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. [1] 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. [2]
ZFA was established to campaign for a permanent homeland for the Jewish people. It has accepted and endorsed the 1968 Jerusalem Program and its 2004 revision as the ideological platform of Zionism. [3]
Since its establishment, the Zionist Federation of Australia has become one of the most active national Zionist organisations. ZFA:
On December 29, 2019, despite recommendation by Israeli police to criminally prosecute deputy Health minister Yaakov Litzman in two separate cases, including in the extradition case of the accused in the Australian Adass Israel School sex abuse scandal; he was again appointed Health minister when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to resign the Health office, among others, due to his own pending prosecution in three criminal cases. ZFA president Jeremy Leibler then wrote an open letter to Netanyahu calling the promotion of Litzman “a slap in the face to the Australian Jewish Community, the Australian people, the community of Australian [immigrants] in Israel and most shockingly to the survivors of Malka Leifer’s alleged abuse.” [6]
The Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) is a federation of Jewish student societies at Australian and New Zealand universities and other higher education institutions. It was founded in 1948 at the University of Sydney and is affiliated with the World Union of Jewish Students. AUJS' constitution lists its four pillars as Judaism, activism, Zionism, and pluralism. AUJS runs social, educational, political and religious events on University campuses.
The Jewish Agency for Israel, formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO).
A homeland for the Jewish people is an idea rooted in Jewish history, religion, and culture. The Jewish aspiration to return to Zion, generally associated with divine redemption, has suffused Jewish religious thought since the destruction of the First Temple and the Babylonian exile.
The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), represents the interests of the Australian Jewish community to government, politicians, media and other community groups and organisations through research, commentary and analysis. The organisation is directed by Colin Rubenstein, who was previously a political science lecturer at Monash University. AIJAC has office locations in Melbourne and Sydney. AIJAC is formally associated with the American Jewish Committee.
Histadrut, or the General Organization of Workers in Israel, originally, is Israel's national trade union center and represents the majority of Israel's trade unionists.
Habonim Dror is the evolution of two Jewish Labour Zionist youth movements that merged in 1982.
The Jewish Territorial Organisation, known as the ITO, was a Jewish political movement which first arose in 1903 in response to the British Uganda Scheme, but only institutionalized in 1905. Its main goal was to find an alternative territory to that of Palestine, which was preferred by the Zionist movement, for the creation of a Jewish homeland. The organization embraced what became known as Jewish Territorialism also known as Jewish Statism. The ITO was dissolved in 1925.
The Zionist Freedom Alliance (ZFA) is a Zionist movement that advocates Israel's moral, legal and historic rights for the Jewish people to the entire Land of Israel, which they consider to include the territory captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. It was established in 1999 by Magshimey Herut activists in response to what they perceived to be growing anti-Israel sentiment among young people throughout the world. ZFA claims that their narrative has not been presented since before the start of the Oslo peace process and that this has resulted in the world's ignorance of Israel's claim to all territory between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River. ZFA views Zionism as a revolutionary struggle and itself as the voice of Jewish national liberation. Its members are both religious and non-religious Jews.
Hineni Youth and Welfare or Hineni is a Modern Orthodox, politically active, Zionist youth movement. It was founded in Sydney, Australia, and has centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Haim Drukman was an Israeli Orthodox rabbi and politician. The most senior spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist community at the time of his death, he served as rosh yeshiva (dean) of Yeshivat Or Etzion, and head of the Center for Bnei Akiva Yeshivot.
Yaakov Noach Litzman is an Israeli politician and former government minister. A follower of the Ger Hasidic dynasty, he heads Agudat Yisrael, part of the United Torah Judaism alliance, in the Knesset. He previously served as Minister of Health and Minister of Housing and Construction. Litzman resigned from the Knesset in June 2022, as part of a plea agreement in which he admitted criminally obstructing the extradition of convicted pedophile Malka Leifer.
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 whom 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 practicing 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. 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.
Benzion Netanyahu was an Israeli encyclopedist, historian, and medievalist. He served as a professor of history at Cornell University. A scholar of Judaic history, he was also an activist in the Revisionist Zionism movement, who lobbied in the United States to support the creation of the Jewish state. His field of expertise was the history of the Jews in Spain. He was an editor of the Hebrew Encyclopedia and assistant to Benjamin Azkin, Ze'ev Jabotinsky's personal secretary.
The Jewish Community Council of Victoria Inc (JCCV) is the main representative body for Victorian Jewry, representing 52 Jewish community organisations and over 60,000 Victorian Jews. The JCCV's mission is to represent the Victorian Jewish community, the largest Jewish community in Australia, and deal with matters that affect its status, welfare and interests. The JCCV was established in 1938 as the Victorian Jewish Advisory Board. It has been known as the Jewish Community Council of Victoria since 1989 and became incorporated in 2000.
Labor Zionism or socialist Zionism refers to the left-wing, socialist variation of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labour movements of Eastern Europe and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann, Labor Zionists did not believe that a Jewish state would be created by simply appealing to the international community or to powerful nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, or the former Ottoman Empire. Rather, they believed that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class making aliyah to the Land of Israel and raising a country through the creation of a Labor Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim, and an urban Jewish Proletariat.
Mercaz USA, officially Mercaz - The Movement to Reaffirm Conservative Zionism Inc, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused on Zionism and Conservative Judaism, headquartered in New York City.
The Adass Israel School sex abuse scandal is a criminal case and extradition dispute regarding allegations 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 Israel 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.
Avigdor "Avi" Maoz is an Israeli civil servant and politician. The leader of the far-right, religious conservative Noam party, he is currently its sole member in the Knesset.
Mark Leibler is an Australian lawyer, businessman, and political activist.
Jeremy David Leibler is a Partner at Arnold Bloch Leibler and a member of the Australian Takeovers Panel. He has been President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, an elected representative roof body of the Australian Jewish Community since 2018. In 2023, Leibler was named by the Australian Financial Review as one of Australia's top 25 private capital dealmakers.