Israeli parking scammer took £96k

An Israeli man was jailed for up to four years this week for scamming around $AU150,000 (£96,000) from parking metres in Melbourne.

Josef Andelman, 48, who worked as a security officer employed to collect coins from parking metres, had pleaded not guilty to 85 charges of theft earlier this month.

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Sex charge for youth worker

A former Chabad-Lubavitch youth leader has been arrested in Melbourne for alleged child molestation as police alleged more Jewish minors were sexually abused in a separate case.

Aron "Ezzy" Kestecher, 26, has been charged with four counts of indecent acts on a child under 16.

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'Accidental' fire ruins Sydney Yom Kippur

More than 1,000 Sydney Jews have been left in limbo for Yom Kippur after a fire severely damaged their synagogue on the first night of Rosh Hashanah.

Seven fire trucks were required to extinguish the blaze at Kehillat Masada on Sydney's north shore at around 11pm last Wednesday.

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Watch the burial - live on the web

A Jewish burial society in Australia has begun trialling live web streaming of funerals over the Internet.

Melbourne Chevra Kadisha installed a camera at the prayer houses of the two main cemeteries in Melbourne, according to a report in Friday's Australian Jewish News.

The web streaming costs about $AU250, according to Chevra Kadisha director Fred Grossman.

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Man charged over yeshivah sex assaults

An Orthodox Jew has been charged with sexually assaulting children at a Jewish school in Australia.

David Cyprys, a locksmith who runs a company called Shomer Security, faced Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday on 16 counts of indecent assault and 13 counts of gross indecency, allegedly committed against students at Yeshivah College between 1984 and 1991.

Cyprys, 43, who was contracted b

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Sydney eruv rejected

Jewish leaders in Sydney are irate after a local council denied an application to build an eruv.

Ku-ring-gai Council, on Sydney's north shore, voted on Tuesday night to reject a plan to build a 20-kilometre symbolic boundary that would allow Orthodox Jews to push prams and carry objects on Shabbat.

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Jewish soldier who fought in Afghanistan attacked as worse than Hitler

An Australian Jewish soldier who killed a civilian in Afghanistan was allegedly described in letters by a Muslim man as "a dirty animal" and "not much better than" Hitler, a court has heard.

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Best friends for ever on Nickelodeon

What's the best way to test true friendship? Spend a week in the Australian bush where you are subjected to a series of gruelling challenges that must be completed as a twosome. Oh, and with no contact with the outside world.

This is exactly what JCoSS pupils Rosie Felt and Rebecca Ware will be doing when they take part in a new reality television series for Nickelodeon.

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Inquiry into sex abuse at boys' school

Police have launched an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse at an Orthodox boys' school in Australia by a former teacher serving a seven-year prison term in the US.

David Kramer fled in the early 1990s after accusations he had sexually abused boys at Yeshivah College in Melbourne between 1989 and 1993.

Kramer, 50, was jailed in 2008 after pleading guilty to molesting a 12-year-old

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Boycott row batters Australian Limmud

Limmud-Oz, the Australian arm of the global festival of Jewish learning, is at the centre of controversy after organisers banned two presenters who "publicly advocate a total boycott against Israel" and a major donor threatened to withdraw funding.

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NIF Australia's launch provokes war of words

A branch of the New Israel Fund has opened in Australia, triggering a forceful reaction from detractors who accuse the human rights organisation of crossing "red lines" by funding groups that seek to delegitimise Israel.

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Sydney Greens in Israel boycott defeat

An Australian local council abandoned its controversial bid to boycott Israel following intense pressure from Jewish groups, politicians and the media.

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