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Zionism - Is the Dream Ending?
Isi Leibler C.B.E.

Tuesday 17th June

Isi Leibler is an outspoken and charismatic veteran international Jewish leader, author, journalist and activist. He boasts a distinguished record of contributions to the Jewish world and to international human rights, with an equally remarkable list of World leaders with whom he has worked. We will have a wonderful opportunity to hear, first hand, Isi’s challenging perception of the post-Zionist reality.

Born in Belgium in 1934, Leibler moved to Australia just before World War II. In 1962, he engineered a public campaign which resulted in Australia becoming the first country to raise the plight of Soviet Jewry at the United Nations. In 1965, he published a book Soviet Jewry and Human Rights, which had a significant impact on the events that unfolded. He made numerous visits to the Soviet Union, meeting with leading Jewish dissidents and refuseniks, until his arrest and expulsion in 1980. Paradoxically, when Gorbachev liberalised the system, Isi became the first international Jewish leader to be invited to the Soviet Union to evaluate the changes.

The new edition of Encyclopaedia Judaica describes Isi as "unquestionably the dominant Jewish lay leader in Australia during the previous quarter century". He occupied the leadership of the Australian Jewish community from 1978 to 1995. Until 2004 he held senior roles in the World Jewish Congress, including Chairman of the Governing Board. He was one of the first to warn of the dangers of religious extremism, in particular radical religious nationalism. In recent times, he has concentrated on the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora, publishing The Israel-Identity Crisis; A Looming Disaster, and he now Chairs the Israel Diaspora Committee in Jerusalem, a leading Israeli think tank.

He writes prolifically and is a weekly columnist to the Jerusalem Post enjoying a vast Global following. He is a regular columnist for the Israeli daily paper, Yisrael Hayom. Isi lives in Jerusalem, with his wife Naomi who is World President of Emunah and daughter of the late Rabbi Israel Porusch, Rabbi of Finchley Synagogue from 1934 to1940.

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