To down­load this state­ment in PDF for­mat, click here.

Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions and lead­ers across Aus­tralia have ral­lied togeth­er to man­age the impact of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic on Jew­ish insti­tu­tions, fam­i­lies, indi­vid­u­als and, most espe­cial­ly, the elder­ly and vul­ner­a­ble.   The intense work 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, all work­ing in uni­son, has been noth­ing short of inspir­ing.   We are deeply indebt­ed to all of them.   This is the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty at its finest, mobil­is­ing its tal­ent and resources with uni­ty of pur­pose and great skill for the com­mon good.

Main­tain­ing strict per­son­al hygiene and social dis­tanc­ing are imper­a­tives as defen­sive mea­sures against the spread of the virus. Yet social dis­tanc­ing rep­re­sents a spe­cial chal­lenge for the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, with its strong and deep tra­di­tions of fam­i­ly and com­mu­nal togeth­er­ness.   Anoth­er chal­lenge is that the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty has a high­er-than-aver­age pro­por­tion of peo­ple aged 65 or more, the group most at risk if they are infect­ed.

The Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has issued advice on social dis­tanc­ing prac­tices: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-information-on-social-distancing.  Giv­en our phys­i­cal close­ness as a com­mu­ni­ty and as fam­i­lies, and our age pro­file as a com­mu­ni­ty, many experts are advis­ing us to adopt even stricter, and more thor­ough, social dis­tanc­ing prac­tices than those offi­cial­ly rec­om­mend­ed.  Keep­ing chil­dren phys­i­cal­ly sep­a­rate from their grand­par­ents, great-grand­par­ents and oth­er old­er rel­a­tives, and util­is­ing only non-phys­i­cal means of con­tact, is some­thing many of us will find hard to do. Yet it may save the life of a loved one.

The fol­low­ing is a sum­ma­ry of the cur­rent sta­tus of Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty life in each State and Ter­ri­to­ry.

New South Wales

• NSW Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty has acti­vat­ed its Jew­ish Emer­gency Man­age­ment Plan (JEMP) – the plan was finalised some years ago, pri­mar­i­ly con­tem­plat­ing secu­ri­ty crises which have been rehearsed, but also capa­ble of han­dling oth­er cri­sis sce­nar­ios – so far work­ing well
  • JEMP is con­trolled by the Deci­sion Mak­ers Group (DMG) com­pris­ing senior lead­ers of NSWJBD, ECAJ, CJCS NSW, CSG NSW
  • JEMP is oper­at­ed by the CSG NSW Cri­sis Man­age­ment Team (CMT)
  • DMG has had numer­ous tele­con­fer­ence meet­ings with all shules, all schools, and oth­er at risk such as aged care, hos­pi­tal, muse­um). They are shar­ing infor­ma­tion with each oth­er and DMG using tech­nol­o­gy
• All shules have sus­pend­ed ser­vices with at most 1 or 2 very minor excep­tions
• 2 schools are tran­si­tion­ing to online learn­ing now – oth­ers are con­tin­u­ing with face to face class­es in line with gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy, but can enable online alter­na­tives quick­ly
• All aged care and oth­er at risk insti­tu­tions appear to be at least in line with gov­ern­ment rec­om­men­da­tions, or ahead of them
• The Syd­ney Jew­ish Muse­um is tem­porar­i­ly closed
• DMG has estab­lished 2 sub-com­mit­tees
  • A cri­sis med­ical sub-com­mit­tee, which is look­ing at ear­ly assis­tance sce­nar­ios for aged and oth­er vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple in the com­mu­ni­ty, both those in aged care facil­i­ties and at home for aged care and the elder­ly in the com­mu­ni­ty. . The Wolper Hos­pi­tal is cen­tral to the committee’s func­tions, togeth­er with a num­ber of high­ly qual­i­fied oth­ers
  • A finan­cial sub-com­mit­tee which is tasked with look­ing at the finan­cial impli­ca­tions for the NSW Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and its mem­bers as a result of the pan­dem­ic. This sub-com­mit­tee is pop­u­lat­ed with rel­e­vant experts, includ­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion from JCA
• In gen­er­al terms, com­mu­ni­ty events have been post­poned or can­celled – there are some small excep­tions where low num­bers are involved
  • No pub­lic Yom Hashoah event – scaled back ver­sion with lim­it­ed num­bers to be livestreamed
  • Yom Haatz­maut event is can­celled
  • NAJEX Anzac com­mem­o­ra­tion is can­celled.
• CSG NSW’s JEMP web­site www.csgnsw.org.au is designed to be a cen­tral source of NSW infor­ma­tion. It con­tin­ues to be updat­ed.  Email bul­letins have also been issued.
• There is a strong spir­it of uni­ty and co-oper­a­tion by all organ­i­sa­tions
• CSG NSW pro­fes­sion­als and vol­un­teers are doing a great job – high praise.

