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Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions and lead­ers across Aus­tralia have inten­si­fied their efforts to man­age the impact of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic on Jew­ish insti­tu­tions, fam­i­lies, indi­vid­u­als and, most espe­cial­ly, the elder­ly and vul­ner­a­ble.   We recog­nise with deep appre­ci­a­tion the con­tin­u­ing work being done by the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty roof bod­ies in each State, the Cri­sis Man­age­ment Teams of the Com­mu­ni­ty Secu­ri­ty Groups, shules, the Day Schools, the aged care sec­tor, the wel­fare sec­tor and vol­un­teers, and com­mend them for the high sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty they have demon­strat­ed.

Despite a very small num­ber of unfor­tu­nate excep­tions ear­li­er on, every­one in our com­mu­ni­ty now appears to be sen­si­bly heed­ing gov­ern­ment direc­tions, and advice from Jew­ish lay and reli­gious lead­ers, to main­tain strict phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing.  Those who ignore these require­ments are a dan­ger to them­selves and to oth­ers.  For the time being, gath­er­ings for prayer and study or for social or oth­er pur­pos­es car­ry too many health dan­gers to be tol­er­at­ed. It is lit­er­al­ly a mat­ter of life and death. So too is keep­ing chil­dren phys­i­cal­ly sep­a­rate from their grand­par­ents, great-grand­par­ents and oth­er old­er rel­a­tives, and util­is­ing only non-phys­i­cal means of con­tact.

On 23 March 2020, a short video fea­tur­ing Dr Nor­man Swan gave prac­ti­cal advice for Jew­ish fam­i­lies on the imper­a­tive of phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing until the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic is over.  It was a joint pro­duc­tion by the ECAJ, NSW Jew­ish Board of Deputies and CSG/JEMP NSW.  It was wide­ly shared online and on social media and sent to Jew­ish roof bod­ies in the oth­er States and the ACT, to cir­cu­late to their local net­works.

On 24 March 2020, the ECAJ Pres­i­dent, Jil­lian Segal AO, deliv­ered a video mes­sage to the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty.  It had three key mes­sages: (i) be strict about prac­tis­ing phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing, with grand­par­ents, and with any­one out­side the house­hold (ii) take care of the elder­ly or those with health con­di­tions liv­ing inde­pen­dent­ly who feel iso­lat­ed and in need of help (iii) if you need coun­selling and sup­port reach out to us. The video was also wide­ly shared online and on social media, includ­ing to ECAJ con­stituent and affil­i­ate organ­i­sa­tions and was accessed by many peo­ple.

We note the emails of appre­ci­a­tion by sev­er­al of our state pres­i­dents who found these resources valu­able and we appre­ci­ate everyone’s assis­tance in wide­ly dis­trib­ut­ing this impor­tant con­tent.

A video is being pro­duced with the assis­tance of clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist Dr David Gold­man on han­dling the psy­cho­log­i­cal and emo­tion­al toll of iso­la­tion, anx­i­ety and dis­rup­tion caused by the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion.

The fol­low­ing is an update from last week’s sum­ma­ry of the cur­rent sta­tus of Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty life in each State and Ter­ri­to­ry.

New South Wales

• DMG now has a DMG Core of 6, plus a wider extend­ed group
• Cri­sis med­ical com­mit­tee con­tin­ues to meet and plan
• Cri­sis finance com­mit­tee con­tin­ues in its assess­ment of the finan­cial ram­i­fi­ca­tions of COVID-19 on the com­mu­ni­ty
• A sub com­mit­tee deal­ing with com­mu­ni­ca­tions has been set up deal­ing with both mes­sag­ing and meth­ods of com­mu­ni­cat­ing
• JEMP is open­ing an Emer­gency Oper­a­tions Cen­tre (EOC) today
• EOC acts as a cen­tral point of con­nec­tion, oper­a­tion and liai­son for sup­port organ­i­sa­tions with­in the com­mu­ni­ty
• EOC oper­at­ed pri­mar­i­ly by CSG pro­fes­sion­als and vol­un­teers, plus oth­er recruits
• CSG has alert­ed its vol­un­teers and reserves – a total pool of up to 600
• EOC oper­ates through a 1300 phone num­ber
• As incom­ing calls are logged and triaged, the liaisons and coor­di­na­tors become respon­si­ble to allo­cate the required resources and com­mu­ni­cate back to the rel­e­vant com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions

Vic­to­ria

• All shules have now closed
• Jew­ish Care Vic­to­ria Launch­es COVID-19 Helpline has come online, Mon­day to Fri­day between 8:30am – 6:30pm for peo­ple who as a result of the coro­n­avirus:

• • Are expe­ri­enc­ing emo­tion­al dis­tress and wor­ry,
  • Are find­ing them­selves social­ly iso­lat­ed,
  • Are expe­ri­enc­ing finan­cial hard­ship, or
  • Are los­ing their con­nec­tion to com­mu­ni­ty and need a help­ing hand to run errands and col­lect gro­ceries.
• Standup has estab­lish the Jew­ish Response to Coro­na Virus (Face­book group https://www.facebook.com/groups/215421613037244/permalink/215566156356123/) which is coor­di­nat­ing vol­un­teers in a range of areas, pro­vid­ing an infor­ma­tion exchange for those try­ing locate items, and assist­ing in areas such as employ­ment and hous­ing.

West­ern Aus­tralia

• Lead­er­ship group (JCCWA CSG Meno­ra Rab­bis and med­ical team) are aver­ag­ing two zoom meet­ings each week as well as a very active What­sApp group.
• All shules are now closed – Rab­bon­im work­ing close­ly with JCCWA, Meno­ra Char­i­ty and CSG ensur­ing the well-being of the com­mu­ni­ty
• Carmel School is still open for chil­dren who need to go to school.  Online for every­one else which will com­mence on Mon­day. As of today most high school stu­dents are home while the school is get­ting ready for year 11 and 12 stu­dents which will be imple­ment­ed after the school hol­i­days.
• Mau­rice Zef­fert Home is still work­ing as per WA Govt Guide­lines.  How­ev­er vis­it­ing has been extreme­ly lim­it­ed and is com­plete­ly mon­i­tored.
• Bud­dy sys­tem now in place and peo­ple liv­ing on their own are being phoned.
• Meno­ra Char­i­ty very busy ensur­ing there are suf­fi­cient sup­plies for those who are needy.  Meno­ra Char­i­ty’s annu­al appeal has now been brought for­ward to Mon­day next week instead of May.  There is a need to finan­cial­ly help many fam­i­lies in the com­mu­ni­ty
• JCCWA is still send­ing out updat­ed infor­ma­tion through­out the com­mu­ni­ty.

