Aleph Melbourne received the following clarifying statement from Glen Eira Councillor Dr David Zyngier on April 4, 2022, issued in response to the tweet from @StrewthQueen below:
As a member of the Greens I fully support and endorse the non-negotiable rights of all people to their fundamental human rights. I fully support the Greens policy on trans rights. I acknowledge as a cis male there is much that I do not fully understand and am open to being educated about issues that impact and effect our LGBTQI+ community. I look forward to future productive conversations with members of the LGBTQI+ community and especially those members of the Greens who identify as trans. If there are transphobic or trans exclusionary members of the Greens, they do not represent Green values or mine.
Hi @alephmelbourne since you endorsed this candidate in 2020, what is your position on Cr. Zyngier's choice to speak over trans people – particularly women – who've taken issue with Cr. Leppert's dissemination of fascist TERF talking points re: self-ID & conversion therapy?
— Strewth đłď¸ââ§ď¸ (@StrewthQueen) April 3, 2022
The Aleph Melbourne 2020 Voters Guide for Local Council Elections is designed to assist voters living in councils with high Jewish populations how to best identify candidates for the 2020 Local Council Elections who have pledged to support and promote the efforts of local governments to foster a culture that is inclusive, responsive and accessible to LGBTIQA+ Victorians.
We have selected councils with a Jewish population of at least 1000 based on data in the 2016 ABS Census. The six councils included in this guide in decreasing order of population are Glen Eira, Stonnington, Port Phillip, Bayside, Kinsgston and Boroondara.
The Voters Guide is primarily based on the Victorian Pride Lobby‘s Rainbow Votes site which calls on candidates to campaign for* and support:
â the establishment or continuation of an LGBTIQA+ advisory committee to council.
â the development and implementation of a LGBTIQA+ action plan for council.
â flying the rainbow flag from council buildings on LGBTIQA+ awareness days.
â marching in Pride March or participating in Midsumma or local pride events.
Our guide contains the names of those candidates who have responded to the Rainbow Votes pledge in full, in part, or as a refusal. Candidates who have not responded are omitted from the guide. Listed party affiliation is drawn from the candidate’s registration, party membership, or social media sources.
Updates to the guide will be made as candidates provide their responses to the Rainbow Votes page. We encourage to you contact individual candidates directly if their name is not listed in our guide.
Ballot packs will be mailed to registered voters from 6 to 8 October. Completed ballot packs must be returned before 6 pm on Friday 23 October.
The Victorian Electoral Map will help you determine which council and ward you are voting in.
Feedback, corrections and updates are invited via our contact page. Information is provided here in good faith and on the understanding that it is correct.
The guide is currently best viewed on a desktop browser.
* Victorian Pride Lobby have clarified their expectation of “campaigning”:
“By campaigning, we are simply asking for candidates to push for these LGBTIQA+ priorities if they are elected, for example, by moving a motion.
We will provide support to any Councillors who take the pledge on how best to push these priorities in their council. We do not expect that a candidate can achieve this on their own if you are elected, but we stand ready to work with them and any other supporters elected to Council to implement the priorities of LGBTIQA+ people.”
Victorian Pride Lobby
Voters Guide
Please select a Council from the dropdown list above
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 Victoriaâs bigoted behaviour in rejecting the membership of Aleph Melbourne. I wrote at that time:
âIn 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 â 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.â
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 â 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.
Aleph Melbourne congratulates the City of Glen Eira for embracing same-sex attracted, intersex, and gender diverse (SSA/I/GD) people in its Positive Ageing Strategy 2015-2020 [PDF].
In July 2015 Aleph Melbourne responded to a call for feedback on the draft strategy, which at that time had no inclusive language on SSA/I/GD issues.  Our submission, with valuable input from gerontologist Dr Jo Harrison, along with the endorsements of Jewish Care and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, offered a number of recommendations to the strategy.
Aleph Melbourne convenor Michael Barnett also met in person with council staff to discuss these recommendations and how they would benefit those SSA/I/GD people living in the City of Glen Eira.
The professionalism and sensitivity of the staff at Glen Eira was exemplary and every step of the way was heartening.
In addition to the council approving the strategy on March 15 2016 they simultaneously released their Older Adults Guide to Glen Eira [PDF].  This is a beautiful resource packed with helpful information.  It also contains a number of resources for SSA/I/GD people and a magnificent photo of a same-sex couple.
Thank you very much City of Glen Eira for providing support and giving a face to an historically neglected and previously invisible segment of your community.  This step forward is most deeply appreciated and will hopefully go a long way to improving the quality of life of these people and their families.
Australian Jewish News, October 28 2016