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Plans for the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) to set up a GLBT Reference group have been met with scepticism from GLBT Jewish group, Aleph. In a press release, JCCV president John Searle stated that on December 16 members of the Jewish GLBT community had agreed to setting up the group to “bring disconnected Jews back to [the Jewish] community”. Michael Barnett of Aleph Melbourne accused Searle of being disingenuous. “The decision to set up a reference group was taken at a meeting to which Aleph wasn’t even invited,” Barnett told MCV. “We had a meeting on December 3 which turned out pretty horribly. Subsequently Searle emailed me and said he didn’t want to deal with me any more.” In the email – seen by MCV – Searle accused Barnett of continuing to “criticise, undermine and discredit the JCCV”. “At our meeting Searle plainly stated that the Jewish religion had one specific viewpoint on homosexuality – it doesn’t condone it,” Barnett said. “That completely ignores the diversity of opinion among conservative and progressive Jews.” Barnett said he believed Searle was in an “unfortunate situation”. “[Searle] is trying to do his best by everyone, it seems, but really he’s trying to do his best by the orthodox community, which is where most of the funding comes from.” Barnett said until the issue of orthodox intolerance was addressed things would not improve for GLBT Jews. “It’s not about bringing people back into the fold, it’s not about being nice to us,” Barnett said. “It’s about tackling a huge issue [intolerance].”
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