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Check out Bob's other commentaries on the Australia Blogspot click on blog Your roots are showing: Look who is Jewish!
Revelations in the Australian newspaper this morning intimate Malcolm Turnbull, the opposition leader in the Federal Parliament, has Jewish heritage. Actually, the news came courtesy of the local newspaper in Mr Turnbull's electorate in Sydney, The Wentworth Courier. The Courier reports that his mother, the writer Coral Lansbury, suggested to him before she died that she had Jewish heritage. Turnbull says his mother told him often of that in his life, but that there was no deathbed revelation.
Over in Singapore, Andrew Lim was a huge television star, an actor, and a popular radio broadcaster, but he always felt as though something was missing. Then, one day, he saw the light – in Judaism and has converted to this religion.
Lim knew almost nothing about Judaism until he happened to arrive in Israel as part of a sight-seeing tour. His visit to the Western Wall was the turning point. "I wanted to place a note in the Wall like the rest of the tourists, and to say a small prayer. I draped a praying shawl over myself because it seemed like the right thing to do to get the full experience. "Suddenly a Jew with a long beard came up to me and asked me where my tefillin were. I told him I don't have any because I wasn't a Jew, but he just smiled and murmured a blessing, and told me: 'You're a Jew'."
When Lim went back to Singapore he discovered Jewish blood did indeed run in his family. He began reading up on the religion online, memorized the Bible, learned about the customs, and ended up falling in love. Lim finally worked up the courage to spill his guts before the local rabbi. "The first question he asked me was why, in God's name, did I want to become a Jew," Lim recounted. "I told him, you have a great party going on here and I want to join."
Lim, or Eliyahu Abraham as he is now called in Hebrew, converted to Judaism in Australia together with his wife and children. He kept his day job – a radio broadcaster – and in his free time runs his local Beit Chabad's Torah studies. He dreams of coming to Israel once again, this time with his family, to see where it all began.
Last week’s Australian Jewish News published the Top 10 Jewish comedians and business people and politicians, etc. And you might be surprised by the roots of Renee Geyer, Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Adam Sandler, Larry David, Amy Winehouse, Bob Dylan, Beastie Boys, Georg Tinter, Felix Mendelssohn, Gustav Mahler, Sir Isaac Isaacs, Sir Zelman Cowen, Judy Cassab, Sir John Monash, Harry Seidler, Victor Smorgon, Sidney Myer, Frank Lowy, Richard Pratt, Jody Scheckter. The list goes on and on. And their roots are showing.
I’m amazed that the AJN did not include Y’shua. After all he’s the most Jewish Jew and the consummate politician and leader of people the Jewish world has ever known. He was born in Israel, in Bethlehem, and spent his entire 33 years of life there. He served Jewish people and Jewish causes. He gave himself for the Jewish people, having been sent to them, and died an ignominious death on a Roman cross on Passover. He was buried in a borrowed tomb and rose from the dead on the third day in Jerusalem on the Feast of First Fruits. He continued to preach to his Jewish disciples for 7 weeks, then ascended in front of them. They awaited the next stage of eternity-meets-humanity which occurred on Pentecost, Shavuot, just a week later. Again this took place in Jerusalem.
So if you want to see Jewish roots and you want to barrack for your side, you have to include Y’shua. Some call him Jesus. Some Jesucristo. But whatever you do, call on him, as Saviour and Lord. And he will change your life. This is better than converting to another religion. This is death-to-life.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 October 2008 )
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