It is literally minutes before Shabbat descends on Perth.

There is time to speak out, but only just.  There are reports from Israel about violence at the Kotel.  The “Women of the Wall” adorned in  talit and tefillin have been accorded the legal right to pray at the site by the Jerusalem District Court.  A brawl has broken out in which it is reported that garbage, water, and coffee was flung at the praying women.

Whoever can act like this in the name of religion, kal vechomer in the name of Judaism, has a warped sense of religious values.  This action must be condemned, immediately and unequivocally by every Rabbi who believes in Sim Shalom Baaretz.

One wonders if in the days of King Solomon and King David whether women seeking religious expression in the Beit Hamikdash would have been treated with disrespect and unacceptable violence if their customs differed from that of the Priests?  As we know, there were religious zealots around during that time, and sadly, as we know, baseless hatred divided the nation and led to a loss of sovereignty.

Like any situation in Israel, there is no doubt more to the story, and without question an element of provocation will be involved.  However, no matter what the circumstances, behavior such as that which has been reported is a chillul Hashem and an indictment on the Jewish people.

Some months ago I was in Jerusalem.  I had arranged to Skype back to Perth at a particular time.  It so happened I was in a Haradei area of the City.  I sat in a quiet corner with my Ipad.  Obviously the use of technology, let alone the image of a women on the screen was too much to bear.  A haradei man passing by saw the scene and through a cup of coffee at me, with the intent to injure.  I narrowly dodged the missile.  But the experience makes me understand and know what these women at the wall must have experienced.

It is a sad day for Klal Yisrael when we descend into behavior such as this.  There are no excuses.  We have differences and we have a mesorah to protect.  This is not the way to go about it.

Shabbbat Shalom from Perth.

It doesn’t get any bigger than this.

Bnei Akiva Perth celebrated its 30^th anniversary in style on Yom Yerushaliem with a tefillah chagigit, celebratory dinner, and address by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin.

Photo: A selection of the world’s best Jewish educators

Amongst all the Jewish organisations in Perth, the Zionist youth groups are the most important for developing Jewish identity and fostering leadership skills.  Bnei Akiva fills a particular need by bringing religious Zionist identity to the fore.

As noted by one of Bnei Akiva Perth’s founder, Linda Solomon, who recounted the history of the Perth movement, it could not be imagined 30 years ago that this organisation would have such a profound impact on Perth Jewry.  In their own inimitable style the movement lists their accomplishments as follows:

• Have had over 70 Madrichim
• 3 Fantastic sets of Shlichim
• Sent over 80 Chanichim to Israel
• Had over 20 chaverim make Aliyah
• Had 7 couples get married within the Perth Bnei Snif
• Have published over 400 editions of the chaver
• Have run 57 Amazing camps
• Delivered over 2,500 mishloach manot
• Barbequed over 40,000 sausages
• Cut down over 20,000 fronds of schach
• Sustained 19,999 injuries from cutting down fronds of schach
• Have spend 10000000000000 hours planning and running events, camps and fundraising

And so much more…..

Bnei Akiva remains the world’s largest Jewish youth group.  It has brought individuals closer to Judaism, provided them with leadership skills, social skills, and life skills.  Bnei has provided many members of the Jewish community with knowledge, confidence and love of Judaism, and exposure to the balanced ideals of Torah and Avodah.  This infusion of Jewish religious living and its combination with everyday activities within the home, workplace, street, community and classroom brings forth the centrality of Jewish nation building and an understanding of its purpose. 

In honour of the occasion, Rabbi Riskin provided an outstanding oration about Yom Yerushaliem.  He discussed the emotive dilemma faced by Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai when acceding Jeruslaem to Vespasian for the sake of Jewish survival, and the Rabbinic account of the siege.  He went onto discuss the historic perspective of this event from the disciple of Rabbi Akiva from the viewpoint of the next generation.  Acknowledging both the metaphorical and physical kedusha of Jerusalem, that stands separate and elevated from the kedusha of Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Riskin expounded the eternal element of Jerusalem.  He suggested that it was a universal Jewish role to communicate and live the values of Jerusalem and its Temple, a manifestation of G-d itself.  Whilst much of the world seeks human power, the morality of Jerusalem represents inter-human relationships that value the sanctity of the individual and their ability to bring forth peace.  The work of Bnei Akiva, as Rabbi Riskin suggested, is to realise the visibility and promulgation of this Jewish message.  As the namesake of Rabbi Akiva, and on Yom Yerushaliem, there is a generational aspect to the way in which Bnei Akiva approaches this task, and the way in which it takes a perspective of the reunification of Jerusalem.  This event, which occurred 46 years ago today, requires the prism of a new generation to provide the perspective and understanding of what the specific and special kedusha of Jerusalem means to the world today, amidst the political turmoil that surrounds us.   

