About ECAJ

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) is the peak body of the Australian Jewish community, representing and advocating for the community to government, in the community, and around the world.

The ECAJ is con­sti­tut­ed by Aus­trali­a’s state and ter­ri­to­ry Jew­ish com­mu­nal roof bod­ies to rep­re­sent and advo­cate for the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty at the nation­al lev­el. Togeth­er, we rep­re­sent over 200 Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tions across Aus­tralia.

Since our found­ing in 1944, we have led advo­ca­cy efforts for the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty.

Some of our ear­ly work advo­cat­ed for the absorp­tion of Jew­ish refugees into Aus­tralian soci­ety in the wake of the Holo­caust as Aus­tralia took in the largest per capi­ta intake of Holo­caust sur­vivors in the world out­side Israel. 

Today, we advo­cate for our com­mu­ni­ty to live safe­ly and freely as Jew­ish Aus­tralians.

We fight against anti­semitism wher­ev­er we find it, we defend the nation­al rights of the Jew­ish peo­ple, and we strive to keep our com­mu­ni­ty secure, strong, and vibrant.

Day-to-day, the ECAJ works on:

  • Pro­tect­ing our reli­gious free­doms to observe and prac­tise Judaism in Aus­tralia.
  • Acquir­ing gov­ern­ment fund­ing for the Jew­ish community’s secu­ri­ty needs and over­see­ing its allo­ca­tion.
  • Mon­i­tor­ing and report­ing inci­dents of anti­semitism.
  • Secur­ing com­pen­sa­tion for Holo­caust sur­vivors.
  • Advo­cat­ing for the nation­al rights of the Jew­ish peo­ple and encour­ag­ing sup­port for Zion­ism in Aus­tralia.
  • Liais­ing with the Fed­er­al gov­ern­ment to stamp out child abuse.
  • Mon­i­tor­ing the con­tent of school cur­ric­u­la in teach­ing about Israel and the Holo­caust.
  • Sup­port­ing ini­tia­tives to com­mem­o­rate the Shoah; remem­ber­ing our won­der­ful Jew­ish ANZACs.
  • Pro­vid­ing sup­port for the small­er Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties out­side of Syd­ney and Mel­bourne.
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The ECAJ is gov­erned by elect­ed office bear­ers and its day-to-day work is car­ried out by a team of pro­fes­sion­al staff, led by co-Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cers Peter Wertheim and Alex Ryvchin.

Chief executive officers

Peter has been involved with the ECAJ for near­ly 30 years and is cur­rent­ly its co-CEO. Peter pre­vi­ous­ly worked as a lawyer for 32 years, dur­ing which he act­ed as hon­orary solic­i­tor for a num­ber of char­i­ties in the Jew­ish and wider com­mu­ni­ties. Peter was one of the lawyers who act­ed for the ECAJ in the late 1990’s and ear­ly 2000’s in a series of racial vil­i­fi­ca­tion cas­es in the Fed­er­al Court of Aus­tralia.

Peter was the elect­ed Pres­i­dent of the NSW Jew­ish Board of Deputies from 1996 to 2000.  In 2003 he was made a mem­ber of the Order of Aus­tralia for ser­vices to the Jew­ish and wider com­mu­ni­ties and for work in a vari­ety of projects pro­mot­ing com­mu­nal har­mo­ny and under­stand­ing. From 2004 to 2015 Peter was a Statu­to­ry Board Mem­ber of the New South Wales Anti Dis­crim­i­na­tion Board, a State gov­ern­ment body. In July 2010, Peter was appoint­ed by the Aus­tralian Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment as a mem­ber of its Aus­tralian Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Advi­so­ry Coun­cil and from 2011 to 2013 its suc­ces­sor body, the Aus­tralian Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Coun­cil. He con­tin­ues to be wide­ly pub­lished and quot­ed in the media on a broad range of pol­i­cy mat­ters relat­ing to free­dom, democ­ra­cy and social cohe­sion in Aus­tralia.

Alex Ryvchin was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. His fam­i­ly left the Sovi­et Union as refugees and refuseniks in 1987.

He attend­ed Syd­ney Boys High School and stud­ied law and pol­i­tics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of New South Wales and prac­tised at lead­ing firms in Lon­don and Syd­ney.

He was award­ed a pres­ti­gious Israel Research Fel­low­ship to work as a research fel­low and staff writer at a Jerusalem-based think-tank before join­ing the Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, Aus­trali­a’s pre­mier rep­re­sen­ta­tive and advo­ca­cy body for the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, in 2013. He was pro­mot­ed to co-Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer in Feb­ru­ary 2018, becom­ing one of the youngest lead­ers in the Jew­ish dias­po­ra. He is a mem­ber of the Jew­ish Diplo­mat­ic Corps.

His children’s book, A New Day (2020) writ­ten dur­ing the Coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic to help fam­i­lies over­come adver­si­ty, was an inter­na­tion­al best­seller and rat­ed by PBS as the top book to help kids nav­i­gate the pan­dem­ic.

