Jewish Council of Australia ad sparks outrage
Letter opposing Herzog criticised amid claims it lists deceased people, kapos, joke names and fake identities.
An open letter signed by Australian Jews, organised by antizionist group, the Jewish Council of Australia, opposing Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia is full of errors.
The list, published as a full-page ad in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has been found to contain the names of notorious Holocaust era kapos, fictitious signatories and at least one person who says their name was used without consent.
The Jewish Council of Australia claimed more than 1,000 Jews and thousands of allies had signed the letter. However, scrutiny of the published names quickly revealed significant problems with the list.
Among the names discovered were “Milkek Tachat”, Hebrew slang for “arse licker”, and “Robert Dobolino”, a character from a song.
More disturbingly, the list included the names of notorious Nazi collaborators.
Josef Heiden was an Austrian political prisoner who became a kapo at Dachau, known for his cruelty towards fellow inmates.
He was subsequently freed by the Nazis and welcomed into the Waffen SS.
Eliezer Gruenbaum, a Communist activist arrested by the Nazis, became a kapo at Auschwitz, where he was accused of involvement in beatings of prisoners and the deaths of tens of thousands.
Carmen Mory, a former journalist who served as a Swiss spy for the Nazis, became a kapo at Ravensbrück concentration camp.
She committed suicide rather than face trial for her crimes after the camp’s liberation.
At least two people listed as signatories are dead.
Another signatory, Kate Emerson, who describes herself as Jewish, wrote on social media in January 2024 that “Hitler’s only mistake was stopping too soon”.
The Jewish Council told the AJN that it had gone through “a number of review processes to delete duplicates, antisemitic and offensive names which were submitted by malicious actors”.
“Unfortunately a handful of names with offensive and obscure historical references, and names of real Jewish people falsely submitted by others, slipped through the cracks,” the group said in a statement.
The Jewish Council of Australia said, “The handful of false names are a tiny fraction of the nearly 1,000 Jews who signed the petition in 48 hours.”
The antizionist group said they “went through a number of review processes to delete duplicates, antisemitic and offensive names which were submitted by malicious actors. Unfortunately a handful of names with offensive and obscure historical references, and names of real Jewish people falsely submitted by others, slipped through the cracks.
They also acknowledged that some Jewish people on the list are genuine signatories, but have the same names as others in the Jewish community.
“That cannot be avoided,” they said.
David Slade, managing director of Slade Pharmacies and President of UIA Victoria, has made a statement saying his name had been used without his knowledge, consent or approval.
“If there was real support for this advertisement one must ask, why would it include the names of those who have not consented and possibly fictitious names as well?” he wrote.
Slade described the inclusion as “a gross ethical failure” and declared himself “a proud Australian, a Zionist” who stands “in full solidarity with the Australian Jewish community and with Israel, including President Herzog’s visit to Australia”.