Published: 23 July 2024
Last updated: 25 July 2024
What’s in a name? A lot, if you’re trying to muscle your way into the congested world of Jewish community advocacy.
Until a few years ago, the landscape was set in stone. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) speaks for the community on Jewish matters in Australia, the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) does the same for Israel-related issues and the Australia & Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) stands alongside them, advocating across both domains. The outspoken advocacy by these three bodies has been largely uncontested.
Over the past few years, however, the emergence of two new advocacy groups has upset the apple cart. One is on the extreme right – the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), and the other is on the extreme left – the Jewish Council of Australia (Council).
They are both small, private and unrepresentative, but united by their names, which imply that each is an umbrella body (Association, Council) that represents the Jewish community.
The names are designed to appeal to those who google Jewish community groups looking for something that sounds representative.
In a media world where mainstream journalists with no background knowledge of the Jewish community are pressured to get a local Jewish voice in their stories, the names are deceptive, designed to appeal to those who google Jewish community groups looking for something that sounds representative.
The AJA, which was founded in 2017, rejects the right of Palestinians to have their own state. “The land of Israel includes the biblical Jewish homelands of Judea and Samaria,” its mission statement says. It also aggressively opposed the indigenous Voice to parliament and platformed a vile essay by the late Jewish academic Bill Rubenstein, that discussed the prevalence of historical cannibalism within the indigenous community.
Comments13
Kassia Klinger29 July at 09:30 am
Who or what is the NIF Australia?
Kassia Klinger29 July at 09:28 am
Thanks for the article. But who or what is NIJ Australia?
Joseph Silver29 July at 03:51 am
The Jewish Council of Australia appears to be taking its direction from Jewish Voices for Peace in America.
What is particularly irksome is that the JCA started out by claiming to be pre-eminently positioned to deal with antisemitism, but has since transmogrified to reveal a vicious anti-Israel animus.
David Allegheny23 July at 10:37 pm
Only needs to read the foul and inflammatory (not to mention undergraduate-level) tweets from Na’ama Carlin and Sarah Schwartz about ‘the Zionists’ to realise that neither have any intention of engaging with this topic in any good faith whatsoever.
Zionism is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, a constellation of beliefs. I believe strongly in Palestinian freedom from oppression. I also believe in the ancestral Jewish homeland. They are not mutually exclusive. But to this JCA this makes me, a Jew in Australia, complicit.
Norman Davies23 July at 10:13 pm
Also, notice in the comments how the JCA have intriguingly not addressed the substance of the article, especially with regards to Randa Abdel Fattah who got young kids to chant about the intifada and is implicated in the doxing of Australian Jews. Why the silence Naama and Sarah? Many of those doxed were on the left, and supportive of a two state solution.
Anyone who truly cares about Israeli or Palestinian lives – and it is a moral imperative to care for both, especially now – should reject both the AJA and the JCA for framing the entire catastrophe in binary terms and thus only driving a wedge into the Australian community.
David Illberg23 July at 10:08 pm
As I’ve always said. AJA, JCA – same shit, different smell.
Michael Burd23 July at 11:26 am
As a co founding member of AJA with David and Alan it is becoming tiresome to keep hearing all AJA bashing .One of these criticisms include Dr Adler is self appointed well he started the Org and frankly he is no different to Leibler at AIJAC his son Leibler Jnr at ZFA now a offshoot of Aijac father and son team , Alex at ECAJ none of these leaders elected by the Jewish community so get over it . I wish AIJAC,ZFA ,ECAJ JCCV and others were not so obsessed with AJA and just did their own thing and let AJA represent those Jews who unlike the others unconditionally support Israel and Jewish Human rights .
It is no wonder AJA dr Adlers views are mostly sought on SKYNews and not the other Jewish representatives who mostly sit on the fence ,it is also not surprising that AJA has more viewers interactions on social media than all the other Jewish Organisations put together. No one Jewish organisation represents all of the community we are not monolithic just as most other minority religious groups are not . Get over it .
Zephaniah Waks23 July at 08:16 am
and exactly how representative are ECAJ (“speaks for the community on Jewish matters in Australia”), ZFA & AIJAC?
debbie wiener23 July at 07:50 am
The fact that the Jewish council attends events promoted by and endorses virulently anti Israel campaigners such as Mashni and Abdel-Fattah tells you everything you need to know.
