Who are we ?

The Jewish Council of Australia is a diverse coalition of Jewish academics, lawyers, writers and teachers. We are experts on antisemitism and racism. We were formed in response to the rise in racism and antisemitism in Australia. We are particularly concerned about the rise in neo-Nazi activities, fascism and far right extremism.

MakING a Difference

The Jewish Council of Australia is comprised of

Academics
Lawyers
Teachers
Writers
Public policy experts

"The Jewish Council is an important initiative. The next generation of Australian Jews is resisting the pressure applied by the Jewish establishment to defend Israel and the Occupation. Refusing to toe the line comes at a real personal cost so I commend the individuals involved for their moral courage and commitment to peace and justice"
‍ Louise Adler AM

"In the current environment of global political extremes and the relentless devastation in Gaza, the manipulation of language by those desperate to justify the indefensible, is perhaps an inevitable response. Amidst these distortions, many of them racist in character and impact, it is refreshing and essential to see the emergence of new voices committed to challenging and remedying crass and obsolete opinions. The establishment of the Council importantly seeks to reset the record and provide perspectives informed by principles of accuracy, transparency, and justice."
‍Emeritus Professor Andrea Durbach AM

Structure of the Jewish Council

The Jewish Council of Australia is made up of Council members as well as an advisory committee. We are independent and are all volunteers.

We are all proud Jewish people. We are made up of graduates of Jewish high schools, lifelong members of synagogues, and members of Jewish cultural institutions. Many of us are the descendants of Holocaust survivors, refugees and the survivors of pogroms.

Executive and advisory committee

Sarah Schwartz

Executive Officer

Sarah is a human rights lawyer. She is Principal Managing Lawyer at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and a Lecturer at Melbourne Law School. She was awarded a John Monash Scholarship in 2019 and completed a Master of Laws at Harvard University focused on racism and mass incarceration. Sarah has written for publications including The Age, The Guardian, Crikey, The Conversation, and academic journals.

Dr Max Kaiser

Executive Officer

Dr Max Kaiser is an expert on antisemitism and Australian Jewish history. He is the author of Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism (Palgrave 2022). He completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne and lives on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation.

Dr Elizabeth Strakosch

Executive Officer

Elizabeth Strakosch is a lecturer in public policy and politics at the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and is currently an Australian Research Council Early Career Research Fellow. From 2013 to 2022 she worked as a senior lecturer in policy at the University of Queensland. She is a codirector of the Indigenous led Institute for Collaborative Race Research which aims to mobilise academic research for antiracist struggle, and is involved in grassroots Jewish organisations.

Louise Adler AM

Advisory Committee

Louise Adler is the Director of Adelaide Writers’ Week. She has spent over thirty years in the publishing industry including as CEO of Melbourne University Publishing and as Publisher at Large for Hachette Australia. Her board roles in the creative industries include President of the Australian Publishers Association, Chair of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Chair of the Victorian Government’s Creative Victoria Strategy Taskforce, and for over a decade serving as a board member of the Melbourne International Arts Festival Board and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Louise was also the Deputy Chancellor, a member of Monash University Council for 14 years and a Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow.

Professor Andrea Durbach AM

Advisory Committee

Andrea Durbach is Emeritus Professor and was Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre (now Institute) at UNSW Faculty of Law & Justice from 2004-2017. Born and educated in South Africa, she practised as a political trial lawyer and human rights advocate, representing victims and opponents of apartheid laws. In Australia, she has held senior positions in the human rights field, including as Executive Director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Deputy Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, and consultant to the Australian Defence Abuse Response Taskforce to develop a framework to address the needs of Defence Force victims of gender-based violence. She is a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. In 2013, she was awarded the Australian Human Rights Commission Human Rights Law Award and in 2022 she was recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to law, human rights, and tertiary education.

Professor Roy Green AM

Advisory Committee

Roy is Emeritus Professor and Special Innovation Advisor at the University of Technology Sydney, where he was Dean of the UTS Business School. Roy has enjoyed a career in universities, government and industry, and has led inquiries and undertaken projects in the areas of innovation, industrial policy and management education, including with the OECD and European Commission. He has chaired numerous policy and regulatory bodies, such as the CSIRO Manufacturing Sector Advisory Council, the Enterprise Connect Innovative Regions Centre, the Queensland Competition Authority and the NSW Manufacturing Council. Currently, he chairs the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Hub and the Port of Newcastle, and he is a board director of CSIRO and SmartSat CRC.