Vic­to­ria

• Vic­to­ria JEMP acti­vat­ed and has estab­lished emer­gency com­mit­tee com­pris­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil of Vic­to­ria, CSG Vic­to­ria, Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Cri­sis Man­age­ment, Hat­zo­lah, Coun­cil of Ortho­dox Syn­a­gogues Vic­to­ria, Rab­bini­cal Coun­cil of Vic­to­ria, Pro­gres­sive Judaism Vic­to­ria.
• Web­site estab­lished as source of com­mu­ni­ty infor­ma­tion – https://vic.thecsg.org.au/covid-19-community-information/
• Reg­u­lar infor­ma­tion bul­letins being sent to com­mu­ni­ty
• Most shules closed.
• Yeshiv­ah Beth Rivkeh Col­lege closed by order
• Oth­er schools open but Bia­lik, Mt Sco­pus and King David have announced they will be mov­ing to online by learn­ing the end of next week with Hol­i­days from 6 to 20 April 2020. Oth­er schools are expect­ed to fol­low the same pro­to­col
• Aged care – strict pro­to­cols in place for vis­its
• Elder­ly and infirm liv­ing alone – Com­mit­tee in place to com­mu­ni­cate ser­vices avail­able.
• Jew­ish Care Vic­to­ria with sup­port of Erdi Foun­da­tion is explor­ing offer­ing finan­cial assis­tance to those in need.
• AUJS Vic deliv­er­ing food to peo­ple liv­ing alone.
• Yom Hashoah and Yom Hazikaron com­mem­o­ra­tions and Yom Haatz­maut cel­e­bra­tions can­celled, and replace­ment events to be live streamed.

West­ern Aus­tralia

• Shules:  Tem­ple David ser­vices will cease after this week’s Shab­bat ser­vice; MZH, Dianel­la Shule and PHC all closed; Chabad still going with very small num­bers
• Schools: Carmel School – high school has had a one day tri­al online.  School will only close when direct­ed by WA State Gov­ern­ment
• Aged care facil­i­ties and retire­ment vil­lages: As per WA Govt Guide­lines.  Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil of WA in dis­cus­sions with insti­tu­tions about hav­ing tighter restric­tions on vis­it­ing, and need to have that mon­i­tored.
• Elder­ly and infirm liv­ing alone:  Still get­ting lists of peo­ple in this cat­e­go­ry togeth­er.  Meno­ra Char­i­ty help­ing with this (WA ver­sion of Jew­ish Care)
• Com­mu­ni­ty aware­ness about social dis­tanc­ing:  Email newslet­ter was sent to every­one last Mon­day and oth­er one will go out tomor­row.  Updat­ed report also in Mac­cabean news­pa­per and var­i­ous face book pages togeth­er with use of indi­vid­ual organ­i­sa­tions data­bas­es
• Can­cel­la­tion of com­mu­ni­ty events: Every­thing can­celled.

Queens­land

• Bris­bane Hebrew Con­gre­ga­tion and Mishkan Israel (syn­a­gogue at the Jew­ish Com­mu­nal Cen­tre), Gold Coast Hebrew Con­gre­ga­tion, Tem­ple Shalom Gold Coast and Chabad Hous­es in Bris­bane, Gold Coast, Sun­shine Coast and Cairns have closed down ser­vice for the fore­see­able future.
• Beit or V’Shalom Bris­bane is also now closed.
• South Bris­bane Hebrew Con­gre­ga­tion has not decid­ed to can­cel any ser­vices or activ­i­ties yet. QJBD Pres­i­dent has spo­ken with Gary Gold­man, their Pres­i­dent. SBHC think their small num­bers and health regime is enough at this time.
• Gan Gani Kindy and Sinai Col­lege are open and fol­low­ing all statu­to­ry and State Gov­ern­ment guide­lines.
• Many in Retire­ment Vil­lage are in self iso­la­tion for safe­ty.
• All organ­i­sa­tions have can­celled activ­i­ties and meet­ings.
• Yom Hashoah and Yom Haatz­maut have all been can­celled as have the Seder nights.
• Yom HaShoah event of NSW Jew­ish Board of Deputies will be live streamed and/or shown via Youtube. Qld Jew­ish Board of Deputies may video its guest speak­er as well and send that out to the com­mu­ni­ty.
• The Qld Jew­ish Board of Deputies will be dis­trib­ut­ing Zachor Can­dles to indi­vid­ual homes pri­or to Yom HaShoah.
• JCare­Qld is organ­is­ing peo­ple to help dis­trib­ute food packs, sup­port or help across var­i­ous sub­urbs and regions in case it is need­ed. The var­i­ous Chabad Hous­es are con­tin­u­ing their sup­port of needy fam­i­lies.

