Aussie Echo - Alav Hashalom

Guest Post from Melbourne Chabadnik

AUSSIE ECHO - GONE

http://aussieecho.blogspot.com/2009/12/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-fish.html

Originally, we, especially Chabadniks, expected Aussie Echo to develop into a strong voice in the community. However, except for a few posts which got the crowd out and involved, it was pretty lame and simply served up material which it copied and pasted from other sites.

So, no great loss, but really a pity that it didn't bloom. Heaven knows that the Frum community neds every single 'voice' it can raise..

There is definitely room for another enterprising blogger to establish noisy and clear Shofar for the community. (I doubt that AJN Watch would have any objection.)

So where are all those chaps who have opinions on everything every Shabbos in Shul? Here's your chance to be heard on the other 6 days of the week.

AJN Watch on 'Australian Conservative' website

We see that some of our posts are featured on the Australian Conservatives site. (No, not Nitzan...)
See: http://tinyurl.com/l45ggd

"Melbourne Yid": "Frum people think AJN Watch is a joke"

In reply to our response on the Jewgle Perth blog to his earlier comments, the same person has tried again. Our reply follows.

Melbourne Yid Says:

AJN Watch’s comments are, as usual, rambling and long winded. Rather than talking to the point they attack the individual. This has become standard form of argument among those who are so insecure in their Yiddishkeit that they cannot abide anyone with a different view.

I don’t think anyone in the frum community likes everything about the AJN. I have heard from members of the “Liberal” community that they also feel that they are not given a fair go. Reading this blog it is apparent that Perth residents are also dissatisfied with the coverage of that city in the AJN. One size does not fit all. The reason that there are so many shuls and shtieblach in Melbourne is that we need variety in our lives.

If the AJN Watch people toned down their righteous indignation and hatred for anyone who does not think like they do then maybe they would have more supporters. As it stands most frum people think they are a joke.

To Melbourne Yid:

Our comments are ‘rambling and long-winded’ only to those who don’t like the fact that your AJN now has a site keeping a close watch on it and unafraid to comment stridently.

We should tone down our ‘righteous indignation and hatred’? What hatred? Denouncing your newspaper's nasty reporting style and their repeated (insinuated and open) smear campaigns against a sector of the community?

If that is called hatred, we plead guilty.

As for your comment that "most frum people think they are a joke" - how would you know?
How many frum people do you know?

For your information, all of us at the AJN Watch blog have no previous blogging knowledge or experience, thus had/have no idea what kind of readership figures we could expect. (After all, how many frum Jews are there in Australia? How many of them ever buy the AJN?)

So we are more than pleased to report that despite Melbourne Yid's opinion that we are a 'joke', in the 3+ weeks of our existence we have had approx 1800 "unique visitors" and almost 4000 page loads. Far, far better figures than we ever dreamed of.

And may we take this opportunity to remind Melbourne Yid that he did not respond with a single word to our earlier charges:

"...the case of Rabbi Engel...the way they sensationalized the original story - which forced the police investigation. This was nothing less than pure ‘mesireh’..."
"Following that... the outrageous front page “Charged” poster."
"...[AJN] never mentioned anything about the massive scandals involving rich and famous irreligious Jews. .."

We await your reply.

From Jewgleperth's comment section

In response to the Jewgleperth blog post we copied here:
http://ajnwatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/jewgleperth-talks-about-blogs.html the following comment was made. [Our reply follows]

Melbourne Yid Says:

I must admit that I didn’t have the patience to read this very long blog post. Maybe I am a victim of the internet generation with my short attention span

In any case I must object to you mentioning the AJN Watch blog as a “good example” of a blog “which help to deliver a new style of media for Australian Jews”. This blog is entirely dedicated to bashing the Australian Jewish News and has no other redeeming qualities. While there are many negative things to say about the AJN it is not necessary to invent grievances or to argue with every comment that may hint at something positive about the paper.

That blog is obviously written by the extreme right-wing of Melbourne Orthodoxy who do not recognise the Jewishness of anyone but their own community. Nothing that the AJN can write will pacify them. Saying that they are not above using the Jewish News to publicise their own community.

AJN Watch Says:

Melbourne Yid, let us guess you are an employee of the AJN - moonlighting as a Yid.
After all, no reasonable impartial person would write quite like you.

In any case, maybe due to your short attention span, you have completely missed the reasons behind the creation of AJN Watch. These are stated quite clearly on our masthead:

“AJN Watch observes and comments on prejudice, misrepresentation and monopolistic abuse of power in the pages of the Australian Jewish News - especially regarding the observant community. ….. It is this blog’s mission to spotlight errors, expose misrepresentations and vigorously respond to items that malign or defame the Orthodox community.”

Thus while you may consider this as “bashing”, fair and reasonable people are grateful that for first time in memory this not insignificant sector of Australian Jewry has a voice where it can forcefully respond to the biased and unjust treatment handed out to frum Jews for decades.

Plans to create such a blog have been around for a number of years but have for various reasons been suspended. However, the case of Rabbi Engel was the final straw. First in the way they sensationalised the original story - which forced the police investigation. This was nothing less than pure ‘mesiroh’ - dobbing a fellow Jew it to the authorities. As you, Melbourne Yid may or may not know, halachically and historically the ‘moser’ is/was considered to be the lowest form of humanity in Jewish life - reviled and despised by all.

