Sol Encel and Liam Getreu on society’s minorities

Sol Encel is someone I wish I had known more about in his life than in his death.  Reading his obituary moved me deeply.  His genuine and selfless concern for people is a rare quality these days.  Michael Pusey wrote (19/08/10):

Encel was a broadly educated and deeply scholarly liberal intellectual who cared mightily about public ethics. He believed that a society is only as good as the way it treats its minorities.

Liam Getreu had a piece first published in the Jewish News (17/09/10): “Why are we failing future generations?“.  He shares a similar wisdom to Encel on minorities:

The ancient maxim that where there are five Jews there are six opinions should be translated here into our community’s targeting of different groups so as to maximise Jewish engagement. Ask the Russian or Israeli expat populations if the Establishment is meeting their needs; they’ve formed their own communities because we, by and large, struggle to include them our communal activities. We need events and campaigns for them, as well as young people, secular Jews and GLBTs to ensure the future strength of the Jewish population in Australia.

To be sure, they have ideas and they have leaders. When people are putting up their hands, pleading to be listened to, and crying out to be involved, actively, in putting this into action, we can ill-afford to dismiss them. When people are begging to lead, who are we tell them no? When this community means so much to so many people, we have to find a way to include them.

Too often passionate activists are dismissed or lambasted, publicly ridiculed or swore at, blacklisted or threatened, and that cannot continue. Those who represent us, and those we look up to have to be worthy of their epithets and one of their top priorities has to be creating a community for the whole of our people, not only a portion.

I live at the intersection of two minority communities.  I was brought up in the Jewish community in Melbourne.  Indeed, Jews are a minority in Australia at roughly 0.5% of the population.  Some 15 years ago I found myself in a community of people defined by my homosexual orientation, a characteristic that many in the Jewish community struggle to accept as normal and actively discriminate against.

I am continually staggered at how the Jewish community, a people who suffered the worst atrocities humankind has ever perpetrated on itself, can exclude and bully a smaller, more vulnerable community of people.  It’s as if a lesson was not learnt.

Sol Encel and Liam Getreu are inspirational people, for their insight, compassion and humanity.

Ilana Leeds – the biggest bully in town

Ilana Leeds. Fundamentalist Jew. Homophobe. Bigot. Hater. Bully.

Ilana Leeds declared war on homosexuality today.  She wrote some comments on Galus Australis (here and here):

…if they want marriage and all the other things that go with it,(Like the adoption of children) they need to give up their deviant practices and return to a heterosexual lifestyle and put themselves in order.

and

…those poor sick individuals who have to follow their unnatural desires and indulge in sexual practices that are not normal.

and

No I feel discriminated against, because I am not allowed to hold the view that homosexuality is deviant sexual behaviour, which it is.

It’s easy to understand how a person so steeped in their fundamentalist religious lifestyle can hold these extreme views.  It’s because she lives in an extremely blinkered world, and in that world there are a lot of people who are ignorant of understanding and accepting the diversity of human sexuality.

What’s less easy to understand is how someone so bigoted and hateful as Ilana Leeds can be genuinely concerned about the hot topic of bullying in schools.  She has a background in secondary education.  You can read all about it on her LinkedIn profile (PDF).  Further, she seems to be so interested in the topic of bullying in schools that she felt driven to write a novel about it, as you can see on her Twitter profile.  Her latest tweet was:

I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if she didn’t get past the first line.

And now “educator” and anti-bullying crusader Ilana Leeds has submitted a snide comment to my previous blog:

Author : Ilana Leeds (IP: 115.128.58.22 , 115.128.58.22)
E-mail : nobullies@education.com.au
URL    :
Whois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=115.128.58.22
Comment:
B’H

Only hateful sweetie pie, because you don’t like what I am saying and if it did not touch a raw chord and have an element of truth you would not react so hard.
Have a nice day.

So here you have it.  One the one hand Ilana Leeds calls homosexuals deviants and unnatural, and on the other hand she claims to be concerned about bullying at schools.  My guess is that the part of her brain that allows her to believe in god has grown so big that’s it’s squashed the part of her brain that bestows her intelligence and reason to the size of a shrivelled pea.

Often school kids are bullied because they are gay.  And often they are the most likely candidates for suicide or self-harm.  Any intelligent educator would know this, or be able to easily find it out, unless they have their head firmly lodged up their arse.

Ilana Leeds is one of the biggest bullies in town and as an educator she should be ashamed of herself.

Ilana Leeds, a victim of Jewish religious brainwashing

Ilana Leeds posted a hateful comment on Galus Australis. She is a narrow-minded bigot who contributes to the high rate of youth suicide.

[SOURCE]

Ilana Leeds posted a hateful comment on Galus Australis:

1. Same sex marriage – I do not particularly (along with a few others) like having homosexuality presented to me as ‘normal’. It is not and while I do not advocate discrimination against people who are practicing homosexuals, I think if they want marriage and all the other things that go with it,(Like the adoption of children) they need to give up their deviant practices and return to a heterosexual lifestyle and put themselves in order. Children deserve to have a normal family situation as far as possible.

Ilana Leeds believes her god demands she say this because she’s been brainwashed to believe it.

Ilana Leeds is a narrow-minded bigot whose attitudes and beliefs contribute to the high rate of youth suicide.

Her partner in crime Shoshana Silcove is just as shameful.