Aleph Melbourne condemns neo-Nazis at anti-transgender rally

MEDIA RELEASE
MARCH 18 2023
Aleph Melbourne condemns neo-Nazis at anti-transgender rally

Aleph Melbourne is alarmed by a formation of people giving Nazi salutes on the steps of the Victorian Parliament at an anti-transgender rally today.

White supremacy of this nature lead to the persecution and murder of millions of Jews, LGBTIQ+ people and other minorities in World War 2.

There is no room for this ugly behaviour in Melbourne, or anywhere else.

Transgender, gender diverse and all LGBTIQ+ people have a right to live in peace and safety, without fear of bigotry, transphobia or intolerance.

We call on the Victorian Government to condemn this behaviour and make it illegal to perform Nazi salutes in public places.

Michael Barnett OAM
Co-Convenor
Aleph Melbourne
0417-595-541


Related media coverage:

Aleph Melbourne submission to ALRC inquiry into Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws

The Australian Law Reform Commission is holding an inquiry into Religious Educational Institutions and Anti-Discrimination Laws.

This is Aleph Melbourne’s submission to the inquiry:

2023-ALRC-submission-179-M-Barnett-ADL-submission

All submissions here.

Australia Day 2023 honours for elder abuse law trailblazer, Indigenous activist and a fossil hunter | The Guardian

Australia Day 2023 honours for elder abuse law trailblazer, Indigenous activist and a fossil hunter

Australia Day honours recipients from left: solicitor Rodney Lewis AM, First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria member Leanne Miller AM and Aleph Melbourne co-convener Michael Barnett OAM
Australia Day honours recipients from left: solicitor Rodney Lewis AM, First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria member Leanne Miller AM and Aleph Melbourne co-convener Michael Barnett OAM

Other recipients whose work might go under the national radar, but were transformative, include Michael Barnett for service to the LGBTQ+ community, the palaeontologist Lesley Kool, and Leanne Miller for “significant service to women’s affairs, and to the Indigenous community”.

Barnett, a co-convener of Aleph Melbourne, said he worried about suicide rates and mental health issues in vulnerable young people, because of “relentless and pointless homophobic and transphobic intolerance”.

He worked hard to turn things around in one specific community.

“Over the years of my advocacy and activism I have seen Melbourne’s Jewish community become a beacon of LGBTIQ+ inclusion,” he said.

Australia Day 2023 honours for elder abuse law trailblazer, Indigenous activist and a fossil hunter

Caulfield Candidates Forum: Changing the Equal Opportunity Act

At the November 9 2022 Caulfield Candidates’ Forum and Q&A, candidates David Southwick MP (Liberal) and Lior Harel (ALP) discuss a Liberal Party proposal to amend the Equal Opportunity Act. Question asked by Caulfield resident David Zyngier on behalf of Aleph Melbourne.


QUESTION FOR DAVID SOUTHWICK BY CAULFIELD RESIDENT DAVID ZYNGIER ON BEHALF OF ALEPH MELBOURNE

“David Southwick has given an iron-clad guarantee that under a Liberal Government any amendment to the Equal Opportunity Act will protect the LGBTIQA+ community from discrimination.*

Hypothetical scenarios aside, can he state what genuine existing problem necessitates an amendment to the Equal Opportunity Act?”

* Candidate statement: David Southwick – Liberal for Caulfield

SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION FOR DAVID SOUTHWICK BY LIOR HAREL

“If the roof body for the Jewish community says the law doesn’t need to be changed, and the major Jewish schools say the law doesn’t need to be changed, who are you changing the law for?”

“Activist for Life and Enlightenment” by Geoff Allshorn

Geoff Allshorn writes about the life of Holocaust Survivor and humanist Halina Strnad:

“As a cultural Jew and Holocaust survivor, she wrote to a Jewish community newspaper some decades ago calling for the inclusion of an LGBT Jewish group within formal Jewish community networks; one of her last attempts at activism came early this year when she offered to participate (as a longtime supporter and ally of LGBT rights) within a Rainbow Humanist group marching in Melbourne’s Pride March – an offer which sadly was ultimately unable to be taken up due to understandable caution over public transmission concerns regarding COVID in crowded spaces.”

AJN June 11 1999 Letters Halina Strnad
Australian Jewish News
June 11 1999 page 16

I WRITE to express my dismay at the JCCV’s decision to reject the Aleph gay group as an affiliate member.

As a consequence of prejudice and intolerance, Jews, gypsies and homosexuals were persecuted and, during the Holocaust, slaughtered wholesale.

