Australian Jewish Association

The Australian Jewish Association (AJA) is an Australian Jewish community organisation. Guided by Torah principles and aligned with right-wing, conservative values, the organisation represents its members and has a prominent voice in social and news media outlets The founding and continuing president of AJA is David Adler, who often acts as spokesperson. The AJA has been criticised by other Jewish associations as being extremist, and for its association with far-right figures such as Moshe Feiglin, Lauren Southern, and Pauline Hanson

Structure and governance

AJA's leadership is self-appointed, with a number of paid members.

The founding president of AJA is David Adler, former deputy medical secretary of the Australian Medical Association, remains president . Robert Gregory, a graduate in law, serves as AJA chief executive officer. He was previously AJA public affairs director for two years.

History and activities

Founded in 2017, the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) has gained prominence through strategic social media engagement and presence in mainstream media outlets such as ''The Australian'', Sky News Australia, ''Australian Financial Review'', ''Herald Sun'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', and ''The Jerusalem Post'', as well as outlets aimed at the Jewish community such as ''The Australian Jewish News''.

AJA makes submissions to the Australian Government on public policy matters affecting Jewish Australians.

Views and political positions

The AJA is guided by Torah principles and aligned with right-wing, conservative values. Its mission statement states that it aims to be a membership-based representative organisation for Jewish Australians based on genuine authentic Jewish and conservative Australian democratic values. The organisation asserts that their public policy outlook is rooted in traditional Halachic principles and states that they are welcoming of members of all levels of observance who have an emphasis on support for Israel.

AJA's objectives are to work within the laws and regulations of Australia's liberal democracy and provide advocacy and representation for its members to the government, media and established institutions. AJA states that it is not affiliated with any political party but engages with all politicians to promote Jewish life in Australia. In addition, AJA supports Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and engages the Australian Government and relevant parliamentarians for the benefit of the Jewish community supporting initiatives between Australia and Israel.

AJAT

The Australian Jewish Association Tzedakah (AJAT) is AJA's registered charity arm. AJAT is listed in the category under "Harm Prevention" with a primary role in combating antisemitism. AJAT subscribes to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and conducts activities to implement its adoption in Australian jurisdictions and institutions.

Media statements

AJA is regularly quoted on issues of politics and antisemitism within Australia.

In September 2024, CEO Robert Gregory stated that AJA was shocked at the level of support for Hezbollah on the streets of Sydney and Melbourne during a series of protests after the death of its leader Hassan Nasrallah. In November 2024, AJA president David Adler stated on Sky News Australia that there was a "crisis of antisemitism" in Australia after AJA received death threats.

Following the 2024 Melbourne synagogue attack in December 2024, AJA stated that Jewish Australians felt "outraged", but not surprised, due to their view that Australian Jews had been abandoned by the Albanese government. Commenting on a vandalism incident in Sydney in January 2025, AJA blamed the Australian Labor government for the increase in hate, vandalism and violence against Jewish Australians.

Criticism

AJA has been accused of spreading misinformation to discredit pro-Palestinian advocacy. In October 2023, AJA released a video on X of a protest following the October 7 attack claiming that a "Muslim mob of 100s chant d'gas the Jews'", leading to international condemnation of the protest. However, police investigation found no evidence of the phrase being used in the video, and ''Crikey'' alleged that the video itself was deliberately edited, with the audio in the video being pasted over footage of protesters chanting "Palestine is occupied".

In a debate over Jewish representation, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in May 2024 criticised AJA as being unrepresentative of the mainstream of Australian Jews, and urged media organisations to be aware of who they are before engaging with them. Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) voiced similar opinions stating that AJA is "extremist" and "fringe", and "utterly incompatible with Jewish values". The Jewish Council of Australia called AJA as a "far-right extremist organisation", highlighting AJA's association with far-right figures like Pauline Hanson, Lauren Southern, and Moshe Feiglin, as well as AJA's stance that the Safe Schools programme is "child abuse for a Marxist social engineering agenda".

The Lebanese Muslim Association has criticised some of AJA's X posts, such as a May 2024 post referring to pro-Palestine encampments on university campuses as "Nazi encampments".

See also

* Australian Jewish Democratic Society
* Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the peak body for Jewish organisations
* Jewish Council of Australia

References

Jews and Judaism in Australia
Organizations established in 2017
Conservatism in Australia
Zionism in Australia
Jewish organisations based in Australia
Opposition to antisemitism
Advocacy groups in Australia

External links

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{{Jews and Judaism in Australia