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Euroasian Jewish News
Rosh HaShana Message from EAJC General Council Member Jeremy Jones (Australia).
12.10.2006
 If Bob Dylan could muster the energy to record his 44th album, I guess I should be able to dig deep and produce a Rosh HaShanah email to scattered, special friends around the globe. Particularly as I have been, in most cases, a lousy correspondent this past year.
Before I forget, may the coming year be sweet, happy and full of wonders for you and your loved ones.
It is now time to record and reflect on the past year. But where to start?
Where else? Quba.
Quba, or Kuba, or Cuba (without Castro - but that could soon apply to the other one) is an amazing place in an unbelievable country. A Jewish enclave in a Shi'ite Muslim country, which survived numerous empires and regimes, challenges and hardships, to remain to this day as a tribute to the possibilities of tolerance and the tenacity of the survival instinct.
Not all that far (about 2 hours worth of vodka-fuelled, raucous songs from my Russian speaking co-travellers, followed by rhythmic snoring) from Baku, its anagram and capitol of Azerbaijan, it is not even known about, let alone visited, by nearly enough outsiders. If not for my inspired friends Mika, Roman and Yosef, the organizational skills of Mila and Natasha, the tolerance of Malcolm and his band of co-adventurers, I also would never have visited Quba. Or Baku.
In Baku I met many remarkable and unique people, one of whom, Fuad, scored a mention in Tom Reiss' fascinating (and highly recommended) book "The Orientalist". Another, an Islamic leader, found the idea of a Jewish Australian more wondrous than, say, a mythical creature such as a New Zealand intellectual (sorry Kiwi friends). The daughters of President Ilham Aliyev were also stories in and of themselves. Best of all, a number of people I met there have maintained contact and shared insights, stories and observations with me, which is a pretty good return on a simple clip on kangaroo. While there, I was part of the wreath laying ceremony at the grave of the founder of modern Azerbaijan, Haidar Aliyev, with Harold Tanner, President of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organisations, and had the opportunity to stand stock still in freezing weather for the benefit of tv crews from Turkey, Iran and Azerbaijan.
Travel to the land of Presidents Aliyev included my shortest yet trip to Israel, 17 hours from alight to reflight, yet I was able to touch base with a few colleagues and friends in Jerusalem.
While not an anagram of Baku, Cebu was near enough to merit a trip. Cebu, the first word in the famous Phillipines' show-tune "Cebu, Cebu", was an unusual place to celebrate Purim, but the advantage was there were few critics to comment on my original cantillation of the Megilla. I was there for the Asia Pacific Regional Interfaith Dialogue ("Pacific" was added so as to avoid the acronym "ARID") with a great gang of Australians, representing as we did Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Apostolic Armenianism and Uniting Church, with a team of diplomats and functionaries under the over-all auspices of the Parliamentray Secretary on Multiculturalism. The best parts of the trip were out-manouvering the Malaysians, answering about 100 questions a day on Judaism (which happens when you are the only kippa-wearer in a gathering which included many Asian and Pacific leaders who had never met a Jew) and being part of a mission of priests, cardinals, venerable gentleman and others investigating the extraordinarily cheap pirate-dvd industry in a village market…And, of course, having Buddhists and Church leaders enthusiastically shake noise-makers at every mention of Haman's name.
The third country I visited for the first time during 5766 was New Zealand. The Jewish community consists of incredibly nice, decent and friendly people. As I was during the first nine days of Av, however, I did not sample the famous New Zealand lamb. My speeches were well-attended, my dialogues seemed constructive and I met my good friend Martyn's bride to be. The lowlight was Cedric's dramatic tumble from a ladder as he single-handedly tried to pin up the largest Israeli flag in Auckland (or many other places) as a back-drop for my lecture, but he tells me that he has fully recovered.
Although I had been to the US many times before, my May trip included many memorable features. The Jewish students I met were great fun, but also serious in a confidence-inspiring way. The speaking list at the AJC's 100th anniversary was phenomenal, and the Australian table had the absolute prime spot at the dinner addressed by Angela Merkel, Kofi Annan and George Bush. Many of my friends from around the world were there, and I made some new friends (you know who you are!). Speaking on a panel was a privilege, but might also be a precedent (those in authority – the ball is in your court).
September's Toronto trip was far too short, and clashed with a fascinating conference in New York and a meeting involving some of my friends in Ottowa. But those people I was able to see are reason for me to not yet rule a line through that city's name as a place to revisit. The Symposium I addressed was serious, high-quality and hopefully will have an impact well beyond Canada. The subject, Hate on the Internet, is about as globally relevant as a topic can be.
I was not the only family member to travel this year. Gidon was selected for last January's elite Scholars School at the Australian National University and won his way through to compete for Australia at the 2006 Physics Olympiad in, of all places, Kazakhstan. The Australian team traveled via China, where he saw the Great Wall and also Beijing city. In Kazakhstan, the students toured, made friends from many countries (I can't guess why, but Gidon spent time with the Israelis), and worked hard. Gidon did himself, his family and his country proud by being placed on the Honours List and while he wouldn't have said no if offered a medal, he was pretty pleased with his result.
Naomi and Galit went to Italy and France, for Naomi's brother's son's barmitzvah in Paris. They exhausted themselves in gondolas, galleries, gardens and gelataria (if that is where one buys gelato) but still had time for some shopping. While they were in Europe, Gidon came with me to Melbourne for Limmud Oz, where I participated in an Australian record of six sessions (and have now spoken at every Australian Limmud, averaging more than three talks, never on the same subject twice). Galit came with me twice to Melbourne (for weekend work) and also went to Perth last January for Maccabi sports carnival.
