Life is a Disco: The Aleph interviews

On the afternoon of October 7 Susie Danziger and I arrived at the JOY studios in St Kilda to record interviews with Demetra Giannakopoulos for her show Life is a Disco.

We spent a good couple of hours in the studio at the back overlooking the huge peppercorn tree. The tree captivated me because it was full of birdlife, most notably a wattlebird and a currawong.

Demetra was a delight. She asked the most thoughtful questions and was congenial, sensitive and refreshing. We were at ease, and our conversation happened naturally.

I went first, Susie followed. We gave the JOY audience our all.

Following the interview I dropped Susie home and we went on with our day.

It was only a matter of hours later that the terrorist organisation Hamas perpetrated an unforgivable able act of evil upon innocent people in Israel.

Our interviews were edited and they aired over the subsequent two weeks.

The world had changed yet again. War had broken out.

It was very challenging, knowing that we had recorded interviews before the terrorist attack, with them going to air afterwards. It’s hard to say if we would have even done the interviews after October 7, just because of the way everything panned out.

Despite that, it was a privilege being part of Demetra’s show and having the opportunity to tell our stories.

Enjoy.

Interview with Susie, Jewish mother of a trans son

2026 Census topic consultation – Phase two: Aleph Melbourne submission

2026 Census topic consultation – Phase two

We asked

From 27 July to 8 September 2023, the ABS undertook phase two of the 2026 Census topic consultation. This consultation invited feedback on proposed changes to Census topics.

During this consultation, the ABS specifically sought feedback on topics where further information was required to help inform our assessment and recommendation. These topics included:

  • Ancestry and Ethnic identity
  • Labour Force status
  • Main language other than English used at home
  • Number of children ever born
  • Number of employees (employed by owner managers)
  • Number of motor vehicles
  • Religious affiliation
  • Status in employment
  • Unpaid work – domestic activities

Published responses

Only answers from respondents who gave permission are published. However, all responses are included in the analysis of this activity.

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Queer Sessions @ JIFF 2023

Jewish International Film Festival 2023
October 23 – December 6, 2023

Full programme here.


Chanshi – Part 1 / Part 2

Chanshi is a dark comedy television series about a Jewish girl from Brooklyn who runs away to Israel to become the free, adventurous woman she was born to be. Unlike her peers, Chanshi carries with her a fantasy that good religious girls like her shouldn’t — a fantasy involving Israeli soldiers. She takes off for Israel under the guise of surprising her best friend, who has upcoming nuptials of her own, but her friend confesses that she thinks she is making a mistake and she’s a lesbian. Together they rebel against their traditional upbringings and find new ways of being young Jewish women.

All I Can Do

All I Can Do is a powerfully moving and incendiary courtroom drama focusing on the legal aspects of sexual violence. Reut, a young prosecutor, reluctantly takes over a sexual assault case, based on the sole testimony of Efrat, a rebellious yet fragile victim who lives with her wild female partner. As the case evolves, Reut’s personal life resonates with the challenges of the case and the courtroom. Both women must learn to work together to learn the true nature of strength, love and sisterhood. 


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Jewish Lesbian Group and Aleph Melbourne feature in St Kilda mural

The 2023 Urban Canvas Mural Festival contains a mural by Queer-ways in the Jackson Street car park. Depicted on the mural is a placard bearing the logos of the Jewish Lesbian Group of Victoria and Aleph Melbourne, two Jewish organisations integral to the diversity of the broader St Kilda area and stalwarts in the annual Pride March in St Kilda.

This gallery of photos was taken on April 23 2023:

Media coverage:


German Film Festival 2023 – The Jewish and the Queer sessions

The German Film Festival 2023 runs from May 2-24 across Australia. Screening times and bookings at  www.germanfilmfestival.com.au.

Of particular interest are:

  • “Lost Transport” (Jewish storyline)
  • “Till the end of the night” (transgender + gay)
  • “One in a Million” (teen/queer/coming of age)
  • “Love Thing” (LGBTQI+)

LOST TRANSPORT

2022 • 98 MIN • THE NETHERLANDS, LUXEMBOURG, GERMANY • DRAMA, HISTORY, ANTI-WAR

DIRECTOR: Saskia Diesing
CAST: Hanna van Vliet, Eugénie Anselin, Anna Bachmann, Bram Suijker, Konstantin Frolov
LANGUAGE: German and Dutch with English subtitles, English
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

Inspired by true events, Lost Transport is a deeply human story about cohesion and friendship set in the last days of WWII. 

April, 1945. A train of 2,500 Jewish prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp stops in a field near a German village and the German soldiers flee from advancing Russian troops, abandoning those onboard. The village quickly turns into a refugee camp, where a forced quarantine only adds fuel to the chaos. 

