complete his residency and fellowship in internal medicine and gastroenterology at Temple University Hospital. With advanced training in procedures such as ERCP and EUS, Dr. Daitch built a robust clinical background in the US before making the life changing decision to make Aliyah.

His move to Israel was driven by both personal and professional motivations. Settling in Beit Shemesh with his family, he sought a meaningful life in Israel and a smooth and sustainable path to practice as a specialist in the Israeli health system. That’s where the International Medical Aliyah Program (IMAP) and its flagship event, MedEx, played a pivotal role.

"MedEx made what felt overwhelming suddenly feel doable," Dr. Daitch shared. “There were people waiting at every stage of the process to walk us through licensing, employment and, even, relocation.” With events in Europe, North America and

How IMAP made this doctor's move to Israel possible

South America each year, MedEx brings together hundreds of doctors and medical specialists looking to make Aliyah. The event streamlines the complexities of transferring your medical license, receiving specialty recognition and finding a job in Israel.

At MedEx, Dr. Daitch was able to meet with representatives from Israel’s Ministry of Health, get real-time guidance on his

licensing paperwork, have his documents authenticated and interview directly with healthcare employers – all in one day. He also received support from IMAP’s team of medical licensing advisors, who provided personalised assistance and followthrough from the moment he registered for the event, until he was fully integrated into the Israeli healthcare system. Today,

Dr. Daitch sees patients at Hadassah Ein Karem. He brings a unique combination of American training and Israeli adaptability to his work, offering high-level procedural expertise, while adjusting to the dynamic pace of Israeli healthcare.

“There’s a sense of mission here,” he said of his work at Hadassah. “The patients are diverse, the needs are great and the opportunity to contribute is deeply fulfilling. I believe that there are so many unopened doors waiting for physician Olim to come through.” Dr. Daitch also emphasised how the support structure that IMAP provides was a key factor in making his Aliyah a success. “I went to MedEx two times. The IMAP team helped me streamline the process from A to Z. They spelled it out, step-by-step, so I didn’t have to figure it out on my own. I wouldn’t have my job without them and I definitely wouldn’t have a license without them.” His story is one of hundreds each year, as more Jewish medical professionals answer the call to bring their expertise to Israel. With the help of IMAP and MedEx, Dr. Daitch didn’t just transfer his credentials; he found his place in a system where his skills are needed and his presence makes a difference.

MedEx will be coming to Australia this October. Check out https://www.imap.org. il/medex-australia/ or email medpro@nbn. org.il for more information and to register.

IMAP provides doctors and specialists from around the world with: Step-by-step guidance → on licensing, specialty recognition, employment, and relocation. Personalized support → from the first question to your first job in Israel. Global events → that facilitate the licensure process. Your career. Your calling. Your next chapter - in Israel. Reach out to our team and begin your journey today!

Dr. Zachary Daitch and his family in Beit Shemesh