Following that, they came up with the outrageous front page “Charged” poster. When that happened the entire spectrum of Jewry should have risen up in arms against these hypocrites - who never mentioned anything about the massive scandals involving rich and famous irreligious Jews. But what happened? Besides a few letters to the editor - nothing. Where was Melbourne Yid then? If you did comment about it, we haven’t heard it.

But those behind AJN Watch, did take action and decided that no longer will we sit by passively and allow our community to be smeared and besmirched by Australia’s only national Jewish newspaper. Most of the reaction has been highly positive. But if the defense of observant Jews offends you - we apologize and suggest that you don’t read our blog.

We, on the other hand, hope that the Jewish News- knowing that it is now facing continuous scrutiny (as per that nasty piece in last week’s Shmooze page) - will think twice before denigrating, attacking and offending our community.

By the way, your comment: ” That blog is obviously written by the extreme right-wing of Melbourne Orthodoxy who do not recognise the Jewishness of anyone but their own community…” almost confirms that you are one of the AJN’s anti-frum gang. Slandering hundreds of good Jews - because they won’t take it any more from your beloved newspaper. Shame on you.

In any case, what difference does it make who the bloggers are? Why don’t you try and respond to the charges of prejudice and unfairness - rather than write lies about religious Jews?

As for your comment that “… they are not above using the Jewish News to publicise their own community….” which community are you referring to? Or have you also fabricated that fact?

To our knowledge since the arrival of the Hamodia, “right-wing” organizations have almost stopped using the AJN.

Jewgleperth talks about blogs

Blogging changes the Jewish community

We live in the age of information technology. The evolvement of blogging over the past few years has been a phenomena that has developed a status and culture of its own. Blogging preceded some the more advanced forms of social networking that we have seen develop over the past year, but I believe it will also outlast some of the more abbreviated forms of communication. This is because of integrated media opportunities it offers.

Some people use blogging as an online diary, others as a reference depository. In some cases there is a cause to advance, and in others it is merely an occupational pastime. Our JewglePerth blog was established to provide a medium of communication and awareness for the Orthodox Jewish community in Perth.

There are many blogs appearing around Australia that provide a direct line of communication between those people that want to access the views and opinions of Australian Jewry, and those people who want to measure what the issues and attitudes are, and general pulse of the community is.

Here are just three of many good examples of other blogs, all of which help to deliver a new style of media for Australian Jews in their own unique way:

Aussie Echo

AJN Watch

Galus Australus (a successor blog to the Sensible Jew, and we wish them all the best, especially in light of the recent signoff post by their predecessor, that articulates the need for an alternative community forum in much the same way that we do)

The social change that blogging represents is worth thinking about. Many articles have been written from a Rabbinic perspective that discuss blogging formats from a halachic perspective. The laws of Lashon Hara, the isssues of bittul zman, matters of general respect, anonymity, and the controlled use of the internet itself are serious issues that are addressed from a Jewish perspective. I am not qualified to comment on this, but I am conscious of the positive and negative level of influence that blogging can create.

In an age of ever increasing scrutiny, the accountability and responsibility of publishing anything is becoming more important. The responsibility of a publisher is an awesome one. All publishers should welcome inquiry and critique, provided that it is appropriately directed. This is especially so for bloggers.

From a sociological viewpoint, I believe the traditional structure of the Jewish community will be transformed by the form of free speech that blogging delivers. Most of this I suspect will be for the good, but it will also sadly come at the expense of many things, including traditional community models and structures.

The blog delivers a forum that allows views to be expressed outside the scope of the editorial control of an organisation or the Jewish media. Suddenly the freedom of expression is not limited, and issues and perspectives that were not within the scope of discussion before (or stifled by the community leadership) are suddenly within the public domain, whether or not that is desired.

More here: http://www.jewgleperth.com/?p=976

The Jewish News hits back hard!

Well, well, well, who would’ve thunk it? The Jewish News trotting out its heavy artillery to repel AJN Watch. Yes folks, Captain Adam Kamien and his S.S. SHMOOZE have been engaged to avenge the honour of his employer! So critical is this assignment, that Shmooze has reduced its usual piffle about Borat, Bruno and the rest of the dreckerati to focus efforts on abusing, accusing and slurring AJN Watch. And he has done it - in his sneering best.

Poor little Adam complains about the “bottomless trench of desperate boredom” behind “AJN bashing” on the blogosphere. And he kvetches about this blog’s anonymity. What a hypocrite! A quick check will show that all comments on the AJN website are anonymous.

But the REAL chutzpah is that the Shmooze column - which is obviously cobbled together by some underemployed cut-and-paster - in most week’s editions doesn’t disclose who that nebech is. Yep., anonymous! (And quite understandable too. After all, why would any self-respecting journalist want his/her name associated with such drivel?)

But seriously Adam, rather than throwing a childish tantrum, why not attempt to respond to the issues raised by this blog? Several charges and serious grievances have been made against the tabloid that you so smugly defend. Why not address these rather than roll out a Thesaurus-like list of every spiteful word you can think of? It’s time to grow up and learn to write like a mentch. Then, and only then, will AJN Watch consider any ‘challenge’ of yours.

