Capital Jewish Forum National Board of Advisors
Chair: Associate Professor Danny Ben-Moshe (Melbourne)
Danny Ben-Moshe is an Associate Professor at Victoria University in Melbourne where he directs a research program into diasporas. He is the author of many publications on Israel-Diaspora relations and is an editor of “Israel, the Diaspora and Identity” (www.sussex-academic.com/sa/titles/jewish_studies/BenMosheSegev.htm). Danny previously worked in public policy as the Executive Director of the Australia/New Zealand B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (1996-2000) and as Director of the Israel office of the British Israel Public Affairs Centre (1992-94). He is also a documentary film maker whose films have appeared on ABC and SBS TV in Australia (www.identity-films.com).
Mr Vic Alhadeff (Sydney)
CEO - New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies (www.nswjbd.org).
Mr Allen Bolaffi (Adelaide)
Allen Bolaffi is the President of the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce in South Australia. He is a chartered accountant by training and today is sought after as a business adviser and company director. Together with others, he assisted in the development of the Australia Olive industry with the negotiation of a plant transfer protocol which allowed Israeli olive rootstock to enter Australia. This eventually led to the development of this important import replacement industry (www.allenbolaffi.com.au).
Mr Joel Burnie (Melbourne)
Joel Burnie is the student program coordinator and policy analyst for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council. In 2007 he was the President of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students and executive member of the World Union of Jewish Students. Joel has represented world student Jewry as the coordinator of the delegation to the United Nations Durban Review Conference in Geneva. He has an Arts degree, majoring in Political Science and Anthrapology from Monash University and is currently studying his Masters of Law (www.aijac.org.au).
Mr Steve Denenberg (Sydney)
Steve Denenberg is the Executive Director of the Union for Progressive Judaism. English born, Israel trained Social Worker, Steve has been a proud Australian since he moved to Sydney with his wife and two daughters in 1986. After 18 years as CEO of Jewish Care (NSW) and periods as CEO of the federal body, Steve established Plum Partnerships, providing low-cost fundraising and ‘profile raising’ for Israel-based not-for-profits. In 2004, Steve joined Emanuel Synagogue and part-time and then full-time CEO. In 2008 he combined this role with that of Executive Director of the UPJ until, in August 2008, he joined the UPJ full-time. Steve has a Bachelor of Social Work from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and post-graduate qualifications from the University of Essex (UK) and the Australian Graduate School of Management. He is an alumnus of the Sydney Leadership program. During this time he has worked as a volunteer for numerous organisations, including the Refugee Council of Australia, the Refugee Advice & Casework Service, the Association of Jewish Communal Professionals, the 2000 Olympics and Emanuel School (as Board member, chairman and President) and was received the Centenary Award for services to the Jewish community, the aged, young people and people with disabilities (www.upj.org.au).
Mr Mark Dreyfus MP (Melbourne/Canberra)
Mark Dreyfus was elected as Federal Member for Isaacs, Victoria, in November 2007. He is a prominent Melbourne barrister and Queen’s Counsel. Mark has frequently appeared for and advised Victorian and the Commonwealth governments, including several landmark cases in the High Court, such as the Stolen Generation litigation. Mark is a former Director of the Law Council of Australia, and has served on the Victorian Bar Ethics Committee and Victorian Bar Council. He also served as a Ministerial Advisor to the Victorian Attorney General (1986 - 1987). Mark previously worked as Research Fellow at the National Research Institute of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine and at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Mark is married with three children. He is a member of the St Kilda Football Club (www.markdreyfus.com).
Ms Shelly Freeman (Melbourne)
Shelly Freeman has a Law and Economics degree from Monash University majoring in Politics. She has worked as a Lawyer for nine years, predominately at the Victorian Government Solicitors Office advising a range of Government clients and at Minter Ellison Lawyers. Shelly was also the Principal Solicitor for the Melbourne University Legal Service and has taught commercial law subjects at a range of tertiary institutions. Following the Law Shelly worked as a Ministerial adviser in the Bracks Government for the Police, Corrections & Emergency Services Minister and later the Minister for Manufacturing, Small Business and Financial Services. Shelly also ran for an upper house seat at the 2006 State election and was a Senate candidate at the 2010 Federal election. Drawing on her broad legal and political experience, Shelly established her own consultancy business in March 2007 specialising in the areas of Government Relations, Communications and Profile, Strategic Networking and Special Projects. Her clients have included a range of commercial, political and communal organisations as well as private individuals, medical associations, philanthropic funds, environmental groups, and not-for-profits.
Mr Liam Getreu (Melbourne)
Liam Getreu is a Director of New Israel Fund Australia and the Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS). In 2010 he was the National Chairperson of AUJS and an Executive Member of the World Union of Jewish Students. He is also a past Chairperson of the Australian Zionist Youth Council, and a graduate of Habonim Dror (www.liamgetreu.com).
Mr Jeremy Jones AM (Sydney)
Jeremy Jones AM is Director of International and Community Affairs of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council and an Honorary Life Member and former President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. He Chairs and participates in national and international interfaith dialogues, is an international authority on antisemitism and intercommunal relations and has been a Plenary speaker at a number of major international conferences. He is a former chair of Faith Communities for Aboriginal Reconciliation and has many years of activism for a non-discriminating immigration policy. In 2007, he won the Australian Human Rights Medal (www.aijac.org.au).
Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant JP (Melbourne)
Born, raised and educated in Melbourne with further Rabbinic Studies in the USA and Israel, Rabbi Kluwgant is married with 5 children and is currently the Rabbi of Jewish Care Victoria; a position he has held for 22 years. With senior positions on Organisation of Rabbis of Australasia and the Rabbinical Council of Victoria Rabbi Kluwgant also holds portfolios on the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, Jewish Taskforce Against Family Violence, the Board of Melbourne Beth Din, and is a Chaplain to the Victoria Police, the National Gallery of Victoria and numerous hospitals in Melbourne. He is Chairman of two tertiary education accreditation committees. Rabbi Kluwgant also has a background in Youth and Outreach programs and was a teacher for over a decade at Yeshivah and BethRivkahColleges. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at Ohel Chana Ladies Seminary (www.jewishcare.org.au).
Mr Steve Leiblich (Perth)
Director of Public Affairs - Jewish Community Council of Western Australia and Chairman - Amristar Solutions Pty Ltd and iDelve Pty Ltd (http://jiw.blogspot.com/).
Mr Bob Magid (Sydney)
Publisher - Australian Jewish News and Managing Director - TMG Developments (www.jewishnews.net.au).
Professor Andrew Markus (Melbourne)
Andrew Markus holds the Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Studies at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and is a past Head of Monash University's School of Historical Studies . He has published extensively in the field of Australian race relations. He is the sole author of four books and the editor or co-editor of more than ten others. His publications include; Race: John Howard and the Remaking of Australia (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2001); Building a New Community. Immigration and the Victorian Economy (editor, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2001) and Australian Race Relations 1788 - 1993 (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1994) (www.arts.monash.edu.au/jewish-civilisation).
Ms Eva Migdal (Melbourne)
Eva Migdal is a lecturer at RMIT University in the School of Health Sciences, a Health and Wellness Coach and a Values Educator. As Creative Director and Co-founder of Hatch Generation, Eva works with a broad range of education, social justice and sustainability organisations as a strategist and educator to facilitate systems change. She is currently a fellow of the School of Social Entrepreneurs in Melbourne where she is developing the Well School Hub. She is also founder of Active Cinema at Hub Melbourne – a group dedicated to inspiring social change through film (www.hatchgeneration.com.au).
Dr Andre Oboler (Melbourne)
Dr. Andre Oboler is Director of the Community Internet Engagement Project at theZionist Federation of Australia. He is a social media expert and a leading reasearcher in the area of online racism. He is co-chair of the Online Antisemitism Working Group for the Global Forum to combat Antisemitism, and chair of the IEEE Computer Society Chapter in Victoria. Dr. Oboler holds a Ph.D in computer science from Lancaster University, UK, and in 2007-2008 he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Political Science at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He is a former Legacy Heritage Fellow at NGO Monitor in Jerusalem, and edits ZionismOnTheWeb.org - a website countering online hate (www.oboler.com).
Professor Kim Rubenstein (Canberra)
Kim Rubenstein is Professor and Director of the Centre for International and Public Law (CIPL) in the ANU College of Law, Australian NationalUniversity. Kim’s current research projects are at the cutting edge of the intersection between public and international law. She is the co-series editor of the Cambridge University Press series Connecting International with Public law. Her public law work spans constitutional and administrative law, and also includes her expertise in citizenship law. Her work analyses the legal status of citizen, and considered the differences between that formal notion and the broader normative understanding of citizenship as membership of a community. Her book, Australian Citizenship Law in Context (Lawbook, 2002) represents much of that core work, looking at the disjuncture between the exclusive legal notion and the more inclusive normative understanding of citizenship. In 2002-2003 she was based at Georgetown University Law Center, having won the prestigious Fulbright Senior Scholar award to study the status of nationality in an international law context. Kim initiated an international research network on feminism and constitutional law and, in 2004 and 2006 ran workshops looking at issues of feminism and federalism with participants from the US, Canada and Australia. Her international law research continues with the work she was developing at Georgetown and she has been invited to various international workshops and conferences to present her work. Kim is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and Harvard Law School. Her graduate work at Harvard was supported by the Sir Robert Menzies Scholarship to Harvard, a Fulbright postgraduate award, and a Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Trust award. Kim’s interests also encompass teaching (where she has co-authored a book on Feedback) and the broader field of education, particularly women’s education. She is currently completing a biography of Joan Montgomery OBE, former Principal of Presbyterian Ladies College Melbourne, and an influential educator. In addition to her scholarly work, Kim has made a significant contribution to the greater community. She has done so through media work and public community education. In the practical legal sphere, Kim has made significant contributions to the jurisprudence in citizenship. She was a member of the Independent Committee appointed by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship to review the Australian Citizenship Test in 2008 and she has appeared three times in the High Court of Australia on citizenship matters, with her work cited in the judgment of Singh v Commonwealth (2004) (www.law.anu.edu.au)
Mr Gary Samowitz (Melbourne)
Gary Samowitz is currently CEO of Jewish Aid Australia. Gary was previously the Hillel Director in NSW, where he spent 4 years training and mentoring young leaders in the Jewish community. He has been a guide on a dozen Israel and Poland programs, and is completing his masters in Jewish studies. Gary has extensive involvement in interfaith and social justice programming and is committed to mobilizing the Australian Jewish community to become active change makers (www.jewishaid.org.au).
Dr Anita Shroot (Canberra)
Immediate Past President - Canberra Jewish Community (www.canberrajewishcommunity.org).
Mr Geoffrey Winn (Melbourne)
Melbourne based lawyer, legal consultant and author.
Rabbi Levi Wolff (Sydney)
Rabbi Levi Wolff is Chief Minister at Central Synagogue. He arrived in August 2001 with Rebbetzen Chanie Wolff and their three young children from Perth, W.A. where he served as Senior Minister at Perth's Northern Surburbs Hebrew Congregation. Originally from New Jersey, USA, Rabbi Wolff received his smicha from Canadian Chief Rabbi Pinchas Hirschbrung after studying in New York and Israel (www.centralsynagogue.com.au).
