Aleph Melbourne

“Growing up Queer” – Hayley Katzen and Roz Bellamy in conversation with Benjamin Law

Join Benjamin Law as he talks to fellow writers 𝗛𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝘇𝗲𝗻 and 𝗥𝗼𝘇 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗺𝘆 about identity and the inspiration behind their writing.

𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝗮𝘄 is a celebrated author and journalist, and the editor of 𝙂𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙐𝙥 𝙌𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙖. He is a columnist for Fairfax’s Good Weekend magazine, co-host of ABC RN’s weekly national pop culture show, Stop Everything, and frequently appears on the TV shows Q&A, The Drum and The Project. Benjamin’s memoir, The Family Law, about growing up gay and Asian in Australia, was adapted for SBS TV.

𝗥𝗼𝘇 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗺𝘆 is a Melbourne-based writer, PhD candidate, editor at Archer Magazine and is in the process of completing a memoir about gender diversity, Jewish identity, and mental illness. Roz describes their experience attending a Modern Orthodox Jewish school as a queer and non-binary person in their essay ‘Binary School’ which appeared in the anthology 𝙂𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙐𝙥 𝙌𝙪𝙚𝙚𝙧 𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙖.

𝗛𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗲𝘆 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝘇𝗲𝗻 migrated from South Africa to Australia in 1989. After a career as a law lecturer and researcher, Hayley studied acting, and wrote and produced a play about asylum seekers. In 2005, Hayley moved to her girlfriend’s cattle farm in the Australian bush and completed an MFA (Creative Writing). Hayley’s short-stories and essays have been published internationally. 𝙐𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙 is her debut memoir.

𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: 𝟭𝟰𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟴𝗽𝗺

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐲𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐉𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝗪𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐅𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎. 𝐕𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐭 www.shalom.edu.au

Facebook event

Jewish Care – Housing Support

The following statement has been provided by Jewish Care Victoria:

Individuals and families can find themselves in housing distress for many reasons. Sometimes what is required is assistance to navigate the housing system, financial assistance, an understanding of pathways to more affordable housing or housing itself. Jewish Care’s Housing Support team alongside other community services works with all members of the Jewish Community in the endeavour to find and sustain secure and affordable accommodation. Please contact Jewish Care’s Front Door on 8517 5999 if you are in need of support pertaining to housing distress or contact via info@jewishcare.org.au

Jewish Care is a Rainbow Tick accredited organisation – proudly celebrating and warmly welcoming the rich diversity of our community as we strive to be inclusive for all.

Candidate statement: David Zyngier Greens for Camden Ward – Glen Eira Council

The following political statement has been supplied by David Zyngier who is running as a candidate for Camden Ward – Glen Eira Council in the 2020 Local Government elections.

Aleph Melbourne will endorse all political candidates who unconditionally support equal rights for LGBTIQ+ Jews and whose values align with ours.

David Zyngier, Greens candidate for Camden Ward, Glen Eira Council: Supporting our LGBTIQ+ Community.

I am running for elections for Camden Ward in the forthcoming Glen Eira Council elections and will be an advocate for the LGBTIQ+ community in Glen Eira. I am requesting the support of Aleph and its members.

Beginning with my university days at Monash in the 1970s, I have been an advocate for the equal rights of LGBTIQ+ people and for members of the Jewish LGBTIQ+ community in particular.

As far back as 1999, I wrote a letter of support for Aleph Melbourne which was published in the Australian Jewish News (and featured on Aleph website). I condemned the Jewish Community Council of Victoria’s bigoted behaviour in rejecting the membership of Aleph Melbourne. I wrote at that time:

“In a momentous and shameful vote of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, on Monday 10 May, the Jewish gay support group, Aleph was refused membership of the JCCV. It has been only a generation since Jews and homosexuals were forced to wear badges of coloured cloth – how quickly we seem to forget that we are inseparably linked by a very common but tragic history. … I can only say how ashamed I feel to be part of such a community that has turned its back on our fellow Jews.”

Twenty years later, in 2019, I was contacted by Aleph Melbourne to support their efforts to right this wrong. I worked together with Aleph Melbourne to write and facilitate a formal public apology from the JCCV. This was a bittersweet victory – yes, an apology had been received, but only after two decades of struggle by the LGBTQI+ community and its allies.

In my role as an advocate for public education, I led a campaign together with Fairness in Religious Education (FIRIS) to remove the bigoted and homophobic Special Religious Education program from our public primary schools. I have been a strong and loud public advocate of the Safe School Program. I have joined the call for the scrapping of the federally funded School Chaplains Program. Along with other activists, I have called for those funds to be invested in secular, unbiased and inclusive support for students through counsellors and through antibullying initiatives such as the Safe Schools Program.

