1952 - present

As chief executive officer of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies from 2005 to 2021, Vic Alhadeff fostered intercultural relations and combatted racism, including antisemitism.

He served as Chair of Multicultural NSW and spokesperson for the broad-based Keep NSW Safe coalition, spearheading a successful three-year campaign which outlawed incitement to violence on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation. In 2021 he received the Premier’s Award from Premier Gladys Berejiklian for his extensive contributions to civil society.

Vic’s parents were born on the Greek island of Rhodes. Tragically, German forces arrived on Rhodes in 1944 and the island’s Jewish community was destroyed in the Holocaust. Among those who were murdered by the Nazis were his paternal grandparents and 151 Alhadeffs – members of Vic’s family.

Vic, his wife Nadene and their daughters Daniella and Michal immigrated to Australia in 1986. Before doing so, Vic served as chief sub-editor of The Cape Times in Cape Town. In Sydney he was appointed editor of the Australian Jewish News. While editor, he travelled to Moscow three times to cover the campaign to liberate Jews from the former Soviet Union, to Berlin to cover the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and to Israel to report on the Gulf War and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

He is the author of two books - A Newspaper History of South Africa and South Africa in Two World Wars: A Newspaper History, which were published in 1976 and 1978, respectively. And he has run 25 marathons, including the 90-kilometre Comrades Marathon in South Africa.

Courtesy Vic Alhadeff and Eat, Pray, Naches.