PS. Your comment that AJN Watch is “undignified” was real cute. A real pity that we missed an opportunity to ‘dignify’ ourselves by adopting some of your illustrious prose. Eg, ”…dross that slavers from your keyboards, polluting the blogosphere …”

PPS. Your comment: “If your posters had it their way, Hamodia would be the only rag in town” implies that the AJN is the other ‘rag in town’. Mr Zablud, no doubt, will thank you for the compliment.

And whilst it is not our job to defend the Hamodia (this blog, BTW, has no connections with the publishers), before you try to disparage them you may be interested to learn that the Hamodia outstrips the Jewish News in almost every sphere. Hamodia offers dozens of pages of Israeli, world and Jewish news, well-written and interesting feature articles, women’s and children’s sections - as well as items of local interest. That compares pretty well to the AJN’s 2 or 3 pages of cut-and-and paste material from the Jerusalem Post website and a few media releases supplied to it by local organisations. (If the AJN ever ran an honest poll of its readership it would confirm that the main reason of those who still buy it, are the births, marriages and death notices. (No doubt, if they could introduce divorce notices, circulation figures would rise.) The only other worthwhile reading in that paper is the ‘letters page’ - which is supplied by readers and not by paid staff.

The AJN can only dream of having the kind of readership and influence that the Hamodia has. Here’s some of what Wikipedia has to say:

Hamodia is a Hebrew language daily newspaper, published in Israel. A daily English language edition is also published in the United States and Israel. The U.S. version is the first Haredi Jewish daily newspaper ever published in English in the U.S. It is also the only Orthodox Jewish newspaper published daily in two different country editions.
The weekly edition, in English, is published simultaneously in Jerusalem, London, New York and Melbourne. Recently a French weekly version has been introduced and enjoys a wide circulation both in the French speaking community in Israel and in France itself.

Shmuley Boteach: Not enough space between the 'eyes'...

The ‘Hesped’ on Michael Jackson by Shmuley Boteach [AJN 3/7/09 http://tinyurl.com/mbofub ] probably says as much about Boteach and his family as it does about Jackson.

Rather than being embarrassed by his close relationship with this notorious weirdo, menuval and alleged paedophile, Boteach tells us that his daughter burst into tears when learning of Jackson’s demise.

How can a so-called ‘orthodox’ rabbi and indeed one that calls himself a Lubavitch chosid, allow his children to be exposed this bizarre and creepy individual whose live-in partner was an ape?

Is Boteach proud of the fact that his friend’s friend was a chimpanzee?

The question many ask is - is there truly no level that Boteach won’t sink to for the sake of publicity and self-promotion?

Talking of self-promotion, perceptive AJN readers would have become aware of Boteach's serious blemish, ie, not having enough space between his eyes. Or rather –“I”s.
Yep. No less than 21 times does Rabbi Shmuley use the word “I” in that short obituary of his mate. One could be forgiven for thinking that he was actually eulogising himself…

*****
A quick Google search also brought up the following – which require no commentary.

Jackson was loving and attentive father, many say
By JOCELYN NOVECK AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - When Rabbi Shmuley Boteach brought his children to play with Michael Jackson's kids at Neverland Ranch some eight years ago, the rabbi's youngsters naturally made a beeline for the fabulous rides - the Ferris wheel, the roller coaster, the bumper cars. But when Jackson's own kids asked to go on the rides, he gently reminded them of the family rules, according to Boteach: The rides were only for birthdays or special occasions.

"He was very concerned that the kids grow up with the right values," says Boteach, Jackson's former friend and spiritual adviser…

"To the extent that Michael Jackson's kids COULD have a normal life, he wanted them to have it," says Boteach, who eventually fell out with Jackson.

"Listen, I'm not here to whitewash the sins of Michael Jackson - he was accused of some abominable things," says the rabbi, referring to the pop star's trial and acquittal on molestation charges. "But when it came to being a father, there was much to admire."
…Of course, even Jackson's closest friends are at a loss to explain what for many is the single most memorable image of Jackson as a father: the shocking moment when he dangled Blanket, then an infant, over a hotel balcony in Berlin, showing the baby off to fans with a delighted grin. "What made that incident so inexplicable was that he was an OVER-protective father," Boteach says. http://wtop.com/?nid=114&sid=1710445

***************
Michael's Messages

"Jew me, sue me.....kick me, kike me...." Lyrics from a 1995 Michael Jackson song

"They're like leeches....the Jews do it on purpose..." Recorded phone message from Jackson, 2005

These quotations, coupled with the report from Panorama magazine that Jackson had followed the lead of his brother Jermaine and converted to Islam, would seem to indicate that the late singer was essentially hostile to Jews and Judaism.

Yet, equally credible reports indicate that he was a frequent Sabbath guest at the home of Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who toured with Michael Jackson in 1999 and brought him along to the Carlebach Shul in Manhattan that year.

I do not understand the connection between the two men, who had very different outlooks.
Perhaps Jackson then felt a need for a rabbi in his life, and Boteach felt the need for a rich homosexual pedophile in his. Go figure!

