CHANTAL ABITBOL

A government review into food label is likely to include kashrut in its focus.

KASHRUT authorities have “cautiously welcomed” a federal government-sponsored review of kosher labelling.

Currently being conducted by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), the review is part of a sweeping evaluation of food labelling laws sparked by consumer concerns over inaccurate and inconsistent food labels.

A recently released issues paper by the COAG committee stated that there is “consumer desire for clarification of the terms”, including “kosher”.

Starting this week, the committee will kick off its consultation process, inviting submissions and conducting public meetings in capital cities across Australia and New Zealand until May 7. A final report is expected by early December.

Kashrut authorities were this week tentatively optimistic about the review.
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A page from one of the machzors, which date back to the early 18th and 19th centuries.

NAOMI LEVIN

TWO ancient prayer books have made their way out of hiding in Hungary and into Yad Vashem’s archives – via Australia.

Melbourne couple Andrew and Erica Romer were following in the footsteps of Erica’s Hungarian ancestors, when they happened across the books more than 20 years ago.

In a story that sounds like a Hollywood cliche, they met an old friend of the family who gave them the ancient machzors (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayer books).

Honoured to receive the responsibility of looking after the historical books, the Romers kept them safely in their home before meeting a Yad Vashem executive, who suggested they donate them to the Holocaust museum.

The tale began during the couple’s visit to Budapest in 1989, when they visited an old Orthodox synagogue in the city’s backstreets.
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Rabbi Gersh Zylberman and Rabbi Rayna Gevurtz. Photo: AJN file

PETER KOHN

TEMPLE Beth Israel’s (TBI) rabbinic couple, Rabbi Gersh Zylberman and Rabbi Rayna Gevurtz, will be leaving the synagogue later this year to pursue professional opportunities in the United States.

In a letter to TBI congregants, the husband-and-wife duo said they made their decision “after a great deal of consideration and … with a mixture of competing feelings”, but view it as “an important step in our life journey”.

Rabbi Zylberman has served the TBI congregation since returning from rabbinic studies at the Progressive movement’s Hebrew Union College (HUC) in the US and Israel in 2005. US-born Rabbi Gevurtz served as the rabbi of The King David School, before joining TBI’s rabbinic team in 2007.

Rabbi Zylberman told The AJN their planned move was initiated by a congregation in California.

“We initially came to TBI for a two-year commitment and renewed for a further two and then a further year,” he said, describing their involvement with young adults and family programs as highlights of their work.
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Commonwealth Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks delivers a sermon at the Great Synagogue, Sydney, in 2006. Photo: AJN file

AJN STAFF

SENIOR rabbis have expressed concern over the establishment of a new government-sponsored league table, which will see their synagogues ranked according to the quality of their sermons.

Based on the controversial My School website, the My Shul website is due to be launched in May by the Australian Faith Institute (AFI).

Among the factors determining how a synagogue fares is the length of the rabbi’s sermon, the number of references to the week’s parshah and -– based on a questionnaire provided to congregants -– just how interesting it is.

Shuls will also be graded according to the musical ability of their respective chazans, with volume, pitch and choice of tunes all influencing the overall mark.

Independent assessors are expected to attend synagogues across the country over the Pesach and Shavuot period to collate the relevant data. Initial rankings will be posted shortly after the festivals.
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Broken Hill. Photo: AJN file

CHANTAL ABITBOL

THE once-thriving Jewish community, which helped to establish the outback mining town of Broken Hill in far north-west NSW, is long gone.

But there is still one remnant; evidence of those former glory days.

Off the city’s main street stands a recently restored red-brick synagogue with a storied past.

Established in 1910, the shul on Wolfram Street once served as the vibrant communal hub for around 250 Jews who called Broken Hill home in the first half of the 1900s.

Though its doors closed in 1962 after Jews steadily moved out of the area, in recent years the local historical society has taken steps to preserve the building. It is now organising centenary celebrations for November as a nod to its past.
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Purim mask. Photo: AJN file

DALIA SABLE

WITH Purim approaching, community leaders have once again issued a warning to parents and children about the dangers of alcohol abuse.

The sobering reminder is particularly pertinent with the eve of the festival this year falling on a Saturday.

