Australian Jewry has a new leader. On Sunday, commercial lawyer Anton Block, 44, from Melbourne was confirmed as new president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
He succeeds Robert Goot. Block will be the 19th ECAJ president since the council’s foundation in 1944.
He has been active in Jewish community life since 1991, joining the board of the North Eastern Jewish Center in 1994 and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) in 1998, of which he became president in 2005. Block has been a member of the ECAJ board since 2015.
He said that under his presidency, the ECAJ would continue advocating for community security funding for schools and communal organisations.
The Australian Jewish umbrella body is preparing its submissions for a government inquiry after the latest proposals to change the Racial Discrimination Act’s Sections 18C and 18D, which make it unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Block also stressed that he wants to continue inter-faith dialogue and the fight against anti-Semitism.
ECAJ is the Australian affiliate of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), and the ECAJ president sits on the Executive Committee of the WJC.
