‘Bring them home’
This is a testament to the strength of our people. And it is proof that we will endure and we will overcome.
A host of new initiatives have sprung up following the launch of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s (ECAJ’s) hostage awareness campaign last week.
A group of Sydney Israelis launched a mobile digital billboard on Tuesday featuring photos and information about Israelis in Gaza.
“The whole idea of the flyers, the posters, and the truck [mobile billboard] is to put pressure on politicians to speak up, and to bring those people back home,” Avi Efrat said.
Incoming AUJS vice-president Zac Morris said the hostages “are not a statistic or a number”.
“We need to look for the humanity right now. We need to bring these people home,” he said.
A powerful demonstration was held in Melbourne on Sunday, as a group sat blindfolded in Caulfield Park while others chanted: “Bring them home.”
“I hope it’s uncomfortable for the world to see this tiny demonstration of what an entire country and people are fighting for,” participant Karen Green said on Facebook.
Sydney’s Bondi Beach was the setting for a 200-place empty Shabbat table last Friday. Organised by a group of Jewish women with the help of Chabad of Bondi, it came together in just one day.
“200-plus families should be sharing in the joy and the connection that Shabbat brings,” organiser Lauren Placks told a sizeable crowd.
Chabad of Bondi’s Rabbi Yehoram Ulman took aim at “fabricated propaganda that Israel is to blame”.
“May God open the eyes of the world to the true narrative of what’s going on and unite all decent people to make sure to do their part, that the hostages come home,” he said.
ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin lauded the positive efforts involved to bring the initiative together in just one day. “This is a testament to the strength of our people. And it is proof that we will endure and we will overcome,” he said.
At a press conference last Thursday to launch the ECAJ’s campaign, Israeli woman Michal held up photos of her nephew, his wife and their young children who are in Gaza. “They were brutally taken from their home in Nir Oz,” she said through tears.
“What I want to say to the media and politicians [is] there should be one question out there to Hamas: When are you going to release our hostages? Our families, our children, our sons, our daughters, our grandparents?”