The Australian Jewish Nuisance

I did not enjoy reading the Australian Jewish News this week.

Like the rest of the left leaning press, the AJN replicated the media love affair with the Rudd Government with a front page article “on the right track, so far”.  The first sentance on the article reads “In judging the first 12 months of the Rudd federal Government, it is important to separate the Government’s attitude towards the Jewish community from that towards Israel”  How wrong is that?  I am sure that the vast majority of the Jewish community know full well that this Government has already sold Israel short at the UN, and has directed more of our taxpayer money toward a Palestinian Administration that refuses to recognise Israel’s right to exist and funds hate education and terrorist activities.  Thank you to the AJN for being an apologist for the Government, but all it will do is put you further offside with your readership.  Then again, it has been said that Australia’s Jewish paper is a lot like Rudd himself; it delivers lots of feel good geekish rhetoric and but then when it comes to the real issues shows itself devoid of substance. 

The second irksome item was on page 3, about voting in the Victorian elections.  The photo caption reads that Orthodox Jews are unable to attend polling booths on Shabbat.  Actually, it is all Jews who are unable to attend polling booths on Shabbat.  Maybe what the AJN meant to say was that it is the Orthodox Jews who observe the Shabbat tradition that take care to vote before Shabbat.  Or perhaps in the view of the AJN halacha only applies to those who practice it?

But the most annoying aspect of reading this weeks AJN, was that there was no mention of any news from Perth.  In fact, in the past few months, the only “newsworthy” item from Perth has been the acquistion of land for a new cemetary.  Yet there are so many events and developments here that the news silence is deafening.  We have the construction of the state of the art drama centre, the visit of Malcolm Turnball, the local writing of a sefer Torah, the 90th birthday of Rabbi Dr Shalom Coleman, the opening of the third year of the Yeshivah, at least two speeches to Parliament that reference the Perth Jewish community, a new wave of immigration, Bob Geldof’s appearance, Civic events, and the development of new public relations initiatives.  These events are all current to the past couple of weeks, and all news about Jews in Australia.  There are many many more news stories about Jewish Perth, and a huge number of human interest stories beyond that.   But they are of no interest to the Australian Jewish News.  Maybe the paper should be renamed the Melbourne Jewish News? 

As Australia’s third largest Jewish community, and a stronghold of yiddishkeit, we deserve more!