David Burnett
A 21-year old Australian man has been killed in an accident in southern Jordan.
David Burnett suffered multiple head injuries when a cliff path he was walking on collapsed in the ruins of Petra.
Mr Burnett, on holiday in Jordan, was a former vice-president of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS).
In a statement on the AUJS website, president Jessica Roth paid tribute to Mr Burnett.
"Dave was an inspiration to all who knew him and will be greatly missed. His passing will leave a huge void in the Jewish community, AUJS and our personal lives," she said.
The AUJS extended its deepest condolences to Mr Burnett's family and friends and said it is planning to hold a commemoration ceremony in coming weeks.
In the meantime, the AUJS invited people who knew Mr Burnett to come to Shalom College at the University of New South Wales in Sydney this Friday, January 25 at 1:30pm AEDT, to share memories and provide support to each other.
Mr Burnett was an Arts/Law student at the University of Sydney and attended Killara High School, graduating in 2003.
The ancient archaeological site is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists annually.
Bagelblogger: A terrible tragedy for the Australian Jewish community and for the Labor party.
Further reading: SMH: Labor star killed in cliff accident
References:
News Org: Australian killed after ancient ruins path collapses
PhotoCredit: SMH: Labor star killed in cliff accident
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Man arrested for stalking race hate victim
from The Herald SunA MELBOURNE man has been arrested and is expected to be charged over stalking the victim of an anti-semitic attack who was allegedly sent death threats and pictures of dead Jewish people.
Menachem Vorchheimer had been walking to his synagogue in Caulfield in 2006 when he was abused, had his sabbath hat and skull cap snatched off his head and was punched in the eye in a dispute with a group of drunken men in a mini bus.
Two of the men were later convicted and a third was fined without conviction for offences ranging from offensive behaviour, using insulting language and using insulting words in a public place.
However, B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission executive officer Manny Waks said yesterday's arrest was in relation to threatening anti-semitic mail Mr Vorchheimer was sent last year, several months after the attack.
"Included in the material was basically threatening information in there which included pictures of Jewish people who were dead, as well as threats of killing Jews,'' Mr Waks said.
"It was essentially a threatening letter with anti-semitic material in there as well.''
A police spokesman today said the police Ethical Standards Department executed a search warrant today at an undisclosed location in Melbourne and arrested a 40-year-old man, who was interviewed in relation to a complaint made to police by Mr Vorchheimer.
The man was released and was expected to be charged on summons with stalking and other offences, the spokesman said.
The spokesman would not say if the incident was race-related.
Mr Waks said there had previously been allegations that someone connected to the police force may have sent the threatening mail because the driver of the bus involved in 2006 was an off-duty policeman.
The Vorchheimer family is currently pursuing legal action against the bus driver.
But police today said the arrested man was not a serving or former Victoria Police member.
Mr Vorchheimer and his wife and two children moved to New York after the 2006 attack and the threatening mail, Mr Waks said.
Mr Waks said the family had moved because they felt insecure after the attack and that "it would be reasonable'' to think receiving the allegedly threatening mail had added to this.
But Mr Waks was pleased police had made an arrest.
"This police action sends a clear message to the community; antisemitism will not be tolerated under any circumstances, no matter how major or minor the incident is,'' he said.
Bagelblogger: I would like to know the identity of the accused and the connection between his stalking and the victim. The obvious assumption would be it was in some way 'race related'.
References:
Herald Sun: Man arrested for stalking race hate victim
Always Fresh: Aussie Bagel
: Menachem Vorchheimer * Hate Crime * anti-semitic attack * antisemitism * antisemitism and football players * Aussie Bagel * AussieBagel* Austalia and Jewish* Jewish * Mr Bagel * BagelBlogger * Bagel Blogger * Jew
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Yes its true, despite a spectacular absence of blogging for over two months, Mr Bagel has returned.
Mr Bagel has been 'moving' from a remote country location to a more civilised part of Australia.
Moving has required Mr Bagel to do five seperate trips of over 2,000kms each, despite selling what we thought was almost all of our worldly possesions, we still had to do five trips to move our 'personal belongings'. Which raises one very valid point, how personal can 5 trailers worth of belongings be? Do you think Mr Bagel might just be a horder? mmm?
Anyway after selling all our furniture we have been rushing around buying beds and fridges and lounges and just about everything else required to life a civilised life. Now that Mr Bagel has moved to civilisation he has decided to stop talking to the soccer ball with a wig. (Tom Hanks.)
We've only been in town a week but, living where there are shops, and services is such a refreshing break from living hours away from the most basic shopping. Its taking some adjustment, I generally spoke to about 3 peaople a month where I lived, now I see hundreds a day.
Mr Bagel: Thank you to all the well wishers and the emails I received
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Cruise ship squeezes - just - under Sydney's Harbour Bridge
The tallest ship ever to visit Sydney gave bridge walkers a fright this morning, passing under the city landmark with barely two metres to spare, as the Sun Princess made its first visit downunder.
