9 hours ago
9
Being Jewish in Australia today feels very different to when I was a child.
Growing up, it was about family, community, culture. It was about our customs, cuisine, our shared history and connectedness.
I learned about antisemitism, but it was mostly historic. Centuries of the persecution, expulsion and mass murder of Jews around the world – not least during the Holocaust, recent enough that there were living survivors to tell their stories first-hand.
But I grew up in a country with no real history of antisemitism, in a small, tight-knit community that was deeply embedded in the nation around it.
Antisemitism was not an obviously immediate threat to Jewish Australians. There were incidents, but they were relatively minor by historical or global standards. Deadly attacks on synagogues, Jewish businesses and community centres were things that happened overseas, not here.
We knew there were threats. We passed the armed guards and fences every time we went to a synagogue or Jewish school. But mostly we felt safe. This was the lucky country – a safe, diverse, welcoming and tolerant nation. There was scarcely a safer place or time in history to be Jewish than this Australia.
It doesn’t feel like that any more.
Antisemitism has increased over the past 26 months. Synagogues, Jewish businesses, homes and vehicles have been defaced and firebombed. Jewish people have been doxed and ostracised from communities. It has been soul crushing and heartbreaking. It has caused anger and distress. It has cast a long and dark shadow over our lives.
In recent times, antisemitism has dominated the national political debate. It has been exhaustively partisan. As a former Labor adviser – including to Anthony Albanese – I have found this personally challenging.
There have been many announcements and denouncements, but the attacks have continued. Now, I’m writing in the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on Australia’s soil – targeted at Jewish people celebrating a Jewish festival.
There have been deadly attacks on Jewish communities around the world over the past few years. This is not unique to Australia. We have seen it in Manchester, in Washington, in Berlin and in Rouen.
This attack could have happened anywhere – but it happened in Australia. And it is Australia’s job to make sure it never happens again.
The massacre at Bondi beach sits heavily on us all. The entire nation has been shocked. Many are speaking about antisemitism for the first time.
I have experienced many emotions over the past 24 hours. Anger is not one of them. I don’t have the energy for it. I have cried many times – both from devastation and from kindness. I have been inundated with messages and calls from non-Jewish friends and colleagues, past and present. Many have moved me to tears.
But what I also know is that condemning a terrorist attack is easy. We need the condemnation, and the solidarity, but we also need action.
Antisemitism requires practical leadership from governments and the agencies who keep us safe, but it also needs action from all of us.
We must all call it out whenever we see it. We must not diminish or deny it. We must acknowledge it is a real and persistent threat to Jewish Australians.
We also need to recognise that if Jewish people aren’t safe in Australia, none of us are. Modern Australia has been built on migration and multiculturalism. I hold my commitment to these values dearly. They are the reason I am here – the reason my family could flee the horrors of antisemitism in Europe and find safe refuge here.
We must understand that the fraying of our social cohesion is a threat to every multicultural community in this country. We are seeing public support for multiculturalism decrease in Australia. It will be a disaster if the forces of rightwing populism succeed here as they increasingly are in Europe and the United States.
Jewish people are on the frontline of this fight but, if we are the first to succumb to it, we won’t be the last.
On Sunday, every Jewish person’s worst nightmare came true. Many feared and warned this day would come, yet it is still more shocking and horrifying than we could imagine.
Attending Jewish events will never feel as safe as they did before. Our usual response in these times is proud defiance – but how can we be proudly Jewish if there is a risk we might be killed for being so?
Jewish people are questioning their future in Australia. They are considering leaving. I’m not, but I’m devastated that so many others are. This is our home, where we belong, or at least where so many once felt that they belonged.
This fight carries no quick fix. If there was one, it would have been fixed long ago.
I know that most Australians are not antisemitic. We are all horrified by what happened at Bondi. If that horror can be turned into unity and action, I truly believe we can restore the Australia I grew up in.