Deemed ‘undesirable elements’ and separated only by barbed wire in extermination camps, these groups of people were brutally eliminated because in some ways they were not quite like the majority.

As a former undesirable Jewish ‘element’ but a survivor, I hoped that more than any other attitude, tolerance would be imprinted on the collective Jewish psyche.

Halina Strnad
Box Hill South

ajn-19990611-p16-Letters

[PDF]

Rabbi Mike Moskowitz – powerful LGBTIQ+ ally

AJN What's On column: Rabbi Mike Moskowitz
AJN What’s On: Conversation with Rabbi Mike Moskowitz
L-R: Alexander Teh (AGMC), Susie & Dudi Danziger, Michael Barnett (Aleph Melbourne), Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, Colin Krycer (Aleph Melbourne)
L-R: Rabbi Mike Moskowitz, Michael Barnett (Aleph Melbourne)

Jewish submissions to inquiries for the Religious Discrimination Bill 2021

Enquiries

Submissions

Aleph Melbourne


Submission to Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry: Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 and related bills

Religious-Discrimination-Bill-2021-and-related-bills-Submission-04

[PDF]

Submission-15-Aleph-Melbourne-Senate-Standing-Committees-on-Legal-and-Constitutional-Affairs-Religious-Discrimination-Bill-2021-etc

[PDF]

AUSTRALIA/ISRAEL & JEWISH AFFAIRS COUNCIL

AIJAC-Submission-to-the-Parliamentary-Joint-Committee-on-Human-Rights-Inquiry-into-Religious-Discrimination-Bill-2021-and-related-bills

[PDF]

Submission-147-Submission-to-the-Senate-Legal-and-Constitutional-Affairs-Legislation-Committee-Inquiry-into-Religious-Discrimination-Bill-2021-and-related-bills

[PDF]

Executive Council of Australian Jewry

ECAJ-Submission-to-PJCHR-re-Religious-Discrimination-Bill-2021-Final

[PDF]

Submission-94-ECAJ-submission-to-the-Senate-Standing-Committees-on-Legal-and-Constitutional-Affairs-–-Religious-Discrimination-Bill

[PDF]

Reports

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights – Religious Discrimination Report

Parliamentary-Joint-Committee-on-Human-Rights-Religious-Discrimination-Bill-Report

[PDF]

Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs – Religious discrimination Report

Senate-Legal-and-Constitutional-Affairs-Legislation-Committee-Religious-Discrimination-Bill-Report

[PDF]

Aleph Melbourne submission to Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry: Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 and related bills

Religious Discrimination Bill 2021 and related bills / Submissions

Religious-Discrimination-Bill-2021-and-related-bills-Submission-04

[PDF: APH / local]

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies votes to support ban on conversion therapy

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies votes to support ban on conversion therapy

27 October 2021

At the October 2021 Plenum, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) passed a motion recommending that coercive practices which are commonly referred to as ‘conversion therapies’ be banned.

This Motion supports moves already afoot in NSW Parliament to ban these coercive practices that seek to forcibly change someone’s gender, bodily or sexual identity.

LGBTQ+ people deserve the same dignity, respect and freedom to pursue their lives in peace as any other members of our vivid and diverse NSW society and the motion affirms the NSW Jewish Board of Deputy’s steadfast support for the Jewish LGBTQ+ community and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community more broadly.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies


The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies Plenum: 

  • Recognises that coercive practices intended to change or impose a person’s sexuality, gender identity or bodily integrity are now rightly outlawed in jurisdictions in Australia, specifically Queensland, the ACT, and most recently Victoria; 
  • Recognises that work has begun to outlaw such practices in Israel as well; 
  • Recognises that these practices cause hurt to people who are vulnerable, and who seek community, belonging, and dignity; 
  • Opposes such coercive practices in all of their forms; 
  • Expresses its concern at societal and peer pressures that contribute to confusion around gender identity and sexuality and supports the rights of vulnerable people to understand and articulate their sexuality and gender identity on their own terms;
  • Calls on the Parliament of NSW to pass legislation to make these coercive practices unlawful; 
  • Offers support to the work of groups including the NSW Parliamentary Friends of the LGBTQ+ Community to seek cross-party endorsement of measures to prohibit these coercive practices;
  • Opposes attempts to ban legitimate and consensual prayer and pastoral counselling from religious figures and medical professionals regarding sexuality and gender identity that are freely entered into by both participants.

LGBTIQA+ Rights in Israel: An International Comparison | Nicholes Family Lawyers