Bnei Akiva Perth can stand proud of its accomplishments over three decades, and assured that its role in our community is now more important than ever.  As always, the movement shows that it knows how to celebrate in style, and it was indeed a huge privilege to share this occasion with modern orthodoxy’s leading luminary.

Thank you Bnei Akiva, for all your work and for an outstanding 30^th year celebration.  Michayil lechail, from strength to strength, we look forward to supporting your important and ongoing work.

Okay, I couldn’t resist. I was going to tell you last week, but secrets like this are really hard not to share. It turns out that I had a rich uncle in Nigeria who had been a political prisoner. Prior to his execution he hid $US40 million in a suspense account with a Swiss bank. I am his only living relative and all I have to do is deposit a transit draft to access the funds.

By coincidence on the same day, I won $1.3 billion dollars in an international lottery. This is really useful as the paltry one million dollar prizes that I used to get just don’t go as far as they used to. I sent off a reply expressing my thanks, especially as I don’t remember entering any international prize draws. But with so much email traffic it is hardly surprising, and the administrators must have had the same problem with all those prize entries, as they didn’t even get my name right.

I hope that making this news public won’t breach the strict confidentiality requirements associated with collecting my massive prize, which is being held in a Finance and Security House. As the insurance is in my name, I need to cover the premium costs, however when my transfer is complete I have the opportunity to hold these funds in trust earning 22.5% interest per annum.

Now as you probably know, I’m a smart businessman, so I’ve taken out additional credit through my unsolicited bank verification offer. I’m paying 18.5% per annum on credit, but with my 22.5% earnings in interest, I’m trading the margin on a new double futures stock start up index that came to me in the form of a tip-off from an anonymous investor.

Within minutes of trading my stocks, I was touched by the honesty of the broker. It turns out that he erroneously charged my credit card $257.28 for a legal writ. All I had to do was send him my credit card number and the expiration date, and he would reverse the transaction. Not to mention the additional benefit of clearing my existing credit card debt by supplanting it with a new checkdigit algorithm that is completely registration free.

With all my newfound wealth, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to spend the money, but the answer was sitting right before me when I discovered some new opportunities for cosmetic surgery. I never realised the full extent of my anatomical defects until I read the “Cruise the World Hospital” bulletin by Dr Jay Arthur Rosen MD.

Looking good is important, especially as I will soon need to attend a photoshoot in academic regalia for my new Doctorate in Business Administration with a double major in Juridicial Science. I purchased this from an agency in New Mexico. The only problem was that I couldn’t see a record of my qualification when I secretly accessed my FBI file from the United States Government, a service that was recommended by my new Spycam browser based security application.

It’s a wonderful thing, now that I will never be lonely again. With my new lucky pendant, dating agency free login, complimentary music CD collection, and database of more than 4 million email addresses, I will have plenty of opportunities to meet new and exciting people.

Finally, I will need to spend some of my winnings to upgrade my computer, as the amount of email I receive since I claimed my lottery prize has grown to several thousand messages an hour. It’s hard to read through them all, but lady luck must be on my side, because today I noticed that I’m really on a winning roll. Except for that message I just received from a charity requesting funds to support poverty stricken Jewish families. The way it was worded really pulled at my heartstrings, but then I realised it was obviously one of those fake spam messages that get sent to annoy people. So I deleted it, and started working on my registration to invest in a ground breaking intergalactic DNA medical research program instead.

If you would like to find out more, just send a copy of your email address to me.

During the 1960’s and 1970’s mainstream Orthodox Judaism in Australia was politely termed “traditional”.  This is best interpreted as a euphemism to describe a community that is non-observant in nature, yet holds an affiliation to the tenants of Jewish law.  The culture was fairly lax, but there were red lines particularly surrounding matters such as assimilation, and rites of passage when it came to lifecycle events, including death and mourning.  Communities across the country had Rabbi’s whose religious lifestyles were (mostly) tolerated, but whose leadership did not always engender a shift in knowledge and observance from across a complacent Shule membership.