ACT

• Have sus­pend­ed or can­celled major­i­ty of events, includ­ing com­mu­nal Seder, Com­mu­ni­ty open­ing of new wing on 5 April deci­sion on the Grand Open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of 12 May (to be offi­ci­at­ed by the GG) will be made by 31 March; have can­celled Yom Hashoah and Lim­mud Shavuot.
• Jew­ish Care work­er has 50 names and con­tact details of vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple and checks in on a reg­u­lar basis to assess their needs and lev­el of sup­port required. Jew­ish Care work­er is coor­di­nat­ing with COA in Syd­ney to pick up frozen kosher meals and is coor­di­nat­ing OzHar­vest deliv­er­ies to the Cen­tre; Jew­ish Care, rab­bi, vol­un­teers have been in touch with elder­ly for deliv­ery of meals, includ­ing kosher food, shop­ping, and phone and online social sup­port
• Live-stream­ing of ser­vices – we are direct­ing com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers to the JBD Yom Hashoah live stream + we will ask Dr Deb­o­rah May­er­son (keynote speak­er for our YH event) to make a record­ing of her speech and we’ll send link to mem­bers.
• Chabad arrange­ments have been sought but are unknown.
• ACTJC Ched­er (both Sun­day and Tues­day) will con­tin­ue while pub­lic schools remain open, review at end of school term in 2 weeks. Pos­si­ble to move to vir­tu­al class­room.

South Aus­tralia

• Both syn­a­gogues have can­celled in-per­son ser­vices and events and will recon­sid­er that deci­sion month­ly.  Beit Shalom Pro­gres­sive Syn­a­gogue will be con­duct­ing ser­vices and Torah study online when the tech­nol­o­gy is sort­ed.
• Ched­er learn­ing will be online from this Sun­day.
• Our gov­ern­ment-fund­ed aged care ser­vice, Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices, con­tin­ues to pro­vide crit­i­cal sup­port to old­er peo­ple in their homes. It is con­duct­ing health sur­veys before car­ing staff enter a home.  It is cur­rent­ly con­sid­er­ing whether it will con­tin­ue to pro­vide group class­es. It will con­tin­ue to deliv­er food to clients.  Both syn­a­gogues are also work­ing to ensure more iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers have access to need­ed sup­plies.
• Social dis­tanc­ing has been prac­ticed for some time at Jew­ish venues but will no longer be rel­e­vant as venues close.
• In per­son events such as the com­mu­nal Seder are can­celled.  The State Zion­ist Coun­cil is con­sid­er­ing how to host Yom HaShoah via stream­ing.

Tas­ma­nia 

• Hobart Syn­a­gogue clos­es after this Shab­bat ser­vice.  No ser­vices, events or tours.
• Chabad will no longer have ser­vices at the Launce­s­ton Syn­a­gogue.  This was based on the advice of Rab­bi Ulman of the Syd­ney Beth Din.
• The 175th anniver­sary of the Hobart Syn­a­gogue event will not occur as sched­uled in July.   We will announce a new date when cri­sis is over.
• We are in touch with the elder­ly mem­bers of the com­mu­ni­ty and will sup­port as need­ed.
• We are in the process of estab­lish­ing a ched­er here for the first time in decades, but this is on hold until after the cri­sis.

At this dif­fi­cult time, please lis­ten care­ful­ly to expert advice, espe­cial­ly about the neces­si­ty of strict social dis­tanc­ing.   Please keep safe and keep those around you safe, by exer­cis­ing every pre­cau­tion.

We can be proud of the way our com­mu­ni­ty has come togeth­er to look after each oth­er. The ECAJ has received a won­der­ful response to our nation­al e‑mail call­ing for vol­un­teers to assist the most iso­lat­ed and vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty.

We will post reg­u­lar updates.

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