Most bizarre of the connections between Michael Jackson and the Jewish people is that his second wife Debbie Jean Rowe (Mrs Jackson 1996-1999), the mother of his two older children (Michael Joseph and Paris Michael Katharine), is Jewish! According to Jewish law, the children are Jewish too, although they may not know it. http://glazerbeam.blogspot.com/2009/07/michaels-messages.html

Guest Post - from a Perth reader

We have been contacted by a Perth reader who has noticed similarities between the aims of this blog and one that originates in his city. We invited him to forward a guest post which shows that frum Jews in Perth have been pro-active in defending themselves far better than we on the Eastern board of the continent. We commend them and wish them much Hatzlacha.


Guest Post by Perth Sam

Thank you AJN Watch for accepting my offer to report from the other (and often forgotten) side of the country.Some of the problems you have with the AJN are replicated in our local publication The Maccabean. Nothing was done about it until, thank G-d, a group of bloggers here got together to expose and counter articles and writers who are Torah-unfriendly and/or disparage observant Jews. Their blog http://www.jewgleperth.com/ is worthwhile checking out - even if you do not live in WA. It includes lots of Jewish and Perth information. Amazingly, this site has a larger readership than The Maccabean, which should give hope to those behind the AJN Watch blog.

To introduce Easterners to some of the offensive material we cop, here’s a sample pack of posts and comments on JewglePerth:

Extreme insult and an utter disgrace

There is nobody from the Orthodox Jewish community that writes each week in the Maccabean about their authoritative understanding of progressive Judaism, and in the process insults, misquotes and misrepresents what its ideals stand for. There is a person from the progressive Jewish community that writes each week in the Maccabean about interpretive ideals of Orthodoxy with an unbelievable bias of hatred and vicious twisting of ideas. I have just chosen to no longer attend the Kristallnacht commemoration as this person will be a speaker, and I am embarrassed that somebody who can direct so much warped analysis and insulting commentary about my beliefs is extended the respect to represent the community publicly. Why does our harmonious and generally placid Jewish community subjected to such divisive and unfair badgering? The Maccabean has totally lost the plot. SNIP.
How are we expected to tolerate such madness? How low does the Maccabean have to get, that it now reaches the point where it can sanction the use of Kristallnacht and the Holocaust to bash down the beauty of Judaism. To the editors of the Maccabean - it is incumbent on you to apologise to the members of your community who are followers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and it is incumbent on you to stop insulting our religious beliefs by printing obscenely inaccurate accounts of what Orthodox Judaism stands for. November 7th, 2008

Responses to “Extreme insult and an utter disgrace”
JJ Says: As the editors of the Maccabean are by and large all secular and reform who equally despise orthodoxy, I don’t expect any apology to be forth-coming. I suggest a complete cessation of purchasing it. Permanently. It is, after all, basically the temple newsletter.Votewith your subscription Says: JJ - Finally some common sense - Vote with your subscription. I agree.

Mordechai Says: The Perth Jewish Community would be in excess of 95 percent Orthodox affiliated The only way to put a stop to the current situation is for all lay as well as religious community leaders to meet with the Maccabean board of trustees and explain why the current situation CAN NOT be allowed to continue

Maccabean makes a mockery of Judaism

Any self respecting Jew who is a reader of the Maccabean should be outraged by the article in this weeks Did you Know column. The column notes its own disclaimer: “I too would like to alert my fellow Jews that some of the material contained in the article may differ from the belief in Torah MiTzion in the belief that the Torah was given to G-d on Mount Zion (sic) a little less than 5769 years ago. A Judaism has always accommodated various and sometimes even opposing Jewish ideas and so I feel justified in assuming mutual respect for our doctrinal differences is still a hallmark of Judaism in the 21st century”.

Maybe Judaism has accommodated various and opposing Jewish ideas. But Ken, the problem is that your ideas are not Jewish. And no, they are not mutually respected when they pollute the pages of the Maccabean masquerading as Jewish expression. Here are some of the supposed “facts of Jewish history” that Ken asks us to respect:
[My apologies, Apikorsus deleted –PS]
…The irony of some of the text about the history of Moses being sourced from Midrash, which the author probably both does not realise or does not believe in, is amusing in itself. But why should we have to put up with this continual insult of the Jewish faith? SNIP Once again, shame on the Maccabean for choosing to insult the Jewish community of Perth, and shame on Ken Arkwright for writing such provocative and uninspiring revisionist bulldust. If you are a reader of the Maccabean and agree that this content in our paper is an intolerable insult, please make sure to make the editor aware of your dissatisfaction.

Predictably Pathetic

How predictable! During this time of nine days when Jews should be unified in understanding the implications of the Temple’s destruction that the Maccabean has to publish a column that totally discredits all that the Beit Hamikdash stood for. How predictable! That this blog will pick up the matter and profile the outrageous insult that has once again been hurled at the Perth Jewish people through the very pages of their own newspaper. If you look closely at the reform liturgy, especially the German prayer books of the early 20th century, you will see that references to Jerusalem, the Temple Service (avodah) and a return to Zion were removed. Under this movement a German identity could not be transposed with a Zionist identity. The yearning of our people for the service of the Beit Hamikdash was our desire for 2000 years. The reformist Jews disowned this heritage, and to this day cannot reconcile their intellectual relationship with Jewish spirituality with the practicalities of halachic observance.But wait, there’s more! In order to satisfy their own shortcomings, they need to discredit those who still believe in the concept of the ingathering of exiles and the redemption of the Jewish people. They have to selectively misrepresent passages of Tanach without the aid of interpretive sources, and then have the chutzpah to present so-called Rabbinic contradictions from the Talmud as proof, even though they reject the virtues of Torah Shebalpeh in the first place. SNIP

The article says it all when it quotes that “Progressive Judaism never considered the Temple on Zion as the focal point for Jewish worship.” Perhaps the best compatible quote to accompany this statement is from Charles Golding who writes “The halachah is what it’s all about. Make no mistake: Reform, progressive, Conservative, Masorti, reconstructionist these man-made groups operate a pick-and-mix style halachah more akin to ”Jewish-style” food: it looks and smells like the real thing, but it isn’t. Without the halachah, it is impossible to be Jewish.”

