Sydney shul hosts first gay 'marriage'

In an Australian first, a same-sex commitment ceremony was held in a synagogue on Sunday.

Scott Whitmont, 47, and Christopher Whitmont-Stein, 38, stood under a chuppah at Emanuel Synagogue in Sydney in front of about 75 guests.

The pair, who had a civil-commitment ceremony six years ago, exchanged rings, smashed a glass and walked around each other three-and-a-half times.

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Adelaide Shoah-denier faces jail

A revisionist historian living in Adelaide may be jailed for allegedly defying a Federal Court order to remove all Holocaust-denial material from his website.

Fredrick Toben, of the notorious Adelaide Institute, is waiting for the verdict of a contempt-of-court hearing brought by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. He pleaded not guilty last week to 28 charges alleging he breached a 2002 Federal Court order to remove all Shoah denial from his website.

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Australian billionaire says funds ‘donated to Israel’

Australia's second-richest man has claimed that the $68 million (£34m) a US Senate report accuses him of hiding from tax authorities was donated to charities in Israel.

The allegation came via the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in a hearing last Thursday, prompting Frank Lowy - who fled Czechoslovakia during the Holocaust and fought in Israel's 1948 War of Independence - to issue a vehement denial.

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Fears over Papal visit to Sydney

Five Australian Jews have been invited to meet Pope Benedict XVI during his first visit to Sydney amid continuing concerns about a planned re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross.

They are among 40 interfaith leaders — including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others — who will meet the Pope at St Mary’s Cathedral on Friday.

Pope Benedict is in Sydney for World Youth Day, a six-day celebration with  an estimated 500,000 people expected at the closing papal mass on July 20.

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Oz official exits over hate mail

A senior Liberal Party official in Australia who described a fellow party candidate as a “greedy f***ing Jew” has resigned. Susan Chandler, the campaign manager for the Victoria branch of the party, also apologised to Adam Held, a Jewish candidate who stood unsuccessfully at last November’s federal election, for sending an email referring to him as a “greedy f***ing Jew” after he had requested more campaign material to distribute.

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‘Terrorist’ threats on Facebook

A Jewish woman living in Melbourne is believed to have received a death threat from a man claiming to be a member of Hizbollah on the social networking website Facebook.

Australian counter-terror experts launched an investigation last week following the threat by a man called Ibrahim Dirani, according to a report in The Australian newspaper on Saturday.

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