Disappointed to say the least!
What on earth has happened to Limmud Oz?
Up until this point in time the event has been interesting and stimulating.
I have attended the the last five programmes of Melbourne’s Limmud Oz and, I must say, I have enjoyed all of them.
Apart from my interest in the Middle East generally and the Arab-Israeli conflict in particular, I enjoy learning from and hearing speakers on a range of other aspects of Yiddishkeit and Jewish life in general.
What on earth happened this year?
This year we were overwhelmed/taken over by the domineering VERY LEFT leaning and more than outspoken minority in the Community, leaving me more than very disappointed with most of the programme.
Their views in discussions on Israel, Judaism and Australian Jewish life in general are way out of step with the majority of the Jewish Community, Right or Left.
I have no problem with having politically Left presenters at an event such as Limmud Oz; indeed, listening to opinion and argument from both sides of any debate is exactly how Jewish thought has operated for thousands of years. We thrive on discussion.
However, what I most strongly object to, is the list of presenters with extreme left views who represent an almost nil percent of the Jewish population. These presenters with a far left view of the world, as this small fringe group of extremists have, does not represent anything like the broader Jewish community in Australia, who certainly are more right leaning..
But unlike past years, this year’s Limmud Oz seemed to depart from the usual balanced format of having presenters from both the left and right wings of politics. This I am also told is happening in Sydney too.
Judge for yourselves by having a look at some of the international speakers invited to speak at this year’s programme:
Peter Beinart is a high profile left wing commentator who is the poster boy for J Street, the American left wing organisation that lobbies the US government into pressuring Israel to follow its (J Steet’s) ideas of how Israel should function. J Street is also the organisation whose founder mused in 2011 that since the Arabs keep rejecting Israel, perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea after all, and J Street continues to remain silent on the rampant antisemitism and anti-Zionism on American university campuses. Beinart has sanctioned nearly every element of the Arab world’s anti-Israel narrative and has endorsed a negative characterization of Israel as an “undemocratic” society. Read more here at What we talk about when we talk about Israel/Palestine
Matthew Kalman is a journalist who has reported for various media outlets, including the far left and virulently anti-Israel Guardian newspaper. In the two sessions I heard, he repeatedly referred to Palestine as if it were an established state.
Dahlia Scheindlin is a strategic consultant with expertise as in public opinion research who tries to present an even-handed approach, but whose left wing biases emerge from time to time in her writings. Most notably, and to her discredit, she wrote an article in June 2010 that was highly critical of the Israeli position on Gaza (this was after Operation cast Lead) and the Israeli response to the Mavi Mamara flotilla incident. More to her discredit is that she is one of the founding members and writers at +972 Magazine, a magazine bordering on being antisemitic. Read more here at What we talk about when w talk about Israel/Palestine
Gil Hoffman is a reporter for the Jerusalem Post who some of my critics have claimed is ‘right wing’. Whilst I would certainly agree that Hoffman’s politics seem to be the least left leaning of the international speakers invited to the conference, my assessment is that he would be better characterised as “centre left”. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy his presentations that I attended, but the fact remains that there was no clear counter-balancing opinion from the political right.
Some people have pointed out that Avi Melamed is not a left wing commentator but to be honest, I don’t actually know what his politics are (and nor is it relevant), as his area of expertise is Arab affairs and Islam which does not necessarily encompass a discussion on left/right issues.
The list of presenters on the Limmud Oz web site reads like the ‘who’s who’ of the Far Left.
Sivan Barak … Peace activist!
Anthony Frosh … One of the founders of the very left web site ‘Galus Australis.’
Liam Getreu … Executive director of the New Israel Fund Australia. Read here NGO Monitor
Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black … Very left, very liberal rabbi.
Philip Mendes … Very left historian, though I am told moderating slightly of late ?
Micaela Sahhar … Who I must admit I had never heard of. On researching her I find she has great regard for another well known Jewish Leftist. Currently involved in research relating to the impact of international response to Israeli military operations in the 21st century on the future of Israel-Palestinian relations.
Jordy Silverstein … A Leftist and an executive member of the AJDs – Australian Jewish Democratic Society - a group which trades on it’s Jewishness . A group which when the Jewish world was in turmoil over the kidnapping of two Israel children and a youth of 19, did not have the decency to post any kind of reference to it, and to date some 13 days later, still haven’t. On that day they were more interested in their lobbying trip to Canberra with the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network. Read here:
Harold Zwier … A well known Left and past member on the executive of the ultra left Australian Jewish Democratic Society.
Deborah Stone … A long history of Left activities.
‘Rabbi’ Shoshana Kaminsky … ‘Rabbi’ of Beit Shalom Progressive Synagogue in Adelaide.? Known for her left tendencies has just made the ‘New Matilda’ a very well know leftist/antisemitic publication. She has been arrested over night during a sit-in protest.
Mark Baker … A local educator was also prominently featured in the programme and there would be little argument that he is clearly representative of left wing opinion on political issues.
On top of this we have a selection on non Jewish people, which I have no problem with, but traditionally we have always had Jewish presenters.
A plethora of people discussing ‘asylum seekers’.
Sary Zananiri a ‘Palestinian’ and who recently completed a PhD in Fine Arts at Monash University looking at the evolving representations of the Palestinian landscape.!
And yes, we have Mohammed too.!!
Then we have the pièce de résistance, Robin Margo presenting “Unsettling questions about the Settlements” (What settlements? ) . That must have been some presentation!
Robin Margo is Immediate Past President of the Australian branch of the New Israel Fund (NIF) and one of the higher-profile Australian speakers at Limmud Oz. The New Israel Fund is a leftist organisation “committed to democratic change within Israel by returning Israeli society to a leadership more closely aligned with the nation’s founders?” Read more here NGO Monitor.
The NIF, whilst doing a small amount of good work, funds a large selection of Israeli NGOs aimed at harming Israel, though they claim otherwise. They are funded by the largest anti Israel international Funders including the Ford Foundation. They funded people to falsely testify in the now disproved Goldstone Report. NGO Monitor
In 2008, NIF distributed over $20 million to over 300 NGOs in Israel. Approximately 20% goes to NGOs that engage in political activities related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including some that reject the legitimacy of Israel as Jewish democratic state, and are active in boycott and similar campaigns.
The NIF can’t have it both ways: they can’t claim to be “pro-Israel” whilst concurrently engaging with those who wish Israel harm.
But it wasn’t just the political sessions that were dominated by left wing thinking; many of the community interest issues also took on a left wing flavour.
Asylum seekers, aboriginal issues, the Rwandan genocide, and environmental topics all featured in the programme and although I couldn’t attend all of these sessions, it was clear from the names of the presenters that the tone of the sessions was undoubtedly going to be from a left wing perspective.
In any case, whilst these topics are valid subjects for discussion, it is a rather long stretch of the imagination to apply a Jewish angle to them in a conference on Jewish thought.
Limmud Oz has the potential to stimulate, educate, and challenge the Jewish community on a range of issues pertaining to its Yiddishkeit, and long may it prosper. There was a lot good about this year’s Limmud Oz and with around 170 sessions to organise, I have no doubt that the organising committee has a daunting task in coming up with a range of new and interesting topics every two years.
But the fact remains that unless they recognise that whilst left wing views are currently trendy and pervade most of the mainstream media, the Australian Jewish community’s political views are much more central and arguably more to the right than the left. If the organising committee chooses to ignore this fact, then they do so at their peril as they will be responsible for the demise of Limmud Oz in Melbourne.
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