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Last update - 11:10 03/07/2009
Even Jews can't photograph Australia's synagogues
By Nadav Shemer, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Jewish world 

A photographer who documents Jewish communities around the world has been banned from photographing Australian synagogues because of security concerns from local Jewish authorities.

Jono David, an Osaka, Japan-based photographer who runs the HaChayim HaYehudim (Jewish Life) Photo Library, had planned to visit Australia in August and September to photograph synagogues, cemeteries and aspects of Jewish life.
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But he says he was left with no choice but to cancel his visit after being informed that the Melbourne and Sydney Community Security Groups (CSG) had sent emails to Jewish institutions recommending that they deny him permission to photograph because publication of the photos would pose a security risk.

Made up almost entirely of volunteers, the Melbourne and Sydney CSGs work under the auspices of the Jewish community roof bodies in their respective states of Victoria and New South Wales to provide security to synagogues, schools and other community institutions.

David initially received around 30 approvals to photograph after approaching individual Jewish institutions in Australia, he told Haaretz. But most of those approvals turned to refusals following the CSG emails, thwarting his plans.

He had planned to visit both Melbourne and Sydney, where the vast majority of Australia's estimated 120,000 Jews live, as well as Canberra, Adelaide and Tasmania, all home to smaller communities.

The ban comes amid concerns of rising anti-Semitism in Australia. According to the latest version of an annual report conducted by former Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jeremy Jones, there were 652 reports of anti-Jewish violence, vandalism, harassment and intimidation in the country between October 1 2007 and September 30 2008, the highest tally ever recorded.

In an open letter on his Web site addressed to the Australian Jewish community, David wrote that that he understands Jewish community concerns and that they do not need explaining, but added that a "blanket no-photo policy" will ultimately be detrimental because it will rob Australian Jewry of documentation of their own history.

"I am aware of a recent rise in anti-Semitic sentiment in Australia. But documenting Jewish life is important even in times of adversity - perhaps more so. By restricting documentation, the AJC [Australian Jewish Community] is going to wake up in a generation and realize there is no photographic, no film, and no video record available to them. That is a real shame," he wrote.

David added in the letter that he "could never have imagined being blacklisted on an entire continent."

"CSGs (sic) emails at once sabotaged my project and, for all intents and purposes, maligned me, a fellow Jew, as a threat to the AJC. Their words are, in effect, defamatory," David wrote. "I am open to photo conditions. In the extreme, I am happy to document an institution and keep the images safeguarded for at least a generation. But, alas, I was deemed unworthy of even a courtesy email. I fail to understand such treatment."

Although he has occasionally been restricted in the past, David told Haaretz that he has never actually been banned altogether from taking photographs, despite having documented Jewish communities in some 80 countries.

He gave an example from 2008 in which he underwent a thorough security check after requesting permission to visit the Shevet Ahim Sinagoga in Panama City, Panama, and was ultimately given permission to photograph the exterior only.

Asked by Haaretz to respond, New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Alhadeff - speaking on behalf of the Sydney CSG - said that he could not comment on security-related matters.

But despite the CSG's security concerns, photographs of Australian synagogues can be found easily on the Internet via a Google search or at synagogue Websites, some of which include extensive exterior and interior photographs.

David's own photo library even includes photos he took at synagogues in Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle during a previous visit to Australia in 1999.

"I walked in, no appointment, asked if I could visit and take some photos," David told Haaretz of that previous visit. "Times have clearly changed."

After canceling his upcoming visit to Australia, David will now spend August and September documenting communities in the United States and Mexico instead
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  1.   Ban on photos 15:44  |  Local yokel 03/07/09
  2.   Australia Jewish Security Bans Photos 20:13  |  Dick Seff 03/07/09
  3.   Visit to Australia 07:57  |  someone 04/07/09
  4.   Security in australia 19:49  |  donna Slade 04/07/09
  5.   they didnt ban me 15:56  |  jem 05/07/09
  6.   "Publish and be damned" 17:07  |  Manny Goldstein 05/07/09
  7.   Why not calls on Australia to face its antisemitism? 17:23  |  Binyamin Dissen 05/07/09
  8.   For what it`s worth... 03:06  |  Melbournite 07/07/09
  9.   Ban on Photos 18:10  |  Daniel Stuhlman 26/10/09
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