Bruised but unbroken: Hope as we enter 5787

As Rosh Hashanah approaches, we hope as we do every year for a peaceful and prosperous year ahead. That hope continues to be tested.

5786 began with 48 Israeli hostages – living and deceased – still inside Gaza. As the year draws to a close, they are all now home in Israel. We wrote here last year of empty chairs at Rosh Hashanah tables for the second year; this time, while tragically many hostages returned to be buried, some of those families are again complete.

But now we have empty seats here at home. Families that will forever remain incomplete.

We were hopeful last year that the worst was behind us. Then came December 14. The murder of 15 innocent souls celebrating a Jewish festival was the darkest day in the history of Jewish people in Australia. The continuation of the waves of antisemitism that led to it – even while being probed by the Royal Commission – has for many been salt in our gaping collective wound.

The question is how should we as a community, as a people, respond? Do we approach 5787 with the optimism that the worst is behind us, even though the last time we did so, that hope was brutally betrayed?