Limmud Oz Melbourne 2025

Israel remains at war. Syria was overthrown. Iran is on the backfoot, but is rushing toward the bomb. Turkey has replaced Iran as Syria’s patron. Qatar continues its influence-buying campaign. Are Islamists on the ascendant or is their influence receding? Where does Israel fit in all of this? Will the Abraham Accords expand? This session will make sense of the recent history of the Middle East, and assist in predicting its future.

Michael John Davies ( 1788–1873) was the patriarch of a family of Jewish convicts and scallywags sent out to Australia. Remarkable evidence of his Hebrew and Jewish literacy is evident from different sources that have become available. Court records and press coverage in the UK and the colonies also reveal his pugnacious style as well antisemitism. His life provides tantalising evidence about the life of the Jewish underclass in the Regency and then in the colonies.

The Holocaust and the Yom Kippur Wars were progroms that had diabolical effects on the Jewish world. The former had the potential to obliterate the Jewish World while the latter threatened to extinguish. But observations show that Jewry has been heavily traumatised by the events of October 7, even though Israel was never under the potential of obliteration. It is important to analyse why this is so!

The Middle East has been changed fundamentally by the war in Gaza and the ascension of President Trump. What are the scenarios for the future of the Iranian nuclear program, US-Israel relations, Israel and the Palestinians, Israel and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Abraham accords? Is there a chance for a new, different Middle East.

What is going on with the resurgence of the Golem legend, and why are so many young people utterly obsessed with it? Shoshana takes you on a deep dive through Golem literature, memes and theory.