“With the approach of Purim, we are very concerned to ensure that everyone in our community – be it parents, schools, rabbis or community leaders do their utmost to ensure the youth appreciate the dangers of under-age drinking,” said John Searle, president of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria.

“The responsibility, I think, is shared by all those groups to not only give the right message, but to also set the right example by their actions.”

President of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) Rabbi Yaakov Glasman issued a firm statement to member rabbis, urging affiliates to address the matter in their weekly sermons. The RCV statement referred to the notion of celebrating Purim by excessive drinking as “unfounded”.
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New Sephardi shul Rabbi Ben Hassan inside the Sassoon Yehuda Sephardi Synagogue. Photo: Peter Haskin

DALIA SABLE

PURIM on Saturday night will be a double celebration at the Sassoon Yehuda Sephardi Synagogue. As well as commemorating the historic victory over Haman, it will be the first festival presided over at the shul by Rabbi Ben Hassan, who took on the role last December.

Describing the community as “very warm and friendly”, he said: “Everybody is made to feel welcome, regardless of how long you have been coming for. Everyone asks you how your day was and you are always greeted with a smile.”

Born in Manchester to an Ashkenazi mother from Germany and a Sephardi father from Gibraltar, Rabbi Hassan practised Sephardi traditions within an Ashkenazi framework. It wasn’t until he travelled to Israel and was exposed to a larger Sephardi community that he wholly embraced his eastern heritage, subsequently attending a small Sephardi shul upon returning to his hometown.

“I think you could say that Sephardi traditions are a bit more lively. Everyone takes part in the service and it’s nice to get everyone involved. The customs are rich and versatile and this versatility is wonderful,” he said.
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History buff Trevor Cohen. Photo: Peter Haskin

PETER KOHN

TREVOR Cohen is elated that Mary MacKillop has been canonised. A famous forebear of his had a big impact on the life of Australia’s first saint.

The Melbourne history buff, a former president of the Australian Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), Victoria , has researched the life of his great-great-great uncle, Emanuel Solomon, one of 19th century Adelaide’s most colourful characters.

Solomon, a London-born hawker, was transported to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in 1818 for possession of stolen property. After his emancipation, he became a successful businessman and a colourful member of South Australia’s fledgling Jewish community.

Solomon married three times and entered South Australia’s parliament.

The philanthropist was drawn to MacKillop’s extensive charitable work, and twice took action to help her and her order.
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Organ donation campaigner Dr Ronnie Goldberg. Photo: Peter Haskin

PETER KOHN

A MELBOURNE campaigner is hoping more Jewish Australians will register as organ donors now that new research may have found a way of circumventing halachic restrictions.

Dr Ronnie Goldberg, a dentist, and enthusiastic advocate for organ donation, is thrilled about the latest milestone in world-beating Australian medical research.

It enables vital body organs to be harvested for transplants as late as several hours after life-support systems have been switched off and cardiac death, the final stage of mortality, has occurred.

The new procedure – which so far applies to lungs and kidneys but may eventually be relevant for other body parts – does not require intervention at the earlier “brain dead” stage, said Dr Goldberg.

It skirts the prickly halachic issue of whether brain death constitutes actual death. The “brain death” definition is broadly accepted in the mainstream Orthodox Jewish community, but is still queried in ultra-Orthodox circles, which claim that as long as the heart is pumping, life remains.
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Rabbi Paul Lewin and Sarah Zukerman in the North Shore Synagogue. Photo: Ingrid Shakenovsky

CHANTAL ABITBOL

IT all started 70 years ago, when a close-knit group of Jewish families living on the North Shore decided to come together to form a minyan.

Calling themselves the Northern Sydney Hebrew Congregation, they met at Warringah Hall in Neutral Bay.

Soon their numbers grew, and the fledging community formed a building committee to raise funds to buy land and build a shul.

Now, seven decades later, the congregation continues to thrive. Known as The North Shore Synagogue – or more fondly, “The Garden Synagogue”, because of the shul’s lush surroundings in the leafy suburb of Lindfield – the congregation celebrated the 70th anniversary of its formation with a gala concert on February 14.

The landmark event featured three cantors – chazan Zvi Teichtahl, the shul’s current cantor; former chazan Rabbi Philip Heilbrunn of Melbourne; and Rabbi Yehuda Niasoff of The Central Synagogue – accompanied by chamber music group The Freshwater Trio.
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