Sydney Australia – Jewish groups have asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to change the date of his 2020 summit because it clashes with the Jewish holiday of Passover.
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The summit, at which 1,000 of the nation's best minds will gather in Canberra to come up with ideas for Australia's future, is scheduled for April 19-20.
But that will prevent virtually every member of Australia's 120,000-strong community from taking part.
Council president Robert Goot said there was no feeling within the community that the choice of date was anything other than an inadvertent mistake.
"The first night of Passover is almost uniformly observed with a family dinner which is one of the highlights of the Jewish year," Mr Goot said.
"It would preclude the majority of Jewish invitees from participating on the Saturday night and the Sunday."
Video or telephone conferencing was out of the question, he said.
People who would otherwise take part should be given the opportunity to express their views, either before the summit or afterwards, he said. [aap]
The summit is this year.
Twelve years away and still a fuss needs to be made?? He won’t even be in power 12 years from now. This conference will never take place why make such a fuss about it now? Worst case they could work behind the scenes to push the conference a few days. They have 12 years to work on this.