weekly insights

Dear Friends, According to the rhythms of the Jewish liturgical calendar, having just celebrated Simchat Torah ('Rejoicing in Torah')...

For this Sunday, 8 September 2024, here are some words to speak and pray for the six hostages murdered by Hamas   In my previous blog...

Trust a Jewish Israeli couple, parents of a hostage in Gaza, to launch a “Week of Goodness” in the midst of unimaginable parental...

Hatred of Jews is “a sin against God” (cf. Pope Francis, Feb 2024). When it comes to antisemitism, Catholics have a document, a history,...

Screams Before Silence is a harrowing, yet sensitively crafted and ultimately viewable, documentary film about the weaponisation of rape...

“The Jews killed Jesus.” For much of church history, this erroneous, unjust and lethal accusation of Jewish collective guilt held sway...

Pope Francis has written a letter to “his Jewish brothers and sisters” in Israel (2 Feb 2024) in response to communications received and...

Will Catholic feminists be a voice for the voiceless when it comes to the Israeli, mainly Jewish, October 7 victims of rape who cannot...

By Teresa Pirola and Julie McCrossin AM Historically, theologically and morally, the nativity scene of ‘baby Jesus in the rubble’ must be...

Amidst so much suffering in our world, the fact remains that there are people who continue to get up each day, every day, and apply...

Homily prompts for remembering Israelis in our hearts and prayers this Christmas As Christian homilists finetune their Christmas messages...

On 12 November 2023, a significant voice — indeed, a ‘cry of the heart’ — went out from the Jewish community, specifically directed to...

The six people seated before us are Israeli Jews, a small delegation visiting Australia – not dignitaries or VIPs but ordinary family...

In pro-Palestinian protests by school students in Melbourne and Sydney, some students were quoted as saying “Hamas is doing a good job”....

One would think that a massive act of terror involving murder, rape, mutilation and the abduction of civilians would constitute a clear...

What was Kristallnacht? Kristallnacht is the name given to the night of 9 November 1938, when a Nazi-sponsored violent rampage in Germany...

Four years ago, I visited Sderot and other small communities in Israel which lie close to the northern border of the Gaza strip. The...

In the Jewish liturgical calendar, the Sabbath between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is called Shabbat Shuva - the Sabbath of Return. One...

Shana Tova U'Metuka Festival greetings to Jewish friends for Rosh Hashanah, and a wish for all the goodness and sweetness of the new...

In chapter 30 of the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses continues to prepare the Israelites for the journey ahead, the journey to be made upon...