He is the author of the crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed works, The Anti-Israel Agen­da – Inside the Polit­i­cal War on the Jew­ish State (2017) and Zion­ism – The Con­cise His­to­ry (2019). His fourth book, The Sev­en Dead­ly Myths: Anti­semitism from the Time of Christ to Kanye West (2023) was short­list­ed for the 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Award and inves­ti­gates the extra­or­di­nary con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries behind anti­semitism.

His advo­ca­cy and writ­ing has seen him recog­nised as Aus­tralian of the Year for 2024 by The Aus­tralian news­pa­per, as one of 25 glob­al Jew­ish vision­ar­ies by The Jerusalem Post and in the Dai­ly Telegraph’s Pow­er 100 for 2024.

Daniel is the Pres­i­dent of the Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry (ECAJ).

He has pre­vi­ous­ly held the roles of Hon­orary Sec­re­tary, Vice-Pres­i­dent and Vic­to­ri­an Coun­cil­lor of the ECAJ.

From 2021 to 2023, he served as Pres­i­dent of the Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil of Vic­to­ria, the roof rep­re­sen­ta­tive body of the Vic­to­ri­an Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. In 2013 and 2014, togeth­er with Nina Bas­sat AM and Har­ry Rosen­berg, Daniel was a mem­ber of Mac­cabi Australia’s Com­mit­tee of Review into mem­ber pro­tec­tion mat­ters.

Pro­fes­sion­al­ly, Daniel is a bar­ris­ter and King’s Coun­sel, prac­tis­ing in civ­il and com­mer­cial lit­i­ga­tion. He has pre­vi­ous­ly received the Ron Merkel KC award from the Vic­to­ri­an Bar for his pro bono advice and advo­ca­cy in respect of home­less­ness and elder law.

Daniel and his wife have three chil­dren who attend Jew­ish day schools.

Robert is a bar­ris­ter prac­tic­ing at the NSW bar and was appoint­ed as Senior Coun­sel in 2000. He has held a num­ber of lead­er­ship posi­tions in the Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty over the last 40 years. In 1988 he was award­ed Mem­ber­ship of the Order of Aus­tralia for ser­vices to the Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty. In 1994 he was award­ed the Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices: Com­mu­nal Lead­er­ship Award and Out­stand­ing Jew Award. In Jan­u­ary 2020 he was dec­o­rat­ed as an ‘Offi­cer of the Order of Aus­tralia’ for dis­tin­guished ser­vice to the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty through exec­u­tive roles with edu­ca­tion­al, cul­tur­al and social wel­fare bod­ies.

On 26 Novem­ber 2007 he was elect­ed Pres­i­dent of the Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry, the elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tive orga­ni­za­tion of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. On 26 Jan­u­ary 2009 he was elect­ed as a Vice Pres­i­dent and mem­ber of the Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee of the World Jew­ish Con­gress.

In addi­tion he is cur­rent­ly active as Hon. Life Mem­ber of NSW Jew­ish Board of Deputies (since 1986) and Life Patron and Trustee of Mori­ah Col­lege (since 1999).

Anton has been involved in Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty work for over 27 years, includ­ing as part of B’nai B’rith Young Adults, as a co-con­ven­er and pres­i­dent of B’nai Mitzvot, on the board of man­age­ment of the North East­ern Jew­ish War Memo­r­i­al Cen­tre Inc., as chair­per­son of the B’nai Brith Anti-Defama­tion Com­mis­sion, as pres­i­dent of the St. Kil­da Hebrew Con­gre­ga­tion, and as an active mem­ber and con­duc­tor of his syn­a­gogue choirs.

In 1998, Anton joined the exec­u­tive of the JCCV, and became pres­i­dent in 2005. Dur­ing this time, he served as a Vic­to­ri­an Coun­cil­lor on the ECAJ. In 2015, Anton was re-elect­ed by the JCCV as a Vic­to­ri­an ECAJ Coun­cil­lor, and in 2016, Anton was elect­ed as the 19th pres­i­dent of the ECAJ.

When not work­ing for the com­mu­ni­ty, Anton is a part­ner at KCL Law (for­mer­ly Kliger Part­ners).

Peter is a Com­pa­ny Chair­man and Direc­tor with many decades of expe­ri­ence in a range of com­mer­cial enter­pris­es. He has served the Aus­tralasian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in a num­ber of lead­er­ship posi­tions over many years. He was pre­vi­ous­ly active in a vari­ety of organ­i­sa­tions in New Zealand, includ­ing the NZ Zion­ist Fed­er­a­tion and the NZ Jew­ish Coun­cil, which he chaired for a four-year term. He var­i­ous­ly served first as Appeal Chair­man and then Pres­i­dent of the NSW Jew­ish Com­mu­nal Appeal dur­ing the 1990’s and 2000’s. He is an Hon­orary Life Gov­er­nor of JCA and a cur­rent trustee. He is cur­rent­ly the Chair­man of the NSW Coun­cil for Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty Secu­ri­ty which has over­sight over all com­mu­nal secu­ri­ty mat­ters. This is Peter’s third term as ECAJ Hon­orary Trea­sur­er, hav­ing pre­vi­ous­ly served between 2007–2010 and 2013–2016. He has been a direc­tor of the ECAJ Harm Pre­ven­tion Fund since 2010.