I will spend the 9th day of Av, alongside millions of Jews around the world, contemplating the reasons why the Jewish people endure exile. I will lament over the words of the prophets, and reaffirm the centrality of the avodat Beit Hamikdash to the fulfillment of Jewish ideals, Sadly, there will be Jews in Perth who will at the same time be sitting outside with their bagels, reading the Maccabean, and completely missing the meaning of what it means to be Jewish. SNIP

On it goes

Let’s lay into the Maccabean again for printing another grossly offensive article to followers of Judaism. It gives us no pleasure to continue to badger this disgraceful display of destructive invective, but the Maccabean must be held to account for its persistence in being an anti-Jewish publication.

We can put on record that the readership of this blog exceeds the readership of the Maccabean, but we much prefer to be a blog, not a competitive form of media, nor a Maccabean watchdog. Nothing would be better for us than opening a Perth Jewish newspaper each week and reading interesting news about our community, but sadly it all gets spoilt by the insulting and inaccurate nonsense written by Ken Arkwright.

There are so many good things about this community, but the Maccabean refers to draw on the negative misrepresentation of Judaism instead.This week the article contains a subheading ”Torah spelling errors”. The reference to the Tettragrammaton, when pronounced Yud K Vav K, is described in the article as a nonsensical word. In fact the word is so holy to Jews that it is only pronounced in the Beit Hamikdash. The word is also related to the word Havayah, which means existance. The word says “Hashem is”. The Maccabean takes the word and removes everything G-dly from its meaning. SNIP

Shame on the publishers of the Maccabean for yet again delivering anti-Jewish literature into the mailboxes of Jewish homes in our city.

Responses to “On it goes”
Yisro Says: The issue is that many people have written in to the Maccabean on their persistent publication of this particular column, and the response has always been that they don’t find it a problem and won’t be changing anything. The key issue here is they present to a largely uneducated population Mr Arkwright’s fiction as fact. The average reader of the Maccabean is potentially going to come away viewing Judaism through Mr Arkwright’s eyes - and that’s a very sad sight to see, I’m sure. Ken presents Judaism as a fictious, hypocritical, non-sensical joke. A man-made concept which is largely borrowed from other religions, in particular Christianity (which he seems to hold in higher regard), despite the fact that Christianity came long after Judaism. Readers who view the Maccabean and a source of genuine information are (not counting their own naivety and lack of critical thinking) being done a massive disservice. If they would only present the column as “a Reform Judaism Opinion” or some other more appropriately named column (perhaps “I’m Insecure So I Attack Other’s Belief’s”), the complaints would stop. However they refuse to take even this minor “editorial” advice. Perhaps a real issue is that while the Maccabean may be an important news publication for Perth’s Jewry, it is largely seen as the mouthpiece of the Reform and secular communities. The Orthodox community feels maligned and marginalised by this publication and in reality, it serves to deepen divides, not bridge them.

Gedalia Says: ….This is not a campaign to shut down Ken. It is a campaign to tone down the rhetoric, and to stop the author’s deeply entrenched hatred for Orthodoxy seeping into what is presented as scholarly research. If I was to write an article that delegitimised reform, I suspect the Maccabean would not publish it. In fact, I hope they would not. However it has to work both ways. What if I was to write an article that said that all Jews have to accept Jesus as the Messiah? Would the Maccabean consider that appropriate for its readers? If not, then why is it acceptable to write that the Tetragrammon is nonsensical, the Torah is not Divine, that Judaism accepts virgin birth, or that the Ten Commandments demonstrate hypocrisy? The truth is that most Maccabean readers are so ignorant of their own tradition and religious dictum that they are not even aware of the insidious nature of these articles. Which is quite sad, because it’s not always that subtle. Do not mistake this anger from amongst the Orthodox as either intolerance or an issue of perspective vs free speech. It’s about respect for Jewish values, and the limitations of how far an interpretation can carry before it loses all semblance as a credible position expressed in the name of Judaism...