Queens­land

• Syn­a­gogues are seek­ing help with check­ing out the Not for Prof­it fund­ing options as most if not all, do not have the capac­i­ty to fol­low this up.
• Depart­ment of Home Affairs Region­al North has been in con­tact to check in to see how com­mu­ni­ty is man­ag­ing. All is in hand and calm but there will be a time where some finan­cial resources will be required for var­i­ous sup­port activ­i­ties. Depart­ment promised to advise if there is going to be a way to access funds for com­mu­ni­ty sup­port with­out going through a long process.
• South Bris­bane Hebrew Con­gre­ga­tion now closed as per nation­al announce­ment
• Beit or V’Shalom Bris­bane has now closed and did not hold ser­vices last Shab­bat.
• Gan Gani Kindy (Queens­land Jew­ish Kinder­garten Asso­ci­a­tion) will now go to Pupil Free days next week in the lead up to the end of the school term. Staff will remain on duty to pro­vide ser­vices for chil­dren of those par­ents or guardians who are deemed to be essen­tial work­ers and who are in good health.
• Sinai Col­lege will now go to Pupil Free days next week in the lead up to the end of the school term. Staff will remain on duty to pro­vide ser­vices for chil­dren of those par­ents or guardians who are deemed to be essen­tial work­ers and who are in good health.
• An essen­tial work­er is any­one who is required to main­tain employ­ment dur­ing this time. 
• QJBD will like­ly tag onto the NSWJBD Yom HaShoah Livestream and will prob­a­bly email to the com­mu­ni­ty mes­sages on the day.
• QJBD will not now be dis­trib­ut­ing the Zachor Can­dles at this time and will use them in 2021 or lat­er in the year if it is decide to link Kristall­nacht to Yom HaShoah com­mem­o­ra­tions this year.
• JCare­Qld Inc. is con­tin­u­ing to be at the front­line for and with QJBD with reg­is­ter­ing vol­un­teers and iden­ti­fy­ing peo­ple who will or do need assis­tance. Many peo­ple have vol­un­teered so far but the cas­es are min­i­mal thus far.
• JCare­Qld is coor­di­nat­ing with NCJW Gold Coast which is already ser­vic­ing the Gold Coast region and have many vol­un­teers in place already.
• If any­one inter­state is aware of a fam­i­ly mem­ber or friend liv­ing in Queens­land (any­where) who may need assis­tance, please email Howard Pos­ner Pres­i­dent JCare­Qld Inc. jcareqld@gmail.com or phone Howard on 0424 335 969. There is now an active net­work of sup­port from Tweed Heads to Cairns and all points west. Please do not con­tact oth­er organ­i­sa­tions in Queens­land as QJBD is try­ing to make sure no one slips through any cracks due to lack of coor­di­nat­ed con­tacts.
• Chevra Kadisha was in touch to advise that they are work­ing with Funer­al Direc­tors in Queens­land. PPE is being pro­vid­ed, all care and safe­ty mea­sures being tak­en.
• Kosher food prepa­ra­tion options have now been organ­ised in Queens­land and will be dis­trib­uted to those in need via JCare­Qld as and if need­ed.
• Finan­cial assis­tance in the form of long term no inter­est loans is also avail­able. All enquiries should be direct­ed through JCare­Qld.

ACT

• With the clo­sure of ACT pub­lic schools, the ACT Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty (ACTJC) has stopped run­ning Tues­day and Sun­day Ched­er;
• ACTJC has launched a com­mu­ni­ty bill­board for mem­bers to adver­tise prod­ucts and ser­vices; this ser­vice is being offered to sup­port com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who are suf­fer­ing finan­cial hard­ship due to los­ing employ­ment or cus­tomers due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic;
• The Jew­ish­Care work­er has now finalised a con­tact list of mem­bers in need – Jew­ish­Care, Rab­bi and Shalich keep check on their well­be­ing both phys­i­cal­ly and emo­tion­al­ly and will deliv­er essen­tial shop­ping and meals;
• Via Jew­ish­Care, the ACTJC now has a freez­er filled with kosher meals for senior Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers;
• Sales of chal­lah, bak­ery and wine at the ACTJC Cen­tre have been sus­pend­ed; mes­sages have been post­ed to the entire com­mu­ni­ty not to enter the build­ing;
• Rab­bi Miller has moved all his class­es online and will run the first vir­tu­al Kab­bal­at Shab­bat ser­vice this evening as well as the ‘com­mu­nal seder’ fol­low­ing con­ver­sa­tions with senior rab­binic author­i­ties on the accep­tance of this prac­tice.

South Aus­tralia

• Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices (JCS) has been grant­ed author­i­ty from the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to pro­vide emer­gency ser­vices to com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers 65 years and old­er who are not cur­rent­ly clients nor reg­is­tered with My Aged Care.  JCS is pro­vid­ing addi­tion­al social sup­port via phone, shop­ping assis­tance and deliv­ery, and flex­i­ble respite to com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers.
• Beit Shalom Syn­a­gogue has tran­si­tioned seam­less­ly to dig­i­tal ser­vices, adult edu­ca­tion and ched­er deliv­ery.
• Online orders for seder meals for Pesach are being organ­ised.

Tas­ma­nia 

• No change since last week

We again stress the neces­si­ty of strict social dis­tanc­ing.   Please keep safe and keep those around you safe, by exer­cis­ing every pre­cau­tion.

The ECAJ con­tin­ues to receive a won­der­ful response to our nation­al e‑mail call­ing for vol­un­teers to assist the most iso­lat­ed and vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty.

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 588
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au| www.ecaj.org.au