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Written by Rachel Cook
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Tuesday, 08 December 2009 16:25 |
 In an historic meeting last week talks took place between Jewish community leaders and Jewish members of the LGBT community.
Members of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) met with GLBT members of the Jewish community last Thursday to discuss inclusion, acceptance and visibility of GLBT Jews in the JCCV.
However, Michael Barnett coordinator from social and support group for GLBT Jews, Aleph Melbourne, told MCV the discussion became volatile.
“I found it a very hostile event, the president and the immediate past president both attacked me personally in front of about ten other people,” Barnett said, “they mocked and laughed at me when I made suggestions about how we can move forward and when I questioned some of their views and attitudes. I found it was very confrontational and wasn’t very civil.”
Barnett said he suspects the talks were prompted by recent negative media reports on the JCCV’s attitudes towards homosexuality.
“There could be some pressure to appear to be engaging with us in some dialogue without actually genuinely wanting to do it, possibly from some funding sources. I feel they are not really being genuine in wanting to talk to us.”
Aleph has made suggestions to the JCCV for increased GLBT inclusion, acceptance and visibility within the Victorian Jewish community.
Among the suggestions is, ‘The JCCV changes it's constitution to offer protection for disadvantaged, vulnerable and marginalised minority groups, in particular GLBT Jews, within the Jewish community’.
Barnett added: “One of the steps in the list of seven was to have a task force including people from the Jewish community, people from gay and lesbians groups and mental health experts.”
Barnett said he expects continued discussions on this topic will eventuate but said, “[That] maybe in an effort to just shut us up.”
“In reality they support the orthodox members of the Jewish community because that’s where the power base is.
“I would like to say to [JCCV president John Searle] are you prepared to gamble the lives of the children in the Jewish community at the expense of your political power games?
“This is not about a social group getting into the Jewish Community Council of Victoria this is about the lives of people who on a daily basis are terrified to accept and admit their sexuality because of the attitudes in certain sections of the community. This is about people’s lives.”
In a letter to Aleph Melbourne, JCCV executive director Geoffrey Zygier wrote:
“The JCCV wants to get a better understanding of Gay Jews’ concerns.” The letter went onto say, “John [Searle] has made clear, under his presidency the JCCV has reaffirmed its opposition to vilification and affirmed its wish to [be] as inclusive as possible. However the details of what form this might take have to be worked out; we’re still at the information-gathering stage."
In what Aleph Melbourne has called “a positive step”, JCCV president John Searle advised he would discuss the issues raised at the next executive meeting of the JCCV in 2010 and report back as to how the organisation plans to approach the issue.
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