The Australian Census Form has no box you can tick to indicate that you are Jewish. All Jewish Australians should write in the word ‘Jewish’ or ‘Judaism’ in answer to the question on the Form that asks ‘What is your religion?’ This should be done for each member of the household when you complete the [...]

Right on cue the West Australian has run an article today about an Israeli backpacker who died in the Christchurch earthquake.  A newspaper in Southland, New Zealand started the story by alledging that the backpacker concerned had five passports on him.  The rest of the story was built around his friends leaving the country as [...]

There are so many incredibly positive things to write about that I have seen in the Perth Jewish community in just the past few days.  A busload of campers from Bnei Akiva arrived at the Jewish Centre today, and a busload of Habonim campers departed.  Between the two youth movements there are more than 250 of our [...]

 The balance of political power in Australia took a long-known change for the worse this week with the Greens taking on kingmaker voting powers in the Senate.  It would seem many were taken off guard by this, an outcome of the previous general election that will further tarnish the quality and effectiveness of governance in [...]

From Asia Times, 28 June 2011, by Spengler (David P Goldman): A version of the essay below appeared in the Dutch-language daily newspaper De Volkskrant on June 16. For months, the Dutch parliament has debated a bill that would ban kosher slaughter on supposed humanitarian grounds. On June 23, parliament offered a compromise according to [...]