Speaking of children, Gidon had a great year scholastically and even began a career of sorts as a comedy speaker, delivering three presentations to his school assembly as a mock "outraged citizen". He also wrote a column which we hope was parody in the student newspaper.
Galit has an incredibly busy social life, with good friends living locally, in distant parts of Sydney, interstate and overseas. When not chatting on the internet she is on the telephone or sending text messages. School doesn't always agree with her, because teachers constantly interrupt her conversations with lessons.
As for my extended family, enough adventures to fill a few scrapbooks. If you know any of them, you will have an idea what I mean.
After 10 years, the body of my esteemed vehicle, known affectionately to my children as "the bomb", was sold to a collector of such things, and I now drive a car which not only has brakes, but also a working audio system and an air-conditioner. It is yet to acquire a nickname.
Far more sadly, one of our two feline family members, Basil, lost all nine lives in the one cancerous episode and is no longer of this world. Blackie, her brother, now leads a pack of two insane kittens, Carlos Santa and Shroedinger. Santana is no longer known simply as psycho-kitten, although he does move in mysterious ways, while Shroedinger, who has one grey and one green eye, has made alarm clocks redundant and sleep after sunrise a dim memory.
It seems like only yesterday I was lunching, as a guest of the Australian government, with a visiting Imam from England, mainly because it was yesterday. It seems almost a year further back that I spoke at my first Iftar dinner, with my unknowing sponsor being the Saudi Arabian ambassador, and at the annual Eid Fair in Sydney, where I spoke about positive dialogue (alright, I admit it, I really spoke about how much fun it was watching the Australia-Uruguay soccer match as part of 87,000 Australians of all backgrounds).
One of my most interesting days included speaking at an interfaith community rally on the steps of a church, after the Church Hall had been devastated by fire which was linked to Muslim-Christian tensions. This was preceded by attendance at a Lebanese-Australian Mosque, where the imam give a passionate speech on the duty of Muslims to respect Australian laws and to live peacefully with Christians and Jews.
In the past few months I have had the honour of convening two interfaith "conversations", the first addressed by Imam Yahya Hendi from the US and the second by Rabbi David Rosen from Israel. It was inspiring to have leading Muslim and Christian figures meet with Jewish Australians to have serious, positive and sometimes even warm exchanges while Israel was fighting Hezbollah and the loud voices of bigotry were shouting down reason in far too many places.
In addition to those discussions, the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims & Jews met twice, the Annual Conversation with the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference was as fruitful and friendly as always, the Uniting Church Dialogues (particularly when we discussed the Muhammad cartoon controversy) opened many eyes and the Anglican Jewish Australian Dialogue had its first ever meetings, with my contribution being a presentation on misunderstandings on the Middle East to a group with strong allegiances to the anti-Israel Sabeel Centre. Other interesting addresses included one on "Alternative Visions to Extremists'", to a predominantly Muslim interfaith meeting in South-West Sydney, a discussion of terrorism and counter-terrorism to an audience which had just seen the film "Munich" as a fund-raiser for the Zahal Disabled Veterans'; together with a Cardinal, a bishop and a rabbi on The Fruits of Nostra Aetate: Jewish-Catholic Relations today; at the annual meeting of the Australian Jewish Historical Society, where I spoke on "Holocaust Denial in Australia." Another diplomatic/religious highlight was being at the Coptic New Year celebration hosted by Egyptian Consulate.I was invited to join the Social Cohesion Working Group for Asia and the Pacific of The Global Foundation, chaired by former Governor General Rev Dr Peter Hollingworth and participated in Global Foundation leadership, on comparative experiences in integrating migrant populations; and also met with Indonesian, German, US, Dutch and Pakistani diplomats visiting Australia.
Work has taken me to Brisbane and Canberra, where I have lectured at a Multifaith Centre (on responses to community violence) and to a Jewish student conference at Parliament House. I also spoke at a significant Aboriginal Reconciliation event at Parliament House in Sydney, a reminder of years of toil in that particular garden. For some reason, I was also invited to be part of a number of Shavuot study sessions, and opted to speak at South Head Synagogue on Israel's Future Borders.
Sportswise, I continue to turn out for (play is possibly not accurate) for my six-a-side soccer team, amazing all and sundry when the ball I kick results in a goal. It is great fun, and not only for our generally victorious opponents. South Sydney, the rugby league team I follow fanatically, once again finished last, but my soccer team, Sydney FC, won the Australian championship. And, of course, Australia were great to watch at the World Cup.
The media asked my views on many things, but most often on antisemitism in Australia, and also on Holocaust remembrance, international terrorism, interfaith dialogue, Nazi war criminals, Australia's extremist right wing and Islamic groups (after a riot on a Sydney beac), the Israeli election, Hamas, Hezbollah, Lebanon and David Irving. They did not ask me about poetry, despite my participation in "Writing Jewish Sydney", a literary event as part of the first Sydney Jewish Writers' Festival. Speaking of antisemites, I was the named complainant in a court victory against the publishers of an article in a political party's newspaper which blamed Jews for all pornography (and worse), while two other cases bubble along.
Jewish community politics are never fun. Some would call them unedifying. I accept that they need to be manouvered if I want to do my job properly, but there were a few too many low points this year to ignore the subject completely. Consider it unignored.
I better stop now (well after I guess most recepients have stopped reading) and send this while it is still 5766.
Wishing you a sweet and joyous year, in which you are not only inscribed in the Book of Life but write your own unique and happy chapter.
Jeremy
Note. EAJC Public Relations & Media Department invites all of the EAJC GC members to follow remarkable "examble" of our Australian colleague Dr. Jeremy Jones and to send to us such kind "reports", that are to be published on our web site.
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