I, Michael Brull, a young writer and blogger and Mark Baker, of the Centre for Jewish Civilization at Monash, representing three different viewpoints on a left continuum, talked about dissent in the Jewish community for a panel at Limmud Oz 2011 in Sydney. You can listen to the sound file below.
The session was chaired by Angela Budai, replacing Jenny Green who withdrew in protest at the censoring by the organisers of Peter Slezak and Viv Porzolt. Their session on another topic was cancelled because of their political views on BDS (Background to this is linked here and another perspective here.)
Sound file. 55 mins approx, 11mb mp4. [Click or download with right hand mouse button/save. Apologies for the quality of the audio, but this was from a Livescribe in my hand (a wonderful tool in any case). Use VLC player if you have any problems in opening the file].
Angela also read a statement which I endorse.
“Limmud Oz is brilliant. It has always been a wonderful place to be challenged by a range of different voices in our community.
I am disappointed in the decision to not allow presenters because of their political position.
I thought a lot about my involvement in Limmud Oz this year. After going through this process I decided to continue to participate as well as present sessions at Limmud.
I believe in inclusion not exclusion.
I believe it is better to encourage engagement than disengagement.”