Jewish leaders meet Indian PM
REPRESENTATIVES from the Jewish community were among the VIPs who welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Sydney at a reception on Monday night.
Modi, who was part of the G20 summit in Brisbane, is the first Indian leader to visit Down Under in almost three decades.
Sitting in the front row with NSW Premier Mike Baird and other dignitaries was NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president Jeremy Spinak, who congratulated Modi on the speech he delivered to 20,000 people at Sydney Olympic Park.
“It was a great honour to be invited to welcome Prime Minister Modi to Sydney on behalf of the NSW Jewish community,” Spinak told The AJN this week.
“The generous invitation extended by our Indian friends highlights the extremely close relationship which the Jewish and Indian communities are building together in Sydney, and we look forward to continuing to work together into the future.”
A number of other Jewish community leaders also attended the event, including Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council director of international and community affairs Jeremy Jones, who said the event “had the atmosphere of a rock concert, the passion of a football match and a rare spirit of genuine affection of a community and a political leader”.
“Jeremy and I were both amongst a very small part of the enormous crowd to be approached by the Prime Minister [Modi], who shook our hands,” Jones said.
EVAN ZLATKIS
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at Brisbane.
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