Australian anti-Jewish comments prompt conference boycott threat

SYDNEY, Aug. 5 (JTA) — Jewish doctors and dentists in Australia may boycott a major conference planned for the city of Coffs Harbour, on the Pacific coast of the state of New South Wales, unless the town’s mayor and a councillor retract anti-Semitic comments or resign. Two weeks ago, Coffs Harbour Mayor John Smith was identified in the Sydney Morning Herald as a leader of the Christian Identity movement, a virulently anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-gay group based in the United States. Smith and one of his strongest supporters, Councillor Bob Burton, both had said they did not accept that the Holocaust happened. Burton also said Jews are “not a productive race” and “they are a race of money-lenders.” The Ninth Biennial Conference of the Australasian Jewish Medical Federation, expected to attract close to 500 people, is scheduled for January 2000. The president-elect of the federation, Les Schrieber, has publicly called on the people of Coffs Harbour not to re-elect Smith and Burton in elections scheduled for September 11. “We have to seriously consider whether we should hold a conference where we as Jews may not be welcome,” said Morris Rapaport, president of the Sydney Chapter of the Alpha Omega International Dental Fraternity. “There have already been indications from conference registrants that they will cancel unless the conference is moved to a town where we are unambiguously welcome.”