A chance encounter results in a Dutch couple from the train, Simone (European Shooting Star Hanna van Vliet) and Isaac, and Red Army sniper Vera (Eugénie Anselin, Bad Banks) being assigned to stay at the house of distrustful villager Winnie (Anna Bachmann). 

As the village is marked by mistrust, despair and resentment, Simone, Vera and Winnie must learn to adapt and find compassion, resulting in an unexpected friendship. 

Told from a unique female perspective and shot across Luxembourg and Germany by director Saskia Diesing, Lost Transport is an impactful story of fearlessness.

TILL THE END OF THE NIGHT (BIS ANS ENDE DER NACHT)

2023 • 120 MIN • GERMANY • CRIME, THRILLER

DIRECTOR: Christoph Hochhäusler
CAST: Timocin Ziegler, Thea Ehre, Michael Sideris
LANGUAGE: German with English subtitles
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

As an undercover investigator, Robert is tasked with gaining the trust of drug dealer Victor. To do so, he pretends to be in a relationship with the recently paroled Leni (Thea Ehre, in a Silver Bear-winning role for Best Supporting Performance), as the police hope her ties with the felon will help to infiltrate the organisation. 

While the plan initially works smoothly, their fake relationship is rocky from the start. Leni is transgender, and Robert, who is gay, was once in love with her former self. While they soon have the criminal in their sights, their buried feelings sit close to the surface and ultimately, drug dealer Victor is the one who forces Robert to confront his conflicting feelings of love. 

A smart, subtle blend of genre and auteur cinema, Christoph Hochhäusler’s Till the End of the Night is an intricate exploration of love and identity and features a nostalgic soundtrack, dark romantic atmosphere and an excellent ensemble cast.

ONE IN A MILLION

2022 • 84 MIN • GERMANY • DOCUMENTARY

DIRECTOR: Joya Thome
CAST: Whitney Bjerken, Yara Storp
LANGUAGE: German with English subtitles, English
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

One in a Million tells the story of two girls on the brink of adulthood. As US gymnast and YouTuber Whitney Bjerken struggles with setbacks, she turns to music to express her feelings. Yara from Germany is one of her biggest fans and part of a show-acrobatics team. When Yara falls in love with a girl for the very first time, she barely finds time for her fan-account anymore. While navigating the exciting world of social media, Yara and Whitney begin to find out who they are and what they want in life. 

A coming-of-age documentary about success and loneliness in the age of social media, friendship and first love, coming out as queer and having the courage to find your voice.

LOVE THING (LIEBESDINGS)

Love Thing

2022 • 100 MIN • GERMANY • COMEDY, ROMANCE

DIRECTOR: Anika Decker
CAST: Elyas M’Barek, Alexandra Maria Lara, Lucie Heinze, Peri Baumeister, Denis Moschitto
LANGUAGE: German with English subtitles
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE

It is red carpet time in Berlin, and everyone at the film premiere – squealing fans, prowling paparazzi and eager camera crews – is waiting to catch a glimpse of Germany’s biggest movie star, Marvin Bosch (Festival favourite Elyas M’Barek, also in A Thousand Lines). But their wait will be in vain, as there is no way Marvin will show up after his interview with the snippy and ruthless tabloid journalist Bettina Bamberger (Alexandra Maria Lara, The Collini Case GER21) goes horribly wrong. 

The star finds himself on the run from the media and ends up taking shelter at 3000, a small, independent feminist LGBTQI+ theatre. Run by Frieda (Lucie Heinze, My Son GER22), 3000 is on the verge of bankruptcy. Under the watchful eye of the public, will they manage to save the theatre, restore Marvin’s reputation and give true love a real chance? 

A fun new romantic comedy from top writer/ director Anika Decker (Rabbit Without Ears), Love Thing is a story of trials and tribulations, love and betrayal, and the quest to find happiness.

Jewish sessions @ Queer Screen 2023

Queer Screen

Enjoy these Jewish films at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, running from February 15 to March 2 2022. Session and booking details online.

Make Me A King

Screening in Sydney as part of the Youth Shorts session is Make Me A King:

Ari performs as a Jewish Drag King, much to the confusion of their family. Idolising real-life hero, Pepi Littman, who carved out a space for Drag Kings over 100 years ago, they use this history to open up a space for acceptance in the present.