Abomination

How much longer do we have to put up with our local Jewish newspaper discrediting itself and the community, by publishing material that is beyond the bounds of normative Jewish interpretation, insulting to intelligent readers, and offensive to believing Jews? The assertion that the message of the book of Ruth is that we should embrace the concept of mixed marriages is simply absurd. The inference that assimilation should be fostered is destructive. It is entirely relevant that Ruth is the descendent of a Moabite (a nation precluded from Jewish destiny) and the progenitor of the Messianic era, but for the exact opposite reasons as the ones suggested in the Maccabean. Ruth represents one of the most awesome twists in human history, teaching us the miracle of divine intervention. Ruth allows us to understand that if we show faith, despite the most seemingly infallible challenges in the world, then reward will come. It is not a theological “problem” that Ruth was a convert, as the Maccabean would have us believe. It is precisely the point. Ruth is symbolic of Jewish loyalty to Torah, paradoxical to the suggestion that she represents the idea it should be disbanded. Ruth secured her place in Jewish destiny by saying “Wherever you go I will go; wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your nation is my nation; and your G-d is my G-d.” This is the true way to react positively to changes in society. The alternative is to water-down, reinterpret, change, bastardise, and misrepresent Jewish ideas that have remained true and authentic for 4000 years. The Maccabean article talks in general terms about all religions, and advocates that religion needs to respond to changes in societal values. That response, writes the pages of the Maccabean, should be to sanction and encourage assimilation, homosexuality, or anything else that is desired in the form of a human relationship. Once again, the Maccabean has shamed its readership and contributed towards the destruction of Jewish identity in Perth.

Taking Stock

January 2009 was an interesting month for the Jewgle Perth blog. We had 5,000 different users view our site, with around 50,000 hits. By comparison, during 2008 we welcomed 30,000 people to this blog who took the time to read through our pages some 200,000 times. The surge of traffic in January was no doubt due to Israel’s Gaza incursion, and the material we published to advocate for the sad but necessary action that the Government of Israel needed to take for the sake of its citizen’s security. Thank you to all of those people who have viewed our blog, engaged in debate, and sent in feedback. These figures go to show just how more effective the online media is by comparison to the print media in this day and age. It is timely to remind our readers, many of you regular readers, and most of you local to Perth, why this blog was first established.

You can read more in the about us here http://www.jewgleperth.com/?page_id=2 , but essentially we were established to provide a medium for profiling and discussing local Jewish issues from an Orthodox perspective. We started this blog when, some years back, we were concerned that not all of the important issues were being raised, and that neither the local or national Jewish newspapers were always appropriately ‘representing’ Jewish values. On occasions the Jewish media went as far as presenting our community with content that is the very antithesis of traditional Jewish values (masked as Jewish commentary) which undermines the halachic integrity that has sustained Jewish communal life for millennia. All of this has been permitted in the supposed name of plurality, through the mechanism of intellectual dishonesty. The impact of this destruction of communal unity and dilution of Judaic interpretation is more destructive than its publishers could imagine, and represents a blight and an embarrassment to the Jews of our generation. Sadly this remains the case today. We therefore consider that one of the functions of this blog is to put forward a critical (often contrary) position that keeps our communal discussions focused on both substance and accuracy where we believe that a stand needs to be taken. SNIP.

The Jewgle blog will continue to be an advocate of traditional Jewish thought, and sadly but not apologetically, we often have to be outspoken in order to achieve this.

Chilul Shabbos emails from jwire.com.au

In response to the Aussie Echo blog post re AJN Watch (reproduced here:
http://ajnwatch.blogspot.com/2009/06/aussie-echo-post.html ),
the editor of J-wire wrote:
"There is an alternative source [to the AJN] which does cover ALL communites [will be at the Yeshiva next week for the G-G's visit]... http://www.jwire.com.au/ "

AJN Watch's comment:
Yes, we are subscribers. And while you do not publish - as far as we know - biased anti-frum material, we are quite disappointed that your site is Mechalel Shabbos bifresiyeh by sending your daily email at 3.00 pm on Saturday afternoons. Why not show some respect for Shabbos and Shabbos-observers by waiting a few hours until after dark?

When Kron got it right!

A helpful reader of this blog has offered to share his archives of AJN cuttings accumulated over the years. These include offensive cartoons by AJN staff caricaturist Kron, which at the time of their publication upset many.

But for today we bring you a work by Kron which aptly depicts what this blog is all about!

Guest Post: The thoughts of a long-time AJN reader

AJN Watch is proud to publish our first guest post.
We invite our readers to submit their posts and comments.

GUEST POST
by Old-Timer

I thank the blogmasters for allowing me to join them as an irregular poster here and look forward to offering my thoughts about the standards of reporting in the AJN.

As my name divulges, I have been around for a long time and despite my general repulsion of much what I see in that newspaper, I am a news junkie and just cannot help myself reading it weekly. Belive me, it pains me that I am financially supporting the hand that so often strikes me and those close to me. A few good slaps back at them are long overdue. So thank you AJN Watch.

There is much to be said about the huge difference in AJN’s reporting (or more often non-reporting) of scandals and negative occurrences in the community. When these relate to religious Jews the AJN carries on mercilessly. However when rich and important figures who are not well known for their observance of our faith it may get a few lines, or in many cases not a single word.

Cast your memory back to about 7-8 years ago when a certain former president of a frum Shul was in the news, Who can forget the nasty and vicious coverage the AJN gave that story which at the same time guaranteed that every single Jew who ever had anything to do with that Shul community felt that he/she was being personally smeared by the relentless and disgusting articles – week after week.

It was around that time that a person of major note in the community, but with no claims to religiosity, was being featured in the general media with some truly ‘juicy’ personal scandal. There isn’t the slightest comparison of that personage to the humble ex-shul head. But did the AJN sensationalise the revelations of this person? Of course not. Not a single line in their paper.

