Frydenberg addresses leadership failure
The former federal treasurer was speaking at a Mount Sinai College Foundation event in Sydney, where he put into words the feelings of Australia's Jewish community.
“We Jews have never seen in this country a conflict between our faith and our citizenship. Yet, over the last two years, we have been made to feel that there was a conflict,” said Josh Frydenberg.
The former federal treasurer was speaking at a packed Mount Sinai College Foundation event in Sydney on Tuesday night, where he put into words the feelings of Australia’s Jewish community over the last 22 months.
“Vladimir Lenin – and I know it’s not normal for a former Liberal treasurer to quote a communist like Vladimir Lenin – but Lenin once said sometimes in decades, nothing happens, and sometimes in weeks, decades happen. And that’s how I feel about the last two years, in particular what has transpired in the Middle East since October 7th,” he said.
“We have been targeted outside our places of worship –the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne, the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, where Sir John Monash had his bar mitzvah.”
Frydenberg described how the community has been targeted at work, when 600 Jewish creatives were doxxed, and at home, when protesters gathered in Melbourne’s most Jewish suburb of Caulfield.
“And we’ve been targeted in our places of learning,” he added.
“Our campuses, which should be houses of learning, have become hotbeds of hate. And it should never have come to this in Australia.
“When I hear people who should know better, the most educated in our community, defending the indefensible, it shows how deep the rot has got.”
Frydenberg also addressed the leadership failure in Australia.
“How did it get to this? For me, the answer is very clear,” he said.
“Our leaders, political and civil, have failed us. Our leaders have wanted the job, but have not been prepared to do the job.”
Frydenberg concluded by urging greater cooperation across the Australian community to fight for Australian values.
“We are not just in a fight against antisemitism, we are in a fight for Australia,” he said.
“These are not Liberal values, these are not Labor values, these are Australian values that we are defending and we must build a broad-based coalition against hate from amongst the majority of Australians who do not like what they are seeing happening in their country today.”
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