Happy Birthday Israel, with warm wishes of better days ahead
I acknowledge the heavy burden of that leadership, that all of you have carried over the last 18 months.
The State of Israel may have started as a dream, but as Theodor Herzl once said, “If you will it, it is no dream,” and the people of Israel have willed it against the odds, against all expectations, for 77 miraculous years.
Can I thank our hosts this evening, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD), the Zionist Federation of Australia, the Zionist Council of NSW and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
And can I acknowledge the heavy burden of that leadership, that all of you have carried over the last 18 months, particularly [JBD president ]David Ossip and [ECAJ co-CEO] Alex Ryvchin, who have guided me with their counsel and their judgement and their friendship under extreme pressure. Among the stress that you and your families have gone through, you’ve done it in order to represent your community. And can I say, as a civic leader in NSW, it’s genuinely inspiring.
Can I also join Rabbi [Benjamin] Elton in praying for the remaining hostages tonight. For those hostages, abduction was a violation beyond words, but there’s a second unforgivable cruelty, which is being robbed of so much life. And I join all civilised people in demanding in the clearest possible terms that Hamas release these innocent people and release them immediately.
Friends, as I’ve said many times before, I once travelled to Israel. And can I say: What other nation combines that sense of history with the sure grip of progress and modernity? What other nation values its past while gazing out on the future with a sense of hope and boundless optimism?
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