The evolvement of such a culture was a combination of many factors.  The post Holocaust influence, where the overt display of Jewish custom had been shaken the world over, delivered not only a first and second generation gap, but also a fear of identification.  The typical Rabbi (or Reverend) of the Australian Synagogue followed in the British tradition.  Photos adorned with Rabbi’s in canonical robes and clergy vestments grace the halls and libraries of large Shules, an environment where the Rabbi was to his congregation nothing more than a Jewish equivalent of a Church Minister, Priest, or Pastor.

Thankfully, Jewish communities in Australia underwent a renaissance during the latter decades of the 20^th Century.  Whilst many of the older style communities remained, with an increasingly aged demographic, the diversity of Orthodoxy spread and new communities arose.  Within Orthodox settings, Rabbinic leaders were no longer propelled as a religious figurehead to compensate for the absence of observance.  It was recognised that a Rabbi is no less or more religiously accountable for keeping Mitzvot than a fellow Jew alongside them.  The Rabbinic role reverted to its traditional function of tuition, and the communal function of the Synagogue was restored to a predominant environment of learning and prayer.

A new generation of children, those of the past decade and of the next decade, have been born into vibrant and thriving Orthodox Jewish communities in Australia.  Of the 120,000 Jews in this country, approximately 20,000 lead a religiously observant lifestyle that is “shomrei mitzvot.”  Each day there are more than 10,000 Jewish children that attend Jewish Day Schools and are integrated into the routine of tefillah, Jewish learning and identification.

It is a mistake to assume that this new generation will relate to their Judaism in the same way as their parents.  The sociological argument is compelling.

In the past twenty years there has been an incredible change in our world, in technology, lifestyle and expectation.  Twenty years ago we did not communicate by electronic medium.  Email and the internet hardly existed.  We did not procure kosher provisions from the mainstream supply chain of a supermarket, taking for granted the availability of consumer driven commodities for ease of living.   We were sheltered from the global news wires and fickle media, and did not have unlimited access to a search engine at our fingertips.  Such seclusion delivered protection from ideological influences, and the expectancy of instant gratification.

It was recently suggested that the total amount of complied and documented knowledge in the entire world, from the start of civilisation until the year 2000, is now replicated in totality within a two year period.  This is exponentially growing.  In his book The Age of Spiritual Machines Kurzweil proposed “The Law of Accelerating Returns”.  It is a theory that suggests that the rate of change in a wide variety of evolutionary systems (including technologies) tends to increase exponentially.  With the power of the internet, the creation, storage and accessibility of information is unprecedented.  The live streaming of data delivers analytical abilities that are powerfully frightening.

It is time once again for Modern Orthodox Judaism to save itself from itself.

The tenants of Judaism, its foundation and purpose will remain unchanged.  However the evolving medium of Halacha has proven itself as the mainstay of Judaism, adapting Jewish principles to the culture and ethos of each era.

What Modern Orthodox Judaism needs to offer its next generation is different to what it offered to us.  It needs to accentuate the benefits it can deliver a young person in a complex and challenging global economy.  Judaism can offer self-regulation, discipline and balance.  Rather than an imposed protection and sheltering, a young person can seek their own distinguishing identity through Jewish observance.  Their Judaism however is more likely to blend with universal ideals and social projects than to conflict with them.

Modern Orthodoxy needs to provide less institutionalism and dispense with the ceremonial style of Shule, supplementing this for more community in the form of social engagement.  Education, critical enquiry, and skill development should continue to position Jewish learning as a philosophical lead and a challenging moral barometer. Greater opportunity needs to be extended to women, providing spiritual expression through prayer, leadership and legal jurisprudence in a qualified environment that conforms to halacha.  Israel is taking the lead in this development.

Finally, the channelling of Zionism into Diaspora Jewish identity will remain focussed on Nation building.  It may however shift to become less historical and more economic, bringing technology and innovation further to the fore.  The partnership of Israel to its Diaspora must strengthen, and Australian Shule’s must do even more to “import” Israel into their day to day activities.

I do not fear for the future, and watch in awe as the renaissance and revolution continues. Our children see positive, rational and beneficial reasons to grow and develop their Judaism when extended an opportunity for a real Jewish education with substance.  They are proud and confident in carrying their Judaism.

The warning for us is that we must provide the opportunity to encourage this and not thwart it.  We need to provision resources, leadership positions, and above all, ensure that we ourselves are not resistant to change.

