JCMA Board Members 2021-22

For board members from the 2019-2020 year click here: JCMA Board Members 2019-2020

Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann – President

Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann leads the Ark Centre an Orthodox Community Centre with a synagogue in the middle. Through his openness and inclusive approach to Judaism, Rabbi Gabi has redefined the 21st Century synagogue within the context of Modern Orthodoxy with a greater focus on song and spirituality.

Rabbi Gabi holds a Masters of Social Work and is Chairman of Melbourne Fight Back Against Parkinson’s Inc, a not for profit charity that assists people with Parkinson’s disease. He is an AFL multicultural community ambassador and a member of the Parkville College Elders Advisory Council.

 

Rev Ian Smith – Vice President

Rev Ian Smith is an ordained Churches of Christ minister, is married to Karen and has 3 adult children. He has spent the last 30 years working in multicultural and interfaith settings throughout the northern suburbs of Melbourne as a local Christian minister.

Ian served as the Executive Officer for the Victorian Council of Churches.  Ian is the inaugural chair of the Northern Intercultural and Interfaith Network that works across 5 municipalities in the Northern Region of Melbourne.

 

 

Dr Syed Haider – Treasurer

Dr Syed Haider is a Chartered Accountant and an academic with Victoria University. Syed has worked as an academic at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne Institute of Technology and Pakistan Institute of Management.

Syed started his career as a treasury officer at a multinational pharmaceutical firm and further expanded his experience as an accountant in a retail corporation. After joining the Pakistan Institute of Management, he worked as a corporate trainer and a consultant in accounting and finance. He was actively involved in teaching accounting and finance in both graduate and postgraduate courses at the Pakistan Institute of Management, Melbourne Institute of Technology, and Australian Catholic University.

Syed has served as Course Coordinator, Discipline Leader of the Financial Accounting Group, and Planning Manager of Victoria University Business School. He is presently serving as Head of Learning and Teaching and Head of Academic Planning.

Lorraine Lipson – Secretary

Lorraine Lipson has a professional background in social work, librarianship and information management (BA; BSW; Dip. Librarianship and Information Management – University of Melbourne) and is semi-retired. In 2015 she gained a Grad Certificate in Theology, YTU University of Divinity. She brings extensive work experience in case management, coordination of education, library and information services.

Currently she is working part-time for the Office of the Public Advocate providing advice to a diverse range of professionals and members of the community in the health, aged care, mental health and disability sectors.  In recent years she has volunteered as an English tutor with the Brigidine Asylum Seeker Program. As a long standing member of the international Focolare Movement, Lorraine has been actively involved in the interfaith field in Melbourne over many years, having previously worked as a volunteer for JCMA, as a member of the Executive Committee of Religions for Peace and the Catholic Interfaith Committee, Melbourne.

 

Rev Sandy Boyce – VCC Liaison Officer

Rev Sandy Boyce is an ordained Minister in the Uniting Church. She has worked in a city congregation in Adelaide for the last 12 years, and has been a member of many national and state Committees and working groups in the church and community, including the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of the Uniting Church.

She has served as Chair of a number of church and community committees. She is President of the DIAKONIA World Federation for diaconal ministries. For several years, Sandy hosted regular interfaith dinners for international tertiary students. She gives priority to building intentional relationships with interfaith communities, groups and individuals and has collaborated on various ecumenical and interfaith gatherings including services of lament.

Sandy attended an interfaith conference at Trinity College in New York hosted by the Association for Religion and Intellectual Life (ARIL), a global network of people from various religious traditions.

In April 2022, Sandy commenced as the Executive Officer for the Victorian Council of Churches.

 

Frances Prince, JCCV Liaison Officer

Frances Prince was born in Melbourne. She has been an educator at Mt Scopus College for over 25 years. In her current role she is Coordinator of Teacher Development, responsible for creating a culture of continuous reflection and improvement in teaching practice throughout the Secondary School.

For twelve years Frances was Coordinator of the Outreach (Interfaith) program at Mt Scopus. Together with Rabbi Ralph Genende, she organised the first encounter in Melbourne between Jewish and Moslem secondary school students. She also initiated the school’s involvement in the Building Bridges Interfaith Dialogue program.  Frances is Educational Facilitator at B’nai Brith Anti-Defamation Commission’s annual Multi Faith Future Leaders Program (for people aged in their 20’s).

She writes and leads the National Council of Jewish Women’s annual interfaith Model Passover Seder for women and girls. She was a writer and educational consultant for Garratt Publishing’s “The Third Space” project, a series of interfaith novellas and educational guides for Australian Middle School students. She was also founding Board Member and Education Officer for March of the Living, Australia- an educational journey to Poland and Israel for Australian Jewish Year 11 students.  She is married to Steven Kolt, and they have two adult sons.

