WA’s Chief Rabbi is demanding the Prime Minister and Premier explain whether anti-Semitism played a role in a Jewish man having his candidacy overturned in a plum Liberal seat.
Rabbi Dovid Freilich has written to Colin Barnett and Malcolm Turnbull raising his concerns at claims Liberal Simon Ehrenfeld had his local endorsement for the State seat of Hillarys blocked in part because he was a Jew.
In State Parliament this week, current Hillarys member Rob Johnson launched an extraordinary attack on federal Liberal backbencher Ian Goodenough and warned that those opposing Mr Ehrenfeld’s candidacy were motivated by anti-Semitism.
“The sitting member for that seat, a Liberal-turned-Independent, has made public accusations of anti-Semitism,” Rabbi Freilich wrote to the PM and Mr Barnett.
“He may have his own motives for doing so, however my enquiries reveal that this is not without truth.”
Story was reported in The West Australian.