Or take the case of another important and well-known communal figure who was charged and found guilty of offences involving hundreds of millions of dollars – lost by investors large and small. This story too, featured on the news and finance pages of every newspaper in the country…except the AJN. Not a SINGLE word. The charges against Rabbi Engel are a zilch compared to what this gentleman was found guilty of. But anyone reading our Jewish ‘newspaper of record’ would never had known. In that case, in addition to not being (at least knowin to be) part of the frum community, the other great advatagge for this individual wasl that the AJN was owned and run by close relatives. They obviously had no intention to add shame to the family. And that would be very understandable – had they had such feelings for the families of other members of the community who happen to have a relative in trouble. But the AJN has no such concerns at all for families of religious Jews and often hurts their families and even entire communities.

This type of ‘religious-anti-Semitism’ actually warrants a proper examination by some major media investigative source, eg, The Age or the TV program Media Watch. But until that happens I appreciative this new AJN Watch blog, which hopefully will – if not achieve in keeping the AJN bastards honest – at least expose their hypocrisy and double standards and their targeting of a certain powerless segment of Australian Jewry.

To help achieve this, visitors to this site should spread the word and the link – especially to any connections to the wider media.

Letters to the editor re "Charged" front page

Here's a selection of 'Letters to the editor' in last week's AJN by readers who are obviously as upset as we are.

Last week’s cover

IS there no other news to print on the front page of the newspaper (AJN 19/06)?Do we have to display so openly events that bring us nothing but shame and disgrace?A large number of our community, myself included, are greatly disgusted both with the Adelaide rabbi’s actions and with the current display of that ugly event on the first page of The AJN.Many of the Elsternwick newsagents – not exactly friends of ours – pointed out this page with their great pleasure to their customers.A smaller article inside the newspaper would have been more than sufficient.

HELEN LEPERERE
Elsternwick, Vic

Not page one worthy

WHAT is your aim in showing us a full front page of newspaper devoted to a photograph of a disgraced rabbi (AJN 19/06)? How does this help us as a community? Certainly it is newsworthy, but it should be in small print inside the paper. Surely there are more important items for the front page, hopefully more than one item of interest, from our vibrant community at home and overseas. Your decision reeks of self-centred sensationalism, and I would have hoped your ethics and aims were higher than that that your priorities in evaluating the portrayal of different items would have thought of encouraging collective pride and highlighting opportunities for improvement, never forgetting the impact of the newspaper on our non-Jewish neighbours, friends and foes. The AJN has been a great newspaper for a long time, and I expect it to go forward, not backward, and reflect good journalism with balance and sensitivity.

ELIZABETH LEVY
Bellevue Hill, NSW

Preferring The Age

SHOULD The Jewish News be better referred to as “the Anti-Jewish News”? The front page gleefully shouts “Charged” about Rabbi Engel of Adelaide, surely a serial killer, or so one might think. Then a full-page article on brit milah, a mitzvah held dear by the majority of Jews, which is headlined: “Mitzvah or mutilation?” I believe we (Jews) would be better treated by even, dare I say, The Age?

ELLA BLESOFSKY
St Kilda East, Vic

Sensationalism

WE were absolutely disgusted by the sensationalism your paper indulged in by splashing Adelaide Rabbi Yossi Engel’s photo and caption across the front page of this week’s AJN (19/06). Surely more fuel for anti-Semitism. Surely your editors realise that the paper is seen by all and sundry in the numerous newsagencies that stock it. It is not a paper that relies purely on subscription and home delivery.

FRANKIE AND RAYMOND GARFIELD
North Bondi, NSW

Calling on our Sydney readers!

AJN Watch is based in Melbourne and currently has no Sydney representatives. The only material that we can access out of Sydney is what we find on the AJN website, which, as with the Melbourne edition, is not much.

(Unlike other newspapers which have comprehensive online editions, the AJN realises that they cannot allow this, as their hard-copy sale figures would plummet. Whilst other media sources _ Jewish and non-Jewish are reaping big bucks from online advertising, it seems that businesses have given the AJN the thumbs down. Just check out how little advertising their site has.)

Thus we make a special request to our Sydney visitors, please scan and forward any items that you feel may need addressing. We appreciate your help.

"Charged"

While most members of the Australian Jewry were appalled and sickened at the sensationalism of the front page of last week’s newspaper, many religious Jews just shrugged their shoulders and stated the obvious: “Nu, what can we expect from our self-hating anti-semitic mamzerim”. After all, this is not the first time that the Jewish News has done all in its power to besmirch and slander the face of frum Jews and if nothing is done about it - neither the last time.

As one prominent rabbi stated: “The Zionists have Antony Loewenstein and we have the Jewish News”. While both are outstanding examples of Jewish self-hatred, the AJN in constantly attacking Loewenstein is also guilty of hypocrisy and duplicity.

For the so-called voice of Australian Jewry to so recklessly and idiotically supply fodder to every Nazi and anti-semitic website in the world is simply sickening - even according to their bottom-scraping standards. Check out the Jew-hater's websites and you'll find most of them gleefully linking and quoting from the Australian Jewish News - helping them confirm their hate-propaganda about Jews and rabbis being swindlers and thieves. If the AJN is aiming to increasing anti-semitism worldwide, it is indeed being very successful.

