The Representation of Diverse Jewish Constituencies within the Australian Jewish Community

The problem of political and cultural under-representation of Australia’s vibrant and diverse Jewish constituencies by its governing Jewish organisations is a long-standing and vexing one. There appears to be a chasm between perceptions of how the established Jewish organisations represent their internal diversity and how minority Jewish communities wish to be represented. Formal under-representation of minorities and marginalised groups – of not having their interests statistically represented and included in these bodies regardless of the formal composition of the established bodies – is a critical issue. This thesis aims to establish how Jewish peak and roof bodies, media, and arts organisations currently represent their constituencies’ political and cultural diversity in Sydney and Melbourne. It seeks to explore how minority Jewish constituencies might be better represented within and by their community. The thesis has two research aims. The first is to understand whether diverse minority and marginalised Jewish communities are fairly represented on boards of governing Jewish institutions, and by arts and media organisations. The second aim is to establish how these diverse groups prefer to be represented and to suggest ways to achieve this.