Pages tagged "About"
Dean Levitan (Chair)

Dean is a lawyer at MinterEllison, specialising in media and communications law. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Dean worked at Stand Up for 5 years as the campaign manager, helping to lead Stand Up’s efforts to mobilise the Jewish community toward important social policy change. In his spare time, Dean is an eager, yet decidedly average, yoga goer.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Arts (Hons) (Monash University), Bachelor of Law (Hons) (Monash University).
Andrew Woolf (Treasurer)

Andrew is a Chartered Accountant with 13 years of experience and is currently a Director at PwC in Melbourne. He works with a number of different ASX listed and privately owned clients delivering assurance and advisory services.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Commerce, Chartered Accountant.
Dr Arnold Shmerling

Arnold is a founding member of Jewish Aid Australia and One Umbrella (now FareShare). Arnold was also a Senior Lecturer in the Department of General Practice at Monash University.
Qualifications: Medical Doctor.
Ian Jankelowitz

Ian is the consumer marketing lead at Microsoft Australia, working across brands including Xbox, Windows, Office & Surface. Ian was one of the founders of the Derech Eretz program with his cousin Melanie Schwartz.
Qualifications: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), MBA (Wake Forest University).
Why does Stand Up exist when there are so many other not-for-profits doing similar work?
We are the only Jewish organisation in Australia whose focus is to empower vulnerable non-Jewish communities. We specialise in youth engagement with a focus on leadership training and capacity building.
How does Stand Up measure impact?
Every program is evaluated to ensure that we are achieving our mission of empowering communities, and to improve programs over time.
By having built long term relationships with the Sudanese and Indigenous communities, we are able to interview program participants, volunteers and partner communities to record testimonials, and to show how goals and outcomes are being met.
We utilise a participatory approach when it comes to developing, planning, implementing and evaluating our programs. Methodologies include:
- Community consultation
- Data accumulation, summary and interpretation
- Participant evaluation forms
- Participant pre and post attitudinal surveys
- Participant focus group sessions
- Volunteer reflection sessions
Is Stand Up a political organisation?
No, we are not a political organisation. We don’t align ourselves with a political party. Occasionally, we speak up against social injustices and human rights abuses.
What is Stand Up's position on the Israel-Gaza conflict?
Stand Up only engages in discourse regarding campaigns with which we’re actively involved and for the purpose of promoting those projects. We are not currently involved in any campaign that relates to Israel and Gaza.
Our aim is to work with vulnerable communities in Australia. We currently do not work with any communities in Israel or the Middle East.
As a Jewish organisation, we recognise Israel as the sovereign expression of the Jewish people’s right of self-determination. We support the long held two-state solution to achieve a long lasting peace.
We will not fund or work with any organisation whose policy or actions give sufficient cause to believe that they do not recognise Israel’s right to exist as the sovereign state of the Jewish people. We will not partner with any organisation that demonstrates an antagonistic position towards Israel and the peace efforts in the Middle East. We do careful due diligence before partnering with any organisation to ensure that our values align.
We applaud the excellent work of Jewish organisations in Australia that raise funds for and awareness about social justice and poverty in Israel.
What does Stand Up do with my personal information?
Stand Up will only use your personal information for the purposes of corresponding with you or sending you information directly related to our organisation. We will never sell, distribute or disseminate any of your personal information and you can unsubscribe from any of our mail-outs at any time.
How is Stand Up funded?
Our funding strategy is to engage with a range of funding sources. Stand Up is funded by philanthropic foundations, major donors and government grants. We also receive donations from simchas (celebratory events), organised events and program fees. For a comprehensive breakdown of our income for the last financial year please refer to our latest Annual Report.