Monsieur Le Butch

Screening in Sydney as part of the Trans and Gender Diverse Shorts session is Monsieur Le Butch:

When Jude ends up unexpectedly living at home in their 30s, they must deal with a lovingly opinionated Jewish mother who doesn’t quite get the whole “trans thing.” Shot in the dog days of quarantine during a picturesque Vermont summer and featuring an original instrumental score, Monsieur Le Butch is a tender and authentic meta-comedy about the line between the stories we tell ourselves and the stories that get told about us.

Half

Screening in Sydney as part of the Bi+ Shorts session is Half:

Half-Jewish, bisexual Jonah Dorman comes out to his girlfriend, shaking the foundation of their relationship and launching a tragicomic exploration of love and religion in New York City.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Screening in Sydney is feature film All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.

Note: The central character is Jewish, although this is not a focus of the film.

Fleeing a dysfunctional childhood, Goldin forged her career photographing her friends, family and LGBTIQ+ subcultures. After struggling with addiction, Goldin set her sights on the pharmaceutical titans responsible for the opioid crisis, leading an ACT UP inspired movement to challenge art institutions to refuse their donations. Featuring hundreds of Goldin’s photographs, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed weaves multiple narratives to create a bold and ultimately inspiring film as Goldin puts her career on the line to take down those who profit from pain.

Extra Queer @ JIFF 2022

Jewish International Film Festival 2022
October 24 – December 7, 2022

JIFF is back again! Aleph Melbourne showcases the queer sessions.
Full programme here. Tickets on sale at jiff.com.au.

Concerned Citizen

Ben thinks of himself as a liberal and enlightened gay man, living in the perfect apartment with his boyfriend Raz. All that’s missing to complete the picture is a baby, which the couple are trying to make a reality. Meanwhile Ben decides to improve his up-and-coming neighbourhood in gritty south Tel-Aviv by planting a new tree on his street. But his good deed soon triggers a sequence of events that leads to the brutal police arrest of an Eritrean immigrant.

America

Eli is an Israeli swimming coach living in the US. When he receives news of his father’s death, Eli reluctantly travels to Tel Aviv for the first time in 10 years to deal with the estate. On his short trip he decides to visit his childhood friend, Yotam. Yotam is running a small and beautiful flower shop in Jaffa, together with his fiancée Iris, a talented florist. When Eli comes to visit the two, he will set in motion a series of events that will affect everyone’s lives. Winner of Best Actress Prize at the 2022 Jerusalem Film Festival, the film offers a psychologically complex and thought-provoking story about relationships with a strong sensual through-line that keeps viewers guessing.

The Therapy 

A bold documentary which reveals conversion therapy from within for the first time. Director Zvi Landsman is given unprecedented access to conversion therapy sessions, following the journeys of Lev; a 54-year-old divorced Orthodox Jew who hopes to be remarried to a woman, and Ben; a 23-year-old social work student who is seven years into therapy and starts to doubt the practice. 

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Purim was the one day I wasn’t in disguise | AJN

OPINION

Purim was the one day I wasn’t in disguise

From Purim to the Pride March.

By DASSI HERSZBERG
March 17, 2022, 11:16 am

ON Purim – a day when it is customary to hide your true identity – I found mine. As the fifth child in a family of eight, I struggled with my own identity both within my family and our closed ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel community.

Conforming to the strict dress codes expected by my family and surrounding community did not agree with my core perception of self.

Back then, I was considered what you’d call a “tomboy”. I loved to be active. I loved running. I loved climbing trees. I felt absolute discomfort in skirts, stockings (no matter the weather) and “girlie things”.

Riding a bike for girls was not allowed due to modesty codes, but I still managed to get some time on my brother’s bicycle every now and then and I loved it.

George was my favourite character in Enid Blyton’s Famous Five novels. With her short black cropped hair, her competency and her sense of adventure. I loved how everyone accepted her. She was “one of the boys”. I wanted to be George.

As a child, I didn’t have the language nor did I understand that my resistance to wearing skirts wasn’t only about the sense of feeling stifled from a religious perspective. It was also taking away my capacity to understand and explore my identity. My visceral rejection to the clothing wasn’t only because I didn’t understand the religious expectations. It wasn’t that I was a rebel. It just didn’t feel like I was a girl like the other girls around me.

After age three, I could no longer wear pants. That’s the age girls begin adhering to dress codes. Compulsory long sleeves and high-necked tops. I felt discomfort and suffocated. My ability to understand my identity was stifled.

Looking back at my childhood, Purim was the only day I could dress to match the way I felt. To be able to wear a pair of my brother’s pants for the day and dress up as a “boy” dresses, was always the highlight of the year for me.

It felt like a sin yet gave me a sense of liberation. Just for the day.

I now understand that my younger self’s sense of freedom in wearing boys’ clothing had a lot to do with my identity as non-binary.