Sara Dowse

Advisory Committee

Sara Dowse is an author, editor, critic, historian and academic. Her articles, essays, reviews, stories and poetry have appeared in collections, journals and newspapers in Australia and overseas. Her novels include West Block, Schemetime, Sapphires and As the Lonely Fly. She is now a regular contributor to Inside Story and Pearls and Irritations. Born in the US, she completed her education at Sydney University and ANU before joining the Australian public service. She was, from 1974 to 1977, the inaugural head of the first women's unit in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Josh Bornstein

Advisory Committee

Josh Bornstein is an award-winning lawyer and National Practice Leader of Maurice Blackburn’s Employment and Industrial Relations Group. Josh has over 25 years experience as an employment and industrial relations lawyer, with a varied practise throughout Australia. He has conducted many anti-discrimination cases and also cornered the market in representing sacked rabbis and suing judges for sexual harassment. In addition, he has acted for many of Australia’s trade unions, the ACTU, and civil society organisations. Josh is also a member of the Victorian Racing Tribunal and a board member of the progressive think tank, the Australia Institute and the Festival of Jewish Arts and Music. He has written for many Australian media outlets and his first book about corporate suppression of employee free speech, Working for the Brand, is scheduled for publication by Scribe in late 2024.

Aviva Tuffield

Advisory Committee

Aviva is a publisher at the University of Queensland Press and has worked in Australian publishing for more than twenty years. She was a co-founder and the inaugural executive director of the Stella Prize. In 2015 she was selected as one of Westpac/Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence and has also been a finalist in the NAB Women's Agenda Leadership Awards for her work with the Stella Prize. At UQP she is proud to work with many prize-winning authors, including Tony Birch, Ellen van Neerven, Sara Saleh, George Haddad, Mirandi Riwoe, Omar Sakr and Evelyn Araluen.

Dr Michael Edwards

Advisory Committee

Michael Edwards is an Australian academic and anthropologist of religion, politics, and media. He received his PhD from the London School of Economics, was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cambridge, and previously worked at the Australian Human Rights Commission. He grew up in Sydney where he attended a Jewish school.

Ohad Kozminsky

Advisory Committee

Ohad Kozminsky teaches students from a range of faith and cultural backgrounds at a Secondary School in Melbourne. His teaching covers Holocaust history, Jewish literature, and the philosophy of ethics and human rights. Prior to working in education, Ohad completed an MA on the German-Jewish philosopher and theologian Franz Rosenzweig. He is an ordinary executive member of the AEU Maribyrnong region, and the president of his union sub-branch. Ohad is of Arab-Jewish and European-Jewish heritage. He attended a Jewish school in Melbourne.

Dr Na'ama Carlin

Advisory Committee

Dr Na'ama Carlin is a dual Israel-Australian citizen. She is an academic and sociologist researching in the areas of religion, violence, and health, and her writing features in several academic and mainstream outlets. Na'ama is a member of local Jewish community groups and she works, organises and lives on unceded Bidjigal land with her partner and child.

Dr Naama Blatman

Advisory Committee

Naama Blatman is a Scientia Fellow and Senior Lecturer at UNSW’s Cities Institute. She researchers and writes about settler colonialism, urbanism and Indigenous land rights in Israel/Palestine and Australia. Naama is an alumnus of the Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2020-2023). An Israeli citizen and resident of Australia for over ten years, Naama spent most her life in Israel/Palestine where she volunteered and worked in Palestinian and Israeli NGOs, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, The Galilee Society, Sadaka-Reut, and Bimkom-Planners for Planning Rights. Naama lives on Gadigal land with her two kids and slightly crazy puppy.

Yoel Caspi

Advisory Committee

Yoel Caspi has a background in policy, legal analysis and governance. Yoel has a long history of involvement in Jewish community organisations and is tied to the community through synagogue attendance, volunteering, family and friendship. Professionally, Yoel provides strategic and bureaucratic assistance to organisations in the process of being established.

Claire Connelly

Advisory Committee

Claire Connelly is a researcher and freelance journalist. She writes for publications including The Saturday Paper, The Monthly, Crikey, and The New Daily. She has produced work for research organisations which include the Australia Institute, the Sydney Policy Lab at the University of Sydney, and Rebuilding Macroeconomics in the UK, focusing on issues of policymaking, economic inequality, climate change, and post-pandemic rebuilding.

Right-wing pro-Israel agitators threaten free speech on campus

May 2, 2024

Who are we ?

The Jewish Council of Australia is comprised of

Structure of the Jewish Council

Executive and advisory committee

Sarah Schwartz

Dr Max Kaiser

Dr Elizabeth Strakosch

Louise Adler AM

Professor Andrea Durbach AM

Professor Roy Green AM

Sara Dowse

Josh Bornstein

Aviva Tuffield

Dr Michael Edwards

Ohad Kozminsky

Dr Na'ama Carlin

Dr Naama Blatman

Yoel Caspi

Claire Connelly

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