Jil­lian has held exec­u­tive and non-exec­u­tive posi­tions in a vari­ety of Aus­tralian cor­po­ra­tions and across the finan­cial sec­tor. She is a Fel­low of the Insti­tute of Com­pa­ny Direc­tors, Mem­ber of the Har­vard Club of Aus­tralia, Mem­ber of Chief Exec­u­tive Women and Found­ing Co-Chair, Wom­en­Cor­po­rate­Di­rec­tors (Aus­tralian Chap­ter). She is also a mem­ber of the Coun­cil of the Order of Aus­tralia.

After com­plet­ing her Mas­ters at Har­vard Law School and work­ing in a New York law firm, Jil­lian returned to Syd­ney to become a Senior Asso­ciate and lat­er a part­ner at Allen, Allen and Hem­s­ley in the cor­po­rate and envi­ron­ment fields.

She then went on to become a Com­mis­sion­er and lat­er Deputy Chair of the Aus­tralian Secu­ri­ties and Invest­ments Com­mis­sion. After com­ple­tion of her five year term she was a review mem­ber of the Daw­son Review into the Trade Prac­tices Act. In 2003 she set out to pur­sue a non-exec­u­tive career and has held a range of cor­po­rate and gov­ern­ment advi­so­ry board posi­tions since then.

She was appoint­ed the Spe­cial Envoy to Com­bat Anti­semitism in Aus­tralia in July 2024.

Pres­i­dent
Daniel Aghion KC (VIC)

Deputy Pres­i­dent
Robert M Goot AO SC (NSW)

Co-Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cers

  • Peter Wertheim AM
  • Alex Ryvchin

Vice-Pres­i­dents

  • Philip Zajac (VIC)
  • David Ossip (NSW)
  • Geoff Midalia (WA)
  • Jason Stein­berg (QLD)
  • Annetay Hen­der­son-Sapir (SA)
  • Lau­rence Herst (TAS)
  • Athol Mor­ris (ACT)
  • Vida Good­vach (NT)

Imme­di­ate Past Pres­i­dent
Jil­lian Segal AO (NSW)

Hon­orary Sec­re­tary
Anton Block AM (VIC)

Hon­orary Trea­sur­er
Peter Wise AM (NSW)

Hon­orary Life Mem­bers

  • Nina Bas­sat AM (VIC)
  • Josie Lacey OAM (NSW)
  • Gra­hame Leonard AM (VIC)
  • Rab­bi Dr John Levi AM DD (VIC)
  • Sam Sal­cman (VIC)
  • Diane Shtein­man AM (NSW)
Alex Masel 1945–1946
Saul Symonds 1946–1948
Mau­rice Ashke­nasy CMG QC 1948–1950, 1954–1956, 1958–1960, 1962–1964, 1966–1968
Horace New­man 1949–1950
Ben Green 1950–1952
Hon Syd Ein­feld AO 1952–1954, 1956–1958, 1960–1962, 1964–1966
Ger­ald Falk OBE JP 1968–1970
Nathan Jacob­son OBE 1970–1972, 1974–1976
Louis Klein CBE 1972–1974
Joachim Schneeweiss AM 1976–1978, 1980–1982
Leslie Caplan AM 1985–1987, 1989–1992
Isi Leibler AO CBE 1978–1980, 1982–1985, 1987–1989, 1992–1995
Diane Shtein­man AM 1996–1998
Nina Bas­sat AM 1998–2001
Jere­my Jones AM 2001–2004
Gra­hame Leonard AM 2004–2007
Dan­ny Lamm 2010–2013
Robert Goot AM SC 2007–2010, 2013–2016
Anton Block 2016–2019
Jil­ian Segal AO 2019–2023

Infographic: Australian Jewish communal structure

Visu­al pre­sen­ta­tion of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­nal struc­ture on a page, list­ing ECAJ con­stituents, affil­i­ates, and observers. (PDF: 722KB)

Constituents

The ECAJ is con­sti­tut­ed by the peak state and ter­ri­to­ry bod­ies:

These bod­ies and their affil­i­ates num­ber over 200 Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tions across Aus­tralia.

Affiliates

A num­ber of nation­al Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tions are for­mal­ly affil­i­at­ed with the ECAJ:

Observers

Sev­er­al Jew­ish organ­i­sa­tions are for­mal observers:

Constitution

Down­load PDF (334kb)

Ethnic community partnerships

The ECAJ is a part­ner in:

Government partnerships

The ECAJ for­mal­ly rep­re­sents the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in the fol­low­ing gov­ern­ment forums:

  • Human Rights con­sul­ta­tions host­ed by the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and the Depart­ment of the Attor­ney-Gen­er­al.

International partnerships

The ECAJ rep­re­sents the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in inter­na­tion­al forums, includ­ing:

See also

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