The long-awaited trial of Malka Leifer, the former principal of the Addas-Israel girls’ school, on 29 charges of sexual crimes against former students at the school, to which she has pleaded not guilty, has begun in a Melbourne court, with instructions from the judge regarding evidence, proof, sub judice and other trial related issues.
The Australian Attorney General’s Office has rejected the recommendations by a Parliamentary Senate Committee that Australia place the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards forces on the list of proscribed terrorist organisations, on the grounds that it is not currently possible to do so under existing Australian laws.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has published its latest annual report on Antisemitic incidents reported during the past year, which shows a 50% increase of such reported incidents, mainly attributed to the anti-lockdown and anti-Covid vaccines protests and considerable larger number of neo-Nazi groups in Australia.
The desecration of 10 Jewish graves with Nazi swastika graffiti, at an isolated, disused Maitland cemetery in NSW, has evoked strong condemnation by Jews, non-Jews and the local municipal council.
