Dear Readers,
With Pesach upon us, Galus Australis will be taking a break from its usual content.
To mark the holiday, during chol hamoed, we’ll be linking to some musical pieces that we feel tie in with …

Yesterday Galus published an article by David Werdiger on the new soft, pita-like matzah that is available this year in Australia. As raised by commenters on that article, the Rabbinical Council of Victoria (RCV) issued …

By David Werdiger

“This is what Hillel did in the times of the temple: he would wrap the Pascal offering, matzah and maror and eat them all together” (text of the Hagaddah, quoted from Talmud …

By Anthony Frosh
The Stern Hu situation provides a lot of food for thought, both in the media coverage and also the reaction of the Australian Government, or lack thereof.
The Rio Tinto executive has apparently admitted to …

At many weddings, you will find that there is a considerable gap, both temporal and geographic, between the chuppah ceremony and the wedding reception.  Typically, the reason cited for implementing this gap is that the …

 
By Anthony Frosh
With the Global Atheist Convention currently taking place in Melbourne, I, like many people, have observed how it is rather unusual to have a conference defined by what you are not.  I don’t …

by Liraz Jedwab

Secular Judaism is by far the most confused and misunderstood concept in the wider Jewish Community. The reality is that for a number of reasons, the words “Secular Judaism” have lost any …

by Liz Paratz. So far, the 21st century appears to be the era when existential philosophy updated its status to ‘iPhone, therefore I am.’

The following article by Martin Indyk, former US ambassador to Israel was written as a reponse to Gerald Steinberg’s op-ed on the New Israel Fund in the AJN. The AJN declined to publish it; it …