I believe it was actually a positive saving grace that sexuality and the concept of gender non-conformity was non-existent. There was no language around for such expressions or conversations. That kind of subject matter was never discussed.

Nobody in my family or community could accuse me of being “evil” – at least that part hadn’t been tainted for me.

All of us wear masks at times, to hide ourselves away. Masks protect us. We are forced to wear masks to fit in with society.

But my experience was feeling forced to be dishonest. It’s a strange contradiction, not revealing who I was, was the mask I needed to wear – for self-preservation and protection.

Clothing is not just clothing. It tells a story. Clothing can be used as a “mask”. Clothing can be used to enhance. Clothing can be used as a statement of self-expression. Wearing a skirt feels so incongruous with who I am. Then again, there are days when I feel more feminine. And on those days, I feel a lot more comfortable wearing a skirt, wearing a pretty top and sometimes even putting make up on.

But on those days, when it is my choice to wear more typically feminine clothing, I am wearing them because I am being true to the essence of myself. Not because it’s being forced upon me by religious values.

Every Purim, I personally celebrate the recognition of finding my identity. It falls on my birthday and as such is my true “anniversary”. Purim is also a day when I celebrate my younger self’s sense of exhilaration, striding out of my childhood family home, dressed as a boy.

In a similar way, I felt absolutely elated when I marched under the banner of Pathways Melbourne with the Jews of Pride parade for the first time, wearing the clothes I wanted to wear.

Being surrounded by a diverse group of Jewish and non-Jewish people, each with their own senses of identity – all of us accepting of one another as a colourful member of our broad community. Each with our own story and history of how we “arrived” together.

Dassi Herszberg is a member of the Pathways Melbourne advisory panel and a qualified art therapist and counsellor. For further information, visit pathwaysmelbourne.org

Jewish sessions @ Queer Screen 2022

Queer Screen

Enjoy these Jewish films at the Mardi Gras Film Festival, running from February 17 to March 3 2022. Session and booking details online.

IN THE IMAGE OF GOD

Included in the QueerDoc Shorts session (available On Demand) is the screening of In The Image of God:

The fourth generation in his family to be born intersex, Jewish Rabbi Levi was assigned the female gender at birth and grew up thinking he was sick and defective. “In the Image of God” tells the story of his struggles and transitions, culminating today in a life as a religious leader and an LGBTQI+ activist living happily in Los Angeles with his wife.

PAST CONTINUOUS

Screening in Sydney as part of the Oz Doc Shorts session is Past Continuous:

At the age of 72, Ilan and Oscar finally have the right to join in a holy matrimony underneath the chuppah in a synagogue in Sydney. Now, with identical rings and official recognition, Ilan and Oscar are preparing for a journey into the grim past which still pains and troubles them and which, despite the many years that have passed, they still bear within them.

This is a story about an inspiring couple who managed to stay together against all odds.

Directed by Kineret Hay-Gillor, this short-form documentary is told in English and Hebrew with English subtitles.

Queer Sessions @ JIFF 2022

Jewish International Film Festival 2022
March 2 – April 4, 2022

Full programme here.


TWO

In her moving debut feature, Israeli director Astar Elkayam tackles the physical and emotional challenges two women face when they decide to start a family. Initially optimistic, Bar and Omer embrace the process, eagerly combing through a catalogue of potential donors and facing the insemination process with humour. After Omer repeatedly fails to become pregnant, a sense of failure gnaws at them, threatening to undermine their relationship.

Mor Polanuer and Agam Schuster (Your Honour) deliver outstanding performances, realistically capturing the toll that the IVF process takes on the young couple.

SUBLET

From acclaimed Israeli director Eytan Fox (Walk on WaterThe Bubble), Sublet is a poignant depiction of the transformative power of love through a cross-generational encounter.

Michael, a travel columnist for The New York Times, takes on a rental apartment for a week’s assignment to discover the real Tel Aviv. He sublets an apartment from Tomer, a twenty-something gay film student who offers to act as his guide. Tomer’s carefree life of partying and casual sex are an affront to Michael whose life experiences have led him to more conservative views on love and relationships. Over five days together, the two find they have more in common than they thought, and form a bond that emotionally liberates them both.

TAHARA

This poignant and comic story traces the coming-of-age of two Jewish teenage girls—one white and straight, and the other Black and queer. Set in Rochester, NY, the film begins at the funeral service of their former Hebrew school classmate who suddenly commits suicide. A complicated romance unexpectedly arises as best friends Carrie and Hannah (played by Shiva Baby’s Rachel Sennott) navigate their feelings about this tragedy and themselves, and try to make sense of their teacher’s well-meaning but misguided advice about grieving.


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