It has been difficult times for the meat production industry in Australia.  On the back of a TV documentary showing animal abuse in Indonesia of livestock that had been exported from Australia, the Government immediately halted an industry that is a very significant contributor to the Australian economy.  The flow on effect of this shotgun reaction (no pun intended), [...]

We all know that appearances can be deceptive.  A number of my peers are dedicated religious Jews, but do not wear a Kippah (skullcap) in the workplace.  I respect people for making their own choices regarding standards of observance and do not cast value judgements on how people express their religious and/or cultural identity through [...]

Tonight a respectable crowd heard an even more respectable address from Ephriam Zuroff, internationally recognised pursuer of justice who tracks and assists the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. Mr Zuroff noted many important points, stressing that age does not diminish the severity of a crime and that Australia has a particularly poor record of having brought not [...]

The Shalem Center’s Department of Philosophy, Political Theory and Religion has organized a new academic listserv that provides information for scholars and students interested in being informed of developments in the philosophical investigation of the Hebrew Scriptures, Talmud and Midrash. The “Bible-Philos” list provides you with announcements relating to conferences, publications, and fellowships in the [...]

A pilgrim festival with agricultural origins?  Transformed into a religious commemoration of revelation at Sinai?  An event that occurred 3,318 years ago causes us to stay up all night drinking refined blood (a technical descriptor of milk) and ponder the Jewish legal system? Here’s a nice story about a few million people at the first [...]