NAOMI LEVIN

WHAT started as a bit of a laugh for Joel Gubieski has turned into a bit of a money-spinner.

Like many children of the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gubieski spent his summers in colourful plastic sandals called Jelly Babies.

They were all-condition shoes – kids could play football in them, go climbing in them through deep rock pools or wear them to the shops – and Gubieski’s love for them never died.

“In 2006, my mum called me saying she had found a one-off pair of Jelly Babies,” he said. She bought them for her son, who wore them to university where he is studying arts and law.

“There was an unbelievable response when I started wearing them around uni and other places.” His peers all wanted a pair of the rubbery sandals, but shoe shops had stopped stocking them after they lost appeal with the younger set.
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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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Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

CANBERRA – The risk of an Australian committing a terrorist act is one of this country’s key security threats, according to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Flanked by Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Rudd released the government’s Counter-Terrorism White Paper on February 23.

In it, the Prime Minister made two key points about global terrorism. First, while there has been success in counter-terrorism activities in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines, at the same time, new centres for terrorists have grown in places like Yemen and Somalia.

Second, there has been an increase of terrorists and potential terrorists born and educated in western countries, including Australia.

“Home-grown terrorism is now a reality we have to accept,” Rudd said at the White Paper’s launch.

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Michael Danby addresses the meeting at St Kilda Town Hall. Photo: Peter Haskin

NAOMI LEVIN

MELBOURNE Ports MP Michael Danby showed his pulling power, gathering the entire Jewish community – from Adass rabbis to Progressive parents, from Melbourne and Sydney – under the same roof.

More than 400 people attended a function at the St Kilda Town Hall on February 15 to pay tribute to Danby’s work in the electorate for more than 11 years.

Joining them was Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, plus a gaggle of senior government figures including Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services Bill Shorten and NSW Supreme Court Justice Stephen Rothman.

They paid tribute to the MP’s efforts in securing millions of dollars worth of government funding for Jewish school safety.

Shorten introduced the Deputy PM, who also serves as Education Minister, beginning his speech with a well-pronounced “shalom chaverim”.
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Noel Pearson. Photo: AJN file

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ABORIGINAL leader Noel Pearson has hailed the achievements of the Jewish community as an example for indigenous Australians.

The director of Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership highlighted aspects of the community that could benefit the first Australians, in a speech to the American Bar Association in Sydney last week, and then in an article in The Australian.

“For the future, I have always drawn upon the example of the Jews,” Pearson said.

“They are a community who have never forgotten history and they never allow anybody else to forget history; they fight staunchly in defence of the truth; they fight relentlessly against discrimination; but they have worked out as a people that they never make their history a burden for the future, they defend racism, but they never make racism their problem.”

As well as remembering history and avoiding being defined through racism, Pearson added that the idea of maintaining culture in a diaspora could also be adopted by the indigenous peoples.
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Rabbi Zvi Telsner. Photo: AJN file

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YESHIVAH Centre dayan Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner has rejected a petition asking for a controversial sign to be removed from Chabad’s central synagogue.

In response, petition organisers have proposed to take the matter to a higher authority for a ruling, citing Lubavitch headquarters in New York as potential mediators.

For 18 years, a large sign with the words of the prayer Yechi has been hanging at the back of the Yeshivah synagogue. But following the ostracising of a group known as the “Moshiach Men” from the Chabad community, synagogue members petitioned to have the sign removed.

They argued it was divisive and gave oxygen to those fringe members who believe the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson is the messiah.

Responding to the petition last week, Rabbi Telsner said the sign would remain in the Hotham Street shul, in line with a ruling by the late head of the Yeshivah Centre, Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner.
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Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

AUSTRALIA is likely to implement more sanctions against Iran, after both the federal Government and Opposition came out strongly last week against the rogue state.

Following news that the country has developed the capability to enrich uranium to a level closer to that which is needed to build nuclear weapons, Australia stood firm on the need to rein in the Islamic Republic.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Australia remained “deeply concerned” about Teheran’s nuclear program.

“In the absence of positive engagement, Australia stands ready to support tough, new measures against Iran, including additional UN [United Nations] Security Council sanctions and autonomous sanctions,” Smith said.

Speaking to The AJN, Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Julie Bishop also expressed “grave concerns” about Iran’s nuclear program.
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Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and South Africa’s International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane in Pretoria.

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LATER this year, the eyes of the world will turn to South Africa when the country hosts one of the globe’s most-watched sporting events -– the soccer World Cup.

With the Socceroos among the 32 nations competing for the coveted gold trophy, there will certainly be plenty of interest from these shores.

However, it’s not just on the pitch that the Australian Government is hoping for success. It’s also hoping to reap the benefits off the field.

Last month, seven years after an Australian foreign minister last stepped foot on South African soil, Stephen Smith spent two days in Pretoria.

While there, he met with South African Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, and other African National Congress dignitaries.

Cynics will no doubt accuse the Rudd Government of focusing on Africa for selfish reasons – to try to secure votes for a temporary seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council for 2013-14. However, others argue that Australia is doing itself a disservice by not having closer ties with its fellow middle power and Southern Hemisphere neighbour.
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Rabbi Joseph Gutnick. Photo: AJN file

NAOMI LEVIN

ONE of Melbourne Chabad’s most influential figures, Joseph Gutnick, has signed a petition challenging the Yeshivah Centre’s leadership.

Rabbi Gutnick is among a group of Yeshivah members calling on the leadership to remove a controversial sign at the back of the synagogue.

These members want to see the centre, led by Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Telsner -– the son-in-law of the late Rabbi Yitzchok Dovid Groner -– be run more along the lines of a democracy.

The sign has the words to a short prayer known as Yechi. Yechi has been recited for centuries, but recently has been hijacked by the more messianic Chabadniks to signify the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson as the Messiah.

“I feel very strongly that it should be removed,” Rabbi Gutnick told The AJN.
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Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot. Photo: AJN file

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THE Jewish community is calling on the Australian Government to stick to its guns in its support for Israel, despite Arab representatives attempting to blackmail the country into changing its views or lose the chance of a United Nations (UN) seat.

As reported in The Australian this week, Arab League representative Hashem Yousseff, who is currently in the country, said Australia’s staunch support for the Jewish State will be “taken into consideration” when Arab nations vote on whether Australia should take a temporary UN Security Council seat in 2013-14.

The Israeli embassy in Canberra issued a statement rejecting Yousseff’s logic.

“Any nation considering their support for a vote on a Security Council seat should first reflect on the merits of the nominee and the contribution that they may make to international affairs, before considering their own self-interest,” it declared.
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