Newsletter Weekly Guest Statement
Larry Lockshin
Co – President UPJ
- Latest B’Yachad Kadima featured speakers
- Rabbi and youth leader to testify at the Royal Commission
- New Shlicha for Melbourne
- New Board member for the UPJ
The UPJ’s B’Yachad Kadima (Biennial) in Melbourne is the place to be for Progressive Jewish leaders and congregants. There is no better opportunity to meet, share, and learn how to be proud Jews with the tools to build ourselves and our communities.
We are so pleased to be in Melbourne with the opportunity to feature so many special people who live in this vibrant community. We have had a tremendous response to our invitations to speakers and panellists within the community. With one exception all our speakers are volunteering their time on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to join us.
There have been some comments about the cost of attending this conference. The team have worked extra hard to keep costs as low as possible. But we all know that the price of catering and service provision have risen dramatically since our last Biennial. At the same time, we are not compromising. We have engaged specialist caterers from our community to provide top quality wholesome and toothsome fare. We have compared our prices to several other conferences and found ours to be in line or lower than most others. We now offer a discount for those under 40 and one day rates for anyone wishing to attend only certain parts of our program.
In the last two weeks we announced Drs Daniel Heller and Farid Zaid will launch our program with an interactive session on how to have brave conversations; and Debra Conway and Willie Zygier playing live at the gala on Saturday evening. In a few days we will announce two more featured speakers, who will help us learn to speak about Israel and to understand online hate.
Melbourne is the place to be 19-22 November to join with our community in a festival of spirituality, learning, and fun.
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion continues to meet to hear testimony from the Jewish Community. The UPJ continues to be deeply involved in making sure our community’s issues are heard. We thank Rodney Brender, Co-Vice President of the UPJ, for giving so much of his time to organise our submissions and heling plan the poral testimonies. Last week, the 5A group, the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism, was represented by Prof John Keller of UNSW and president of North Shore Temple Emanuel, in testifying about antisemitism against academics on campus. This week, Rabbi Allison Conyer of Temple Beth Israel in Melbourne will testify along with a Progressive Jewish youth leader. Throughout the proceedings, past UPJ President David Knoll has volunteered his time to coach those testifying from our community and to cross examine some of those presenting to the Royal Commission to make sure the commission hears the full story. Those wishing to watch the testimony live can use the following link. https://asc.royalcommission.gov.au/
New Schlicha – We are extremely happy to announce that the UPJ along with Progressive Judaism Victoria and the Jewish Agency Israel have worked together to bring a new schlicha to Melbourne, Noya Kislanski. Noya is the daughter of the current CEO of Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism and visited Melbourne’s King David School for three months in 2023. She is an experienced tour guide in Israel and has been working at the Institute for Overseas Youth Guides. She has received her visa to work as shlicha in Melbourne, and we look forward to welcoming her. More details of her arrival will be published soon. We also hoping to finalise the arrangements for our new shlicha for Sydney. We are excited to be able to bring these shlichim to Australia to continue the UPJ’s role in building bridges to Israel especially for our youth. The future of our Progressive Movement depends on our youth.
New Board Member for UPJ – The UPJ is pleased to announce that Dr Michelle Wise of Beth Shalom in Auckland has joined the UPJ Board of Management. Michelle Wise is the past president of the Beth Shalom synagogue in Auckland and past chair of KiwiPJ, the network of progressive communities around the country. She was a Global Leadership Fellow of the WUPJ in 2024 and is the current New Zealand representative to the World Zionist Congress. In her day job, Michelle is a Gynaecologist and associate professor at the University of Auckland. The UPJ’s presence has been growing in New Zealand and it is important for the congregations there to have a voice on our Board.