At 49.4 metres high the cruiseliner weighs 77,500 tons, is nearly three football fields in length and arrived in Sydney after a whistlestop tour including stops in Seattle, Cook Islands and Dunedin.
A spokesman revealed the tide had been the most significant factor in allowing the ship to safely pass under the bridge and dock in port.
"They keep a close eye on the tidal charts, there's a clearance for the bridge at the lowest tide," the spokesperson said.
"The clearance will change all the time depending on the tide.
"The weight of the ship is not a factor, the weight is pretty constant."
The superliner, complete with a grand four-storey atrium, eight restaurants and cafes, four pools and five spas, made dock just before 9am (NZT).
The vessel, which can house 1950 passengers, will now be based permanently in Australia and is due out of port early tomorrow afternoon enroute to Brisbane.
Bagelblogger: Does anyone else feel 2 meters is just a little too close?
References:
NZ Herald: Cruise ship squeezes
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Yeshamesh! Borat has a girl
Sacha Baron Cohen and Australian actress
Isla Fisher has given birth to a baby girl.
Sacha Baron Cohen, the English comedian behind the characters Borat and Ali G is Isla Fisher's fiance.
The couple were last photographed in Los Angeles earlier in the week.
Sources say
Wedding Crasher's Isla Fisher has became a mum for the first time but a spokeswoman from Shanahan Management, said they knew nothing about the birth.
Fisher is best known in Australia for her portrayal of Shannon Reed in the long running channel Seven show Home and Away.
She has shot to prominence in the US after playing the slightly unhinged love interest of Vince Vaughn in the 2005 movie
The Wedding Crashers.
The Daily Mail reported that Fisher had said she would take a break from her film career to concentrate on parenthood.
"There is no way I am going to worry about missing out on work or the pressure to lose weight," she told the paper on Tuesday.
"At the moment I am not even planning any work. As far as I am concerned I am fully booked up in my personal life and I can't see beyond that."
"I plan on just colouring in books. I'll focus on that for the next few years."
The couple announced their engagement in 2004 but have still not set a date for their wedding.
Bagelblogger: Thats going to be one crazy house
References:
SMH: Yeshamesh! Borat has a girl
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It's over for Hakoah Club
ONE of Sydney's best-known Jewish institutions, the Hakoah Club in Bondi, has been sold to the Toga Group for $19 million following members' overwhelming support at a heated and emotional meeting last night.
Late yesterday Toga Group increased its bid from $18 million to $19 million, apparently to stave off a challenge from a rival developer, St Hillers, which had bid $19.5 million. The vote, which required a two-thirds majority of members, was carried by 619 in favour and 68 against.
Almost 1000 members attended the meeting, chaired by the former club president Frank Lowy, who described it as a "very sad day".
The club's president, Phil Filler, said revenue had dropped from $14 million a year to $5 million over the past 10 years. "In my heart it's a sad day but nevertheless vindicates that we're doing the right thing," he said.
The club was founded in 1939 by Jewish migrants. Membership had fallen and it was in debt.
The Toga Group expects to use the site for a Medina hotel.
Bagelblogger: A few people might not like what I've got to say. I visited the Hakoah Club last year on a trip to Sydney, despite all that I had heard, and read via the Hakoah
website, it was a bitter disappointment.
Instead of being a 'vital celebration' of Jewishness and a resource for the community it looked like any other similar RSL club in Sydney. There was a distinct lack of activity apart from beers being served over the bar and the drone of Pokies, a long ago dated feel to the club and most disconcerting was a lack of Jewishness to its feel.
It was really quite sad.
The current management feels justified in its path of selling the club due to a drop in turn over in the last decade. One imagines the original founders would have been less concerned about turn over and more concerned about actual service delivery.
The lack of turn over in my view is reflective of membership voting with its feet.
The one thing I will say is I had serious concerns about the security of the Club and its location which I will not detail here, a change to a better location hopefully will solve this.
Hopefully any change to a new location will include a heart transplant..
Read More:
Club History
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Antisemitic Assault on Jewish Teenagers
From JTAPolice are investigating an anti-Semitic assault on two Orthodox Jewish teenagers in Melbourne, Australia.
The incident took place Monday night in the heart of Balaclava, a heavily populated Jewish neighborhood.
According to police, the teens were set upon by two men who hurled anti-Semitic abuse at them. One of the victims suffered a slight head injury but did not require hospitalization.
“One of the offenders is potentially one of the assailants from an assault earlier this year,” Police Det. Craig Anderson told JTA.
In August, an Orthodox Jew was beaten by a baseball bat in the same neighborhood.
Manny Waks, the executive officer of the B’nai B’rith’s Anti-Defamation Commission, said this incident “comes on top of what we witnessed several months ago with serious assault also targeting Jewish students. We have faith in the Victorian Police and the law enforcement agencies, and we hope the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Mr Bagel: Despite the confidence expressed in the Victoria Police Force, the question that begs to be asked is how many of these recent hate crimes effecting the Jewish community have been solved? The answer is very few.
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David Burnett