If Chabad communities all over Australia - as well as the orthodox Synagogues - had any pride or self-respect, they would place a ban on all advertising - communal, business and personal on the AJN both their own and of their constituents - until the accepted minimal standards. It is a colossal Chilul Hashem seeing "Stuermer'-style rabbinical vilification on one page and advertisements placed by religious/Chassidic organizations on another.

The AJN ought to be ashamed of itself, but the orthodox community should not sit back and turn the other cheek.

Meshumad dies

Melbourne rabbi who became Christian dies

PETER KOHN AJN

HAROLD Vallins, a Melbourne rabbi who converted to Christianity after forming a breakaway congregation in the 1990s, died suddenly earlier this month.

Vallins declared himself a Christian some years after founding a small Jewish congregation in Gardenvale, following an acrimonious split with Bentleigh Progressive Synagogue (BPS) in 1991.

British-born Vallins, an atheist in his youth, said he took up rabbinical studies at the Leo Baeck Theological College of Judaic Studies in London after a rabbi showed him the potential of Judaism. He became a rabbi himself in 1970.

Vallins arrived in Australia in 1981 with his wife Naomi to take up the pulpit at BPS, but tensions between him and the synagogue board led to a parting of the ways 10 years later, triggering a workplace dispute.

His departure from BPS aroused fierce criticism within the synagogue and shortly afterwards, a breakaway congregation, Beit Hatikvah, was founded, with Vallins as its rabbi. But some time later, Vallins, who was involved in interfaith work, stunned congregants by announcing he had converted to Christianity. He left Beit Hatikvah and the congregation was later dissolved.

Vallins attributed his conversion to a number of influences, including a close friendship with a local Church of Christ minister and a prayer session at a Christian conference he attended in Washington DC.

Not too long ago - a Jew who converted out of his faith was considered to be on the lowest rung of his people. He was a Meshumad, despised, cursed and loathed by all. As for a 'rabbi' 'shmadding' himself, that was something virtually unheard of. (Though we all have heard the infamous accursed Shabsi Zvi.)

But typically for the AJN, the death of such a traitor and defector from our faith - is worthy of a sympathetic report. Shame.

OTOH, there are those that claim that from the POV of Judaism, Vallins the Meshumad was no worse than Vallins the Reform clergyman (or actually even than the AJN). And they may well be 100% right. Think about it.

Welcome to AJN Watch

Welcome to the AJN Watch blog which we hope will develop into an important element in debate and thought for our communities.

There has long been a need felt amongst many Australian Jews for a site where they can vent their anger and exasperation at various objectionable and unworthy aspects of the almost-monopolistic Australian Jewish News. However, besides 'kvetching', very little has been done to bring these complaints to the attention of the broader Jewish – and indeed, non-Jewish - community. (We write “almost-monopolistic” as Baruch Hashem in the past year or so, we have welcomed the arrival of an Australian edition of the international Jewish weekly newspaper the Hamodia, which seems to be making major inroads in this country. We hope to elaborate about the Hamodia phenomenon in some future post.)

The past few years the AJN has published items, which had the Age or the Sydney Morning Herald given it similar treatment, all hell would’ve broken loose amongst our communal organizations (and no doubt the AJN would have moralized and editorialized about the anti-Semitic slant of those newspapers.)

But when the offender is the Australian Jewish News – no matter how appalling, there is an absolute silence from our community leaders (except of course from those associated with the aggrieved party/ies.)

Unlike other Jewish centers of population, where there are multiple media outlets available to the community, here in Australia we are at the absolute mercy of the editor and/or publisher of the AJN, who decides on which personalities they will let fly with the worst possible levels of legally-permissible ‘slander’ and, on the other hand, whose sins and crimes they will close their eyes to. And those that the AJN deserve vilification, there isn’t a shred of concern that in addition to hurting family and friends, they may be tarnishing entire organizations and communities by their portrayal of their alleged prey. It is not of the slightest concern for these purveyors of ‘truth and justice’ that they may be doing untold harm to innocent groups who are there to help and work in the community. No, the AJN doesn’t give a heck. Their style may be labeled as yellow journalism at its worst. Their choice of eye-catching exaggerations, scandal-mongering and sensationalism accompanied by huge headlines to sell more newspapers.

Of course where it is regarding someone close to them, even where a person has been found guilty and even jailed – not a word! (More about that too at some time in the future.)

Establishing the AJN Watch blog has long been under consideration, but has been delayed time and again. However, following last weeks shameful and disgusting treatment of the Rabbi Engel affair we resolved “Lo eit lachashot” – it is not a time to remain silent. (Read our separate post about this.). So here we are and we look forward to your participation.

As mentioned, there is plenty to comment about in the AJN and we hope to bring such material to the attention of our readers.

We invite, nay, urge, everyone to partake in this task and ask that you send us items which we may have overlooked as well as your comments and ideas.

And while we understand that there are plenty of you out there who are quite livid about pieces that newspaper, we ask that all comments be reasoned, and written in polite language. Comments that we feel are of more importance will be ‘upgraded’ into posts – for further responses.

And we request, please bear with us. We are neither experienced writers nor bloggers. We hope to learn on the job. Your advice and input is welcome.