Strictly Jewish: The Secret World of Adass Israel is a 2016 Australian documentary film on the Haredi Jewish community in Melbourne, Australia. The documentary was directed by film-maker Danny Ben-Moshe, and aired on the SBS Australian television channel as part of its "Untold Australia" series. [1] [2]
The film centers on the Adass Israel community in Melbourne which is described as an Haredi Jewish "sect". The format of the film follows three community members who explain their faith and way of life.
Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully transmitted ever since.
Haredi Judaism is a branch of Orthodox Judaism that is characterized by its strict interpretation of religious sources and its accepted halakha and traditions, in opposition to more accommodating values and practices. Its members are usually referred to as ultra-Orthodox in English, a term considered pejorative by many of its adherents, who prefer the terms strictly Orthodox or Haredi. Haredim regard themselves as the most authentic custodians of Jewish religious law and tradition which, in their opinion, is binding and unchangeable. They consider all other expressions of Judaism, including Modern Orthodoxy, as deviations from God's laws, although other movements of Judaism would disagree.
Yeshivah College, officially Yeshivas Oholei Yosef Yitzchok Lubavitch, is an independent Orthodox Jewish comprehensive single-sex primary and secondary Jewish day school for boys, located in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda East, in Victoria, Australia.
Off the derech is a Yeshiva-English expression used to describe the state of a Jew who has left an Orthodox way of life or community, and whose new lifestyle is secular, non-Jewish, or of a non-Orthodox form of Judaism, as part of a contemporary social phenomenon tied to the digital, postmodern and post-postmodern eras. In its broadest sense it can also include those changing to a milder form of Orthodoxy. Despite the term's pejorative and controversially dichotomic and definitive nature, it has become popular in use among Orthodox people, is found in mainstream literature, and has also been reclaimed by some OTD individuals.
Hardal usually refers to the portion of the Religious Zionist Jewish community in Israel which inclines significantly toward Haredi ideology. In their approach to the State of Israel, though, they are very much Zionist, and believe that Israel is Atchalta De'Geula.
Hashkafa is the Hebrew term for worldview and guiding philosophy, used almost exclusively within Orthodox Judaism. A hashkafa is a perspective that Orthodox Jews adopt that defines many aspects of their lives. Hashkafa thus plays a crucial role in how these interact with the world around them, and influences individual beliefs about secularity, gender roles, and modernity. In that it guides many practical decisions—where to send children to school, what synagogue to attend, and what community to live in—hashkafa works in conjunction with halakha or Jewish law.
Yated Ne'eman is an American weekly newspaper and magazine. Published in the English-language, it is a Haredi publication based in Brick, New Jersey, and distributed in most large metropolitan areas where Orthodox Jews reside.
Australian Jews, or Jewish Australians, are Jews who are Australian citizens or permanent residents of Australia. In the 2021 census there were 99,956 people who identified Judaism as their religious affiliation and 29,113 Australians who identified as Jewish by ancestry, an increase from 97,355 and 25,716, respectively, from the 2016 census. The actual number is almost certainly higher, because being a Jew is not just about being religious, but the census data is based on religious affiliation, so secular Jews often feel it would be inaccurate to answer with "Judaism". Also, since the question is optional, many practising Holocaust survivors and Haredi Jews are believed to prefer not to disclose their religion in the census. By comparison, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz estimated a Jewish-Australian population of 120,000–150,000, while other estimates based on the death rate in the community estimate the size of the community as 250,000, which would make them 1% of the population. Based on the census data, Jewish citizens make up about 0.4% of the Australian population. The Jewish community of Australia is composed mostly of Ashkenazi Jews, though there are Jews in Australia from many other traditions and levels of religious observance and participation in the Jewish community.
In Judaism, especially in Orthodox Judaism, there are a number of settings in which men and women are kept separate in order to conform with various elements of halakha and to prevent men and women from mingling. Other streams of Judaism rarely separate genders any more than secular western society.