Having attended several commemorations for Yom Hashoah, and over the past two days, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut, I stand in awe of the wonderful amount of energy and dedication that is placed into these events by the organisers.  Such events do not just “happen”, and our community is privileged to have amongst us people who are willing to give so much of their time to organise these occasions.

Relative to the size and demographic of the community, these events were also well attended, albeit by an all too regular and insufficiently diverse crowd.

It is important that we do not get complacent about our identification with these days of national significance, or distracted by may what seem as “routine”.  Having internalised the combination of public addresses delivered at the above three events, and seeking to draw inspiration, I have called into question the merit (and in some respects, the format,) by which we mark our identification to the emotions of great loss and great hope in this season of successive events, modern and new to the Jewish calendar.

I take nothing away from those people that have shared words of wisdom at the recent commemorations.  Nothing I have heard at any of the events was either inaccurate or inappropriate.  A number of speakers shared their perspectives with careful and astute care.  There were occasions where I had willed the speakers to move into greater depth with their analysis of the Jewish experience, but none breached the mandate or topic of their address.

So, why am I feeling so ambivalent towards our commemorations and celebrations?

Was is it about the “sameness” of the occasion that made me question whether I had experienced something new, or whether I have heard it all before?   Is it because 80% of the speech time was used to focus on the existential threat and experience of tragedy encountered by modern Israel?  Is it because I observed younger children unable to comprehend and internalise what was being presented?

Um…. Yes.  Times three.

There is a reality that cannot be denied or ignored.  There is terrorism.  There are those who have sacrificed their lives for Israel, both before and after the establishment of the State.  There is Syrian genocide, Iranian nuclear ambitions, Palestinian rejectionism, and fundamentalist Islam.  We cannot pretend otherwise.  Our speakers are not wrong in describing this or the veracity of an existential threat to Israel and our people.

However, there is a lot more than this basic message that needs to be communicated. For the sake of our youth, we need to find a more engaging reason and a more modern format to ensure their presence and involvement.

In particular, the Yom Haatzmaut event, especially when divorced from Yom Hazikaron cannot consume its precious speech time by lamenting Israel’s predicament.  Each moment criticising a biased media and the tactics of anti-Zionists is a moment lost.  It is an occasion that must accentuate the positive.  The emphasis must be placed on innovation and economic development, social projects and achievement, vibrancy and culture, Judaism and freedom of religious and democratic expression.

At the risk of attracting criticism, I would like to suggest that commemorations complete with acknowledging dignitaries, reciting poetry, lighting candles, singing, chanting memorial prayers, standing in silence, playing videos, and delivering speeches, need to be shortened and further diversified.

Many contemporary Israeli commemorations are infused with interactive participation, social outcomes, and individual purpose.  They entail dialogue, use of social media, the learning of Jewish concepts, and the engagement of diverse groups of people to share perspectives. A person does not just attend as a spectator, but they contribute as a participant.  They leave with a sense of accomplishment and newfound knowledge, and they feel motivated by having their ideas valued.

Imagine if a commemoration was replaced with a Zionist Youth Tekes involving the whole community?  What say that across the hundreds of attendees, if not a thousand, that the means were obtained to provide one young member of our community with a fully funded scholarship to attend a year long program in Israel?  How about a live video feed to the March of the Living, so that the participants on the program can share their experiences and emotions in real time?   Each year a publication of literary contributions relating to Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haatzmaut could be published by our community.  There are many ways of collecting and centralising the thoughts of all who are present, for the sake of preserving the occasion and delivering a dignified tribute to the event.

Let us not also forget, or exclude the religious element of modern Zionism.   A strong theme articulated by Rabbi David Hartman is that Israel provides the unique opportunity to build a Jewish society based on Torah values that represent a true humanity. All elements of culture, when constructed on the basis of Jewish law, deliver inestimable potential to our people.  Our community, even in the Diaspora can embrace this, and contribute to the design of nation building, if by no other means than through community building of our own.  This in turn becomes an example and a contribution to the broader society around us.

It’s not that I am ungrateful for the commemorations that we are provided or lacking in appreciation for the organisers. However I do feel that our younger generation respond less to ceremony, and more towards critical thinking and enquiry.   We need to respond to this with a new style of commemoration.

As we read in the Tehillim of Hallel, so beautifully sung at the Tefillah Chagigit appended to the commencement of the Yom Haatzmaut ceremony, “Shiru Hashem Shir Chadash”, let’s sing a new type of song to our creator.