Dayan calls for ‘moral leadership’
"I think the most important issue is the academisation of antisemitism all over the world," says Chairman of Yad Vashem Dani Dayan.
Chairman of Yad Vashem Dani Dayan told The AJN he has “very clear conclusions” about what is happening on university campuses ahead of his meetings with the University of Sydney and the University of NSW.
Dayan has been in Sydney and Melbourne this week to discuss antisemitism and Holocaust education with key communal, academic and political figures, including NSW Premier Chris Minns and Victoria Premier Jacinta Allen.
After speaking with The AJN, Dayan met with USYD Chancellor David Thodey and UNSW Chancellor David Gonski and called on them to show “moral leadership, not logistical leadership”.
“I think the most important issue is the academisation of antisemitism all over the world,” said Dayan.
“A pseudo-academic… theory is being built in the most prestigious universities across the world, with new terms coined, like ‘ethnonationalism’ or ‘settler colonialism’, that simply are a disguise for calls for the annihilation of the Jewish State. I think it’s deeply worrying.”
Minns said he had a productive discussion with Dayan around combatting antisemitism.
“One of the many important points that were made in our meeting was Dani’s firm view that calls for the elimination of the Jewish State are reprehensible and unacceptable – and they must be called out and condemned in the strongest terms,” said Minns.
Dayan called Minns a leader in the fight against antisemitism, but cautioned, “we are in a moment in history in which expressions of sympathy and support are not enough – they need to be combined with strong actions”.
Born in Argentina before relocating to Israel as a teenager, Dayan has had a lengthy political career, including serving as Consul General of Israel in New York, and is passionate about Israel’s relationship with world Jewry.
“I was asked by the government to take this role at a very crucial time and when you are asked to Chair Yad Vashem and lead Holocaust remembrance, you say ‘here I am’,” said Dayan, who was appointed to the role in 2021.
Over the last year he said he has hosted “two very different Australians” at Yad Vashem in Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Penny Wong. He also lost a colleague in Holocaust educator Alex Dancyg, who was abducted on October 7 and murdered by Hamas in captivity.
But every day Dayan is reminded of his responsibility when he sees in his office a 1942 quote taken from the Last Will and Testament of Polish artist Gela Seksztajn.
It reads: “As I stand on the border between life and death, certain that I will not remain alive, I wish to take leave from my friends and my works…. My works I bequeath to the Jewish museum to be built after the war. Farewell, my friends. Farewell, the Jewish people. Never again allow such a catastrophe.”
The 2024 Betty & Shmuel Rosenkranz Oration was presented by Dani Dayan: https://mhm.org.au/2024-betty-shmuel-rosenkranz-oration/
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