The Elwood Talmud Torah Hebrew Congregation, also known as Elwood Synagogue or Elwood Shule, is a historically significant Orthodox synagogue located in the Melbourne suburb of Elwood, Victoria, Australia. The congregation played an important role in accommodating Melbourne's large population of Jewish Holocaust survivors following World War II.
Footsteps is a not-for-profit organization based in New York City that provides educational, vocational, and social support to people who have left or want to leave a Haredi or Hasidic Jewish community in the United States.
Mesirah is the action in which one Jew reports the conduct of another Jew to a non-rabbinic authority in a manner and under the circumstances forbidden by rabbinic law. This may not necessarily apply to reporting legitimate crimes to responsible authority, but it does apply to turning over a Jew to an abusive authority, or otherwise to a legitimate one who would punish the criminal in ways seen as excessive by the Jewish community. In any case, "excessive" punishment by non-Jews may be permissible if a precept of the Torah has been violated.
Yehonatan Indursky is an Israeli filmmaker and the creator of the successful Netflix series Shtisel.
The Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) is an umbrella organisation in Australia of the Zionist movement. It was established in Melbourne, Victoria in 1927 by prominent personalities, including Sir John Monash and Rabbi Israel Brodie, with Monash becoming its first president. On 11 November 2018, the biennial conference of ZFA elected Jeremy Leibler as its president, succeeding Danny Lamm who did not stand after serving for four years.
Sacred Sperm is a 2014 Israeli documentary film directed by Ori Gruder, exploring the taboo of masturbation in Judaism. The TV version of the film world premiered at the 22nd Raindance Film Festival in October 2014 and was nominated in the short documentary film category at the end of 2014 Ophir Awards. The theatrical long version of the movie premiered at the 30th Santa Barbara Film Festival in February 2015. The Eastern Europe Premier was at the 55th Kraków International Film Festival mid 2015. This movie won the Accolade Global Film Competition - Award of Excellence at December 2014 and took the first prize Best Documentary at the 18th Religion Today Int' film festival in Italy at October 2015 and has been screened at more than 30 film festivals worldwide. The educational channel of Sweden screened the film during 2015 and it was chosen to be in the 10th most popular films of the year. Since the TV version became online In Israel itself already more than half a million viewers watched it through Hot, ynet and VOD options.
The Melbourne Beth Din (MBD) is an Orthodox / Chassidic Jewish court in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Located in Caulfield North, Victoria, it rules mostly on divorces and conversions although it does rule on other matters as well.
Meir Shlomo Kluwgant is an ultra-Orthodox Chabad communal rabbi in Melbourne, Australia. He has held numerous posts including at Jewish Care, chaplain at Victoria Police, and has at various times held the presidency of both the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) and the Organisation of Rabbis of Australia (ORA).
The Adass Israel School sex abuse scandal is a criminal case and extradition dispute regarding incidents of child sex abuse at a Jewish religious school in Melbourne, Australia. A former principal, Malka Leifer, faced trial on 70 sex offence charges laid by Victoria Police, with accusations from at least eight alleged victims. Leifer, a dual Israeli-Australian citizen, fled under suspicious circumstances shortly before a warrant could be issued, and remained in Israeli-controlled territory from 2008 until January 2021, under varying levels of police and court supervision, pending the resolution of her extradition case. Leifer's trial did not address other alleged sex crimes in Israel and the West Bank because they did not occur in Australia.
Nayes is a 2020 Israeli television documentary series aired on Israel Channel 11 covering the Haredi Jewish media outlets in Israel.
On 6 December 2024, at approximately 4:10 am local time, an arson terrorist attack took place at the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne in Ripponlea, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. The resulting fire injured one member of the synagogue and caused significant damage to the building. Investigation of the attack was assigned to the Australian Federal Police's counter-terrorism unit. On 9 December 2024, Victoria Police stated the incident was being treated as a terrorist attack. The perpetrators of the attack reportedly used an accelerant and followed by spreading that throughout the interior of the building with a broom before lighting the accelerant fluid. And police commenced searching for the perpetrators of the attack.