Leftist Jewish group includes false names in ad claiming 1,000 Jews opposed Herzog’s visit to Australia

The Jewish Council of Australia has sparked outrage after it paid for two full-page newspaper advertisements criticizing President Isaac Herzog’s visit to the country.

The advertisement, which appeared in Monday’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, lists the names of over 1,000 Jews who allegedly signed an open letter saying Herzog is not welcome in Australia.

Titled “Jews say no! Over 1,000 Jews have said no to Herzog,” the ad states that “welcoming an alleged war criminal in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre betrays Jewish communities, multicultural Australia, and everyone who stands for Palestinian human rights and international law.”

However, at least some of the names listed on the advertisement are not real people or are people who did not sign the letter. There are also under 700 names on the list.

David Slade, managing director of Slade Pharmacies and president of United Israel Appeal Victoria, is featured on the list. He wrote on LinkedIn that his name was used without his knowledge, consent, or approval.

“Let me be absolutely clear: I did not sign, endorse, or authorize my name to be included in this publication,” he said….

A man named Jason Gluck responded by saying that his name was also falsely listed. Tammie Slade – a well-known Australian Zionist – is listed, most likely without her knowledge.

It is worth also noting that one name featured on the list is actually not a name at all and is, in fact, a transliterated Hebrew slur. “Milkek Tachat” translates to a** licker. Some have argued this is also the case for Robert Doublina, which is similar to the name of a fictional character in a Marvel comic.

There are also three names of kapos on the list: Josef Heiden, Eliezer Gruenbaum, and Carmen Mory. Kapos were Jews who aided the Nazi regime, suggesting these names were submitted by people who feel that the JCA is a kapo organization (a parallel drawn by numerous users on social media).

Heiden was a kapo at the Dachau concentration camp known for his cruelty toward fellow inmates. Gruenbaum was a kapo at Auschwitz, and Mory was one at the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

Whoever added their names to the list was indeed making a point: the Jewish Council of Australia is a kind of kapo group, willing to distance itself from Israel, and to collaborate with its Arab enemies, in order to ensure that “good Jews” like themselves can stay safe.

Additionally, while saying the ad is ‘Jews saying no,’ it has now been made clear that the petition was open to non-Jews. Before signing the petition, there is the option to click either ‘I am a Jewish Australian’ or ‘I am a non-Jewish ally.’

How many of those “Jewish signatories” turn out not to be Jewish at all, but people always happy to put their names to an anti-Israel petition?

Even if the advertisement’s list is true, it would still only represent a tiny proportion of the country’s Jewish community. There are around 110,000-120,000 Jews in Australia, and so the list’s purported 1,000 would still constitute less than 1%….

But the advertisement’s list of “1,000” names is false. The signatures do not add up to “more than 1,000.” There are, in fact, fewer than 700 names on the list. And of those, many are either made-up names, or the names of real people, such as Edwin Slade and Jason Gluck, who were outraged to discover that their names had been used in such a manner when they are, in fact, unswerving supporters of President Herzog and of the Jewish state.

The JCA has not hesitated to join with those linked to the terror group Hezbollah and to the Jihadists of the Muslim Brotherhood in their anti-Israel demands.

So here is what we know about that claim that “1,000 Jews” wanted to prevent President Herzog’s visit to Australia. First, there were not “1,000 Jews” who signed the ad; there were a total of “fewer than 700 names.” Second, some of those names — they should be examined, one by one — were non-Jews, as online signatories were given the options of clicking either “I am a Jewish Australian” or “I am a non-Jewish ally.” The people behind the ad at the JCA knew perfectly well that some of those who signed the ad — how many? — were non-Jews, but included them anyway in their list of “1,000 Jews,” hoping to prevent President Herzog from visiting Australia.

Third, a number of Jews whose names were on the ad insist that they never signed it, and what’s more, they were Zionists completely opposed to the ad’s sentiments. Fourth, some of the names were of well-known kapos — Jews who helped the Nazis in the concentration camps — their appearance was clearly meant by their signers to mock the JCA as a “kapo” organization. Fifth, there were also made-up names that, transliterated into Hebrew, were slurs, one of which meant “a**-licker” — again, these names were a way for those opposed to the JCA to undermine the list.

How many Jews supported this petition to deny Herzog a visa? We’ll likely never know. But far fewer, we can be certain, than the “1,000 Jews” that were so meretriciously claimed.