The Greens, more than any other political party, will always advocate for the rights of LGBTIQ+ residents in Glen Eira and beyond, championing diversity and calling out discrimination, bias, and bigotry. As the first party to support and actively campaign to remove discrimination in marriage, we are so proud of what a strong and united community campaign can do to make positive change.

Yet, we recognise that there is so much more to be done. Our MPs, councillors, and members are committed to stand at the forefront of efforts for equal rights, social acceptance, and human dignity for all.

The Greens Party is proud of our strong and active LGBTIQ+ membership who have led the way in developing the detailed statement of policies outlined here, https://greens.org.au/vic/policies/sexual-orientation-gender-identity-and-intersex-policy

Authorised by M. Shields 1/45 William St. Melbourne Vic 3000

Pathways Melbourne starts group for LGBTIQ+ people with life experience with Orthodox Judaism

Pathways Melbourne is setting up a confidential group for people with life experience as an Orthodox Jew who want to talk about their sexuality, gender etc in a safe space.

Contact Leah Boulton (leah@pathwaysmelbourne.org) for more information.

Gay Jews resent attitude of community | AJN (1982)

At 17, I went on one date. The next day, our engagement was announced | Sunday Age

At 17, I went on one date. The next day, our engagement was announced

Gay Uncles’ Day | JWOW

Gay Uncles’ Day

The Aguda – Pride In The Livingroom: Michael Barnett

On August 2 2020 Michael Barnett from Aleph Melbourne participated in “The Aguda – Pride in the Livingroom” Project. Watch Michael tell his story:

Australian Jewish organisations demand end to cruel treatment of ‘boat people’

Australian Jewish organisations demand end to cruel treatment of ‘boat people’

Seven years have now passed since the then Australian government announced that all people seeking asylum who arrived on unauthorised boats would be processed offshore and that none would ever be resettled in Australia, a policy that has been continued by all Australian governments since.

A July 2020 report by the Refugee Council of Australia shows again the immense suffering thus caused for thousands of despairing men, women and children, including self-harm, 12 deaths offshore, by suicide or for want of medical care, and other deaths while in limbo in Australia. Despite the passage of seven long years and expenditure of $7.6 billions of taxpayers’ money, hundreds of people still remain trapped in Papua New Guinea or Nauru or, having been brought to Australia for proper medical care, are in detention and not receiving it.

Only last century, thousands of Jews fleeing persecution in Europe were denied entry to other countries, or escaped only by recourse to ‘people smugglers’. As a result, all states, including Australia, now have obligations under the Refugee Convention of 1951, its 1967 Protocol, and international humanitarian law, to receive people who claim asylum because of well-founded fears of persecution and to process their claims expeditiously and compassionately. Australia has repeatedly breached those obligations and shamefully continues to do so in respect of the asylum seekers still in Papua New Guinea and Nauru or evacuated for medical reasons and detained in Australia.

Together with many fellow Australians, we demand that our Government take immediate and effective action to resettle these people safely and give them some hope again in what remains of their interrupted and damaged lives.

Signed as of 30 July 2020

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20200730-Australian-Jewish-organisations-demand-end-to-cruel-treatment-of-‘boat-people

The Aguda “Pride in the Livingroom” Project

The Aguda – The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel has organised a diverse series of international Jewish LGBTIQ+ speakers who will be coming to you live from their living rooms over the week of August 3-7 2020.

“Pride In The Living Room” was founded in memory of the 2009 “Tel Aviv Gay Center” shooting victims, and in memory of the Jerusalem Pride parade stabbing in 2015. The project arose from the need to share and expose the public to personal stories of the LGBTQ community. Through these stories, we as Jewish LGBTQ community members – can build inspiring and powerful connections between the LGBTQ community and the general public – ALL ACROSS the world, inside our local Jewish communities, in Israel and abroad.
Join “The Aguda” – the Israeli Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel, in hearing the unique stories of our Global Jewish LGBTQ community, and help us in spreading our common values of love, acceptance, tolerance, and “Tikun Olam.”

Check out the speaker list and event details on their Facebook page here.

Speakers from Aleph Melbourne include founding member Shaun Miller and co-convenor Michael Barnett.

Join Michael at 7pm on Sunday August 2. Details here.

Join Shaun at 7pm on Thursday August 6. Details here.

Events will be streamed live on both Zoom and Facebook.