Published: 15 April 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
AUSTRALIAN JEWRY’S FIERCEST public advocate of the 20th century, Isi Joseph Leibler, died on Tuesday, aged 86. Leibler developed pneumonia last week and fought kidney disease for many years. “Between his kidneys and his lungs, his body gave out,” Leibler’s biographer and friend, Suzanne Rutland, told The Jewish Independent.
Leibler’s passing was noted widely in the Australian and Israeli media, with international reports highlighting his role in helping Soviet Jewry and exposing corruption in the World Jewish Congress.
Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1934 and whisked away to Australia in 1939, Leibler’s early life was lived in the shadow of the Holocaust. Narrowly avoiding Auschwitz (his maternal grandparents were not as lucky) and experiencing anti-Semitism in his childhood in Melbourne, instilled in Leibler a lifelong commitment to “stand up and not just take it”. In 2014 he told Rutland “my whole life has proven that fighting back, even if you have setbacks, pays off.”
Fight back, he did.
As early as the 1950s, still only in his twenties, Leibler became a relentless advocate for Jewish and Israeli interests. He remained so for the next half century. As a leading figure in the Victorian Jewish Board of Deputies and later the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, he set a new standard for lobbying.
From Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke he charmed politicians on both sides of Australian politics. In them, and others from church leaders to business figures, he created powerful and influential allies of the State of Israel.
From Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser to Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke he charmed politicians on both sides of Australian politics. In them, and others from church leaders to business figures, he created powerful and influential allies of the State of Israel.
Nazi sympathisers, war criminals, Holocaust deniers, critics of Israel and anyone deemed a political threat to Jewish people – including left-leaning, pro-Soviet Jews – were tackled unforgivingly by the former diamond trader.
A master political strategist, Leibler understood the need for an apparatus to advocate for Jewish people and their interests (including Israel) – in Australia’s media, with its politicians and businesses. In the early 1980s he formed the Australian Institute of Jewish Affairs and the Jewish Advisory Committee (the former organisation lives on today in the formidable Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council).
Leibler’s singular achievement remains a three-decade long campaign to liberate Soviet Jewry. From the 1950s until the fall of USSR, Leibler persistently raised the international profile of Jewish dissidents and refuseniks.
[gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="42344"]
His efforts saw Australia become the first country to raise the issue of the Soviet refuseniks Soviet Union at the United Nations in 1962. Mission was accomplished when safe passages were granted for millions of Soviet Jews to Israel, the United States, Canada and Australia.
Having achieved much in Australia and fought assiduously to set Soviet refuseniks free, global leadership was an inevitable next step. He also served as chairman of the governing board of the World Jewish Congress.
Headstrong and often pugnacious, Leibler’s long-running public and private feuds with fellow Jewish leaders – including his brother Mark Leibler – became the subject of notoriety.
Headstrong and often pugnacious, Leibler’s long-running public and private feuds with fellow Jewish leaders – including his brother Mark Leibler – became the subject of notoriety.
[gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="42345"]
Of his propensity to clash with inculcators, colleagues – even family members – Rutland told The Jewish Independent: “Isi was very strong in his views. If he did not agree with someone, he would not hesitate to say so, in a manner which his opponents saw as bullying.
“His strong view of leadership is that one should lead – that is one should stick to one’s convictions, whether others agreed with you or not.”
On Tuesday night, Leibler’s brother and fellow Jewish leader, Mark Leibler, paid tribute to Isi’s personal sacrifices.
“Isi was the gold standard of global Jewish leadership. He fought for the Jewish people relentlessly throughout his life often against the current. His positive impact across the Jewish world will be felt for generations,” he said in a statement.
“But Isi was first and foremost for me my brother and family was valued above all else. I will never forget my older brother returning to Australia after my father died when I was 14 years old to take charge of the family business and provide support for his younger brothers and our mother. And Isi really continued to do so for the rest of his life.”
Mark Leibler’s son, Jeremy, who is president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said Isi “demonstrated that one individual can indeed change the world – and that is exactly what Isi achieved in the role he played in the fight to free Soviet Jewry.
“His strong view of leadership is that one should lead – that is one should stick to one’s convictions, whether others agreed with you or not.”
“Isi was also my uncle and I was privileged to see the private side as well as his public persona. The only subject matter that trumped Jewish affairs was Isi’s unyielding dedication to his family and in particular to my grandmother, Rachel Leibler.”
After nearly a lifetime in Australia, Liebler and his wife, Naomi, moved to Israel in 1999, settling in Jerusalem. In his remaining years he became a keen and sometimes aggrieved commentator on Israeli and international affairs, writing a weekly column for Jerusalem Post.
Leibler’s friend of 70 years, journalist Sam Lipski, argued that although Leibler’s world views had changed in time, his politics were misunderstood.
“As a religious Zionist, who knew his subject from the inside, he was an outspoken opponent of the triumphalist swing to the right – religiously and politically – by Israel's religious Zionist movement since the Six Day War,” Lipski said.
Lipski said Leibler was often a scathing critic of the “Chief Rabbinate's irrelevance” and the “ultra-Orthodox's halachic obscurantism and political expediency. “
“For someone unabashedly in the Orthodox camp it took guts. It was one of The Wars of Isi Leibler, to echo the sub- title of Suzanne Rutland's recently published biography, that Isi fought with his hallmark robustness, and which deserves wider recognition.”
Photo: Isi Leibler addressing the third World Conference of Soviet Jewry in Jerusalem, 1983 (courtesy)
Isi Leibler, activist for Soviet Jewry who helped expose World Jewish Congress scandal, dies at 86 (Haaretz)
Isi Leibler, leading campaigner for the release of Soviet Jewry, dies at 86 (Times of Israel)
ECAJ STATEMENT
AIJAC STATEMENT