 

Sithy Marikar – ICV Liaison Officer

Sithy Marikar arrived with her late husband and two daughters to Australia in August 1988, from Sri Lanka.  To help members of the Sri Lankan community integrate and also understand Australian politics and the Australian way of life, Sithy together with a few others formed an association, Sri Lankan in Australian Affairs for which she was the inaugural Vice President.  She later became an inaugural committee member of USMAA, United Sri Lankan Muslim Association of Australia.

Employed by Australia Post in 1989 as a Postal Services Officer Sithy, became an active union member and in July 2003 was elected as a union organiser for the Communication Workers Union – Victorian branch.   Sithy was the first Muslim female to be elected as a union organiser in July 2007 I was elected as Vice President (Affirmative Action) of the Communications Workers Union of Australia.

Currently Sithy works as an Electoral Office (p/t) for Federal Member for Bruce and as a volunteer for the South East Community Links and is serving in a number of executive positions; Committee member of the Monash Council Interfaith Gathering & Monash Multicultural Advisory Committee, Committee member of the ICV Interfaith Group, Trustee – United Sri Lankan Association of Australia (USMAA), Vice President – Australian Advocacy for Good Governance in Sri Lanka (AAGSL).

Ayesha Bux

Ayesha Bux is a fifth generation Australian of Pakistani heritage. She gained a valuable insight into the traditions and practices of the Abrahamic faiths during her Catholic schooling. This inspired ongoing support of interfaith initiatives. She has a Masters in Computer Science from RMIT University and has taught at various universities.

Ayesha was on the board of SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneurs Council and is currently the Honorary Investment Consul for Pakistan in Melbourne. She has presented globally at various conferences and events including CHOGM Perth, WexNet and Education without Borders. She is an avid supporter and volunteer for various causes including women empowerment, inter-faith harmony and linkages, empowerment of the high needs or marginalised groups of the community.

 

Harold Zwier

 Harold Zwier has had a longstanding interest in civil debate, constructive dialogue and social justice. Although he works in the computer industry as a software engineer, his real interests are in ideas, politics, the Jewish community and writing.

Harold has been a member of the JCMA since 2012 and participated in a number of the winter conferences since then.  For many years Harold was a delegate to the Jewish Community Council of Victoria for the Australian Jewish Democratic Society. Harold has participated in and initiated a number of debates within the Jewish community ranging from the Wik legislation and Aboriginal land rights, human rights issues, anti-terrorism legislation, acceptance of gay groups, the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and civil debate.

In recent times Harold has been on the Leadership Group of Befriend a Child in Detention, which has been regularly sending books, games, toys and writing material to refugee children in Nauru.  Harold is a member of a small modern orthodox Synagogue, is married to Railea Abrams and has two adult sons.

Rev Dr Julie Hall

Rev Dr Julie Hall is Minister at Bentleigh Uniting Church. She has an extensive social work background with experience working with women, children and families in counselling, health, parenting education and welfare settings. Julie’s PhD thesis concerned families’ experiences in accessing health care for their children. She also holds a Master of Social Work, specialising in infant and parent mental health, a Post Graduate Diploma in Family Therapy and a certificate in Parent Education Leadership Training.

Julie was the inaugural recipient of the Madeline Crump Award presented by the AASW for outstanding fieldwork teaching in social work. Julie holds a Master of Divinity, trained in interfaith ministry, is an advisor to the Interfaith Centre of Melbourne, chairs the Uniting Church VicTas Synod Working Group on Christian-Jewish Relations and is a committee member of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria.

Fahim Farooq

Fahim Farooq is an aircraft engineer by profession and an Australian citizen living in Australia since 2006 with his four children.

Fahim is a committed volunteer working for a number of community and wider Australian communities including the VCC Emergency ministry, Ararat Islamic welfare Association, PGCC Doveton, Nurul Huda Academy Dandenong, Urdu Language Society of Australia, Halal food bank Chaplain in Monash health and member of the South Regional Advisory council Victoria.

 

 

 

Jenny Better

Jenny Better was born in the UK and emigrated to Australia in the 1960s when she was a child. Her adult work life has been dedicated to teaching; in the classroom at Our Lady of Mercy College and more recently as the Senior education Coordinator at  the Jewish Museum of Australia where she manages the Schools education program including the educational method and content and the large team of volunteers that deliver the programs to students of all different faith backgrounds.

It is in this role that she has organised and coordinated many harmony days programs and it was because of this work in 2009 that she was awarded a Victorian Multicultural Award for educational excellence. More recently she has managed a program called Museums Together where the Islamic Museum of Australia  and the Jewish Museum of Australia collaborated to upskill the year 6 students from an Islamic school and a Jewish School enabling the students to take their cohort  from a different faith group around their Museums. Jenny is married to Nathan Better and they are the proud parents of 4 adult children.