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Ralph Genende

Ralph Genende

Rabbi Ralph Genende is Senior Rabbi of Jewish Care Victoria and of Kesher, The Connecting Community, and is interfaith and community liaison at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

First, we mourn. And mourn again. Then, life must go on

The same 30 days of mourning that marked the death of Moses have now been observed for the 15 killed at Bondi. Life will never be the same.

  • Ralph Genende

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The Jewish calendar runs according to the moon, and its new year - Rosh Hashanah - comes next Wednesday into Thursday.

Reflecting on darkness and light on the eve of the Jewish New Year

After a torrid year for the Jewish faith, New Year offers the hope of a time blessed with light and love to help heal our wounded planet.

  • Ralph Genende
Holocaust survivor Otto Kohn.

Survivor of five camps built good life in Australia

Otto Kohn’s friendship, goodness and generosity affirmed that you can transform sorrow into success and trauma into triumph.

  • Ralph Genende
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 10: Jewish boys dance on the top of a double decker bus during the annual Jewish holiday of Purim on March 10, 2020 in London, England. Purim is celebrated by Jewish communities around the world with parades and costume parties. Purim commemorates the defeat of Haman, the advisor to the Persian king, and his plot to massacre the Jewish people, 2,500 years ago, as recorded in the biblical book of Esther. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Purim has important lessons of the longest hatred – and the longest love

Jews this week celebrate Purim and read the Book of Esther, which tells the story their escape from annihilation at the hands of an ancient, genocidal foe.

  • Ralph Genende
UMAN, UKRAINE - SEPTEMBER 26: Orthodox Jewish pilgrims say prayers in an annex of a synagogue on September 26, 2022 in Uman, Ukraine. Thousands of Hasidic pilgrims, mostly men, arrived in Uman to mark the new year, which began at sundown yesterday. Uman contains the burial site of a revered 18th-century rabbi, Nachman of Breslav, and in a typical year might see tens of thousands of pilgrims for Rosh Hashanah. Fewer are expected this year, amid warnings from Israeli and Ukrainian officials to not travel. (Photo by Byron Smith/Getty Images)

Who by fire? Jewish New Year reminds us that everything can change in a moment

The impending Days of Awe – Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – remind us of the unpredictability of life and death, but also of our capacity to shape our communities for the better.

  • Ralph Genende
Moses and the Ten Commandments.

Embracing the ‘season of love’ in hard times

During the Jewish festival of Shavuot, love, faith and hope are reaffirmed.

  • Ralph Genende
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A minor scuffle broke out in front of Melbourne’s Town Hall on Tuesday evening.

Israel is paying a terrible price for a war it didn’t start

The Jewish community feels deep despair at the terrible loss of life in Gaza. Yet we also recognise that when faced with a diabolical enemy seeking to destroy you, you are in an impossible situation.

  • Ralph Genende