Jewish Council of Australia23 July at 06:32 am
There are a number of glaring and reckless inaccuracies in this article, which appears to disregard the content of what the Council has stated publicly, in favour of lobby spin. This is disappointing from an outlet with the word ‘independent’ in its name.
1. The article’s contention that we have a “lack of sympathy for Israeli suffering” is completely baseless and unwarranted. Our core principles, signed by over 770 Jews in Australia, state “We support calls for freedom, equality and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis”. In almost every interview we have given we have expressed concern for Israeli lives lost on Oct 7, as well as the hostages. In our first op-ed, we stated “Jews here and around the world, particularly those with personal connections to Israel, are still reeling from the killing of more than 1100 people in Israel, the majority civilians, on October 7.” In fact, in Michael Visontay’s own article about the Council, Dr Max Kaiser said “everyone comes from a place of wanting freedom and equality for all people in the region.” Michael also wrote “As for Hamas, both Schwartz and Kaiser are appalled by the attacks on October 7.” Sarah Schwartz has stated in numerous interviews, including on ABC, that we have concerns for the safety of Israeli lives, and believe that Israel’s current violence endangers both Israeli and Palestinian lives. This author should reflect on his own assumption that we don’t care about Israeli lives, which appears to be solely based on us advocating for an end to Israel’s killing of Palestinian lives. As we state in our core principles, “Jewish safety is not at odds with Palestinian freedom”.
2. The article’s contention that our group is ‘private’ is incorrect and designed to mislead. All of our executive and advisory committee are listed publicly on our website. We have also listed the 770+ Jewish signatories to our statement of core principles.
3. The article’s contention that our name is ‘deceptive’. In every interview we have done, we are clear that we are not representative and do not believe that any group has authority to speak on behalf of all Jews in Australia, as all of the mainstream Jewish groups do regularly when lobbying for Israel. The reasons behind our name, and its historical resonance with the Jewish Council to combat fascism and antisemitism, have been broadly reported.
4. The Petition you mentioned was signed by many non-Jewish people and promoted by the far-right Christian Zionist Never Again is Now movement, which has been exposed as having links to fascists. As much is clear from the petition’s comments. It cannot be taken as representing any proportion of Jews in Australia.
Naama Carlin23 July at 06:24 am
Michael & TJI falsely claim that the Jewish Council has a “lack of sympathy for Israeli suffering”. As one of the israelis on the Council’s Advisory, who has most my extended & immediate family there, this is news to me. From the outset, the Jewish Council has called for peace and freedom for all people who live in occupied Palestine and israel. To suggest that this equates to a lack of sympathy for Israelis is only possible if you think that wanting Palestinian safety should come at the cost of israeli safety. Here, Michael & TJI’s editorial agenda is revealed. A shonda.
Sharon Kuper23 July at 03:42 am
This article is so arbitrary, biased and factually incorrect when it describes AJA as ‘far right’, and not representative, backed up by the claim that it supported the NO vote. Considering 60% of Australians supported the NO vote which sought to classify people on the basis of race and allocate resources, not on the basis of need, but on race, this demonstrates that it is the author and not AJA which doesn’t adequately represent the Jewish community.
Alan Freedman23 July at 02:28 am
After almost eight years, it is oh so tiresome, so here are the facts around the Australian Jewish Association’s name.
I am a founding member of the AJA and when the time came to discuss a name, we agreed that the name should reflect the fact that we were Australian, we were Jewish and we would be an association.
We also wanted to include some reference to our political leanings, but the word ‘conservative’ was problematic as it could easily be misinterpreted to suggest that the organisation was Masorti, or religiously Conservative, which we were not. But no matter how we juggled the words, it didn’t sound right, so in the end we just omitted it.
In fact, other than deciding to use the broad terminology of having views based on genuine Torah values, we had no interest in being religiously aligned in any way.
Those paranoid people advocating the conspiracy theory that we want to surreptitiously represent the whole community are simply searching for an agenda that isn’t there. We have never claimed to represent the Australian Jewish community, only those Jews who hold more conservative political views.
And despite your wishes to the contrary, the AJA has garnered the interest of much of the community, having a larger presence on social media than all the other communal organisations combined.
Everyone knows that, so can people who have a problem with the AJA’s name find something more important to whine about?