Premier’s speech at Central Synagogue memorial event
' It is hard to speak from the heart when it’s been broken'
Thank you, Rabbi Wolff, Chief Rabbi, Governor General, Governor, my dear friend Ambassador Maimon, David Ossip, friends.
Thank you Rabbi Wolff for inviting me and my wife into your beautiful community.
When I accepted the invitation to come this evening Rabbi Wolff said to me just “speak from the heart”. But it is hard to speak from the heart when it’s been broken.
Rabbi Wolff also said to me during a funeral in the last couple of days, that during times like this there are no words that adequately deal with the scale of the devastation.
So we both agreed that that’s why we have a book.
It’s been very hard to find some joy since the events of Sunday night.
One of the few uplifting parts of the last two days has been witnessing the strength of Rabbis in our city working to honour the dead, comfort the families and organise the burial of loved ones.
For me the most striking example of this call to service and community has been to watch Rabbi Ulman. A man who lost his beloved son-in-law, friend and partner.
To bury your son, your daughters husband the father of your grandchildren and then conduct four more funerals with more to come. With beautiful, personal eulogies one after the other, it is the most striking example of devotion to duty I’ve seen.
To explain it, I’ll have to dip into the book. The day is short, but the work is great, and the labourers are slugglish, but the reward is much, and the Master of the house is insistent.
It should inspire us, it inspires me. That in this pain and sadness there is work to do.
To quote from scripture further: It is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
The task of eradicating racism and antisemitism may never be accomplished while I’m in public life, or even while I’m alive. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a duty to do everything we can possibly do to fight hatred of our Jewish community whenever, and wherever we see it.
The events of Sunday are devastating for the Jewish community, for our community, for our country, for our sense of safety and unity. The first duty of any state is to protect its citizens. And the sad reality for me and our state is that we didn’t do that. And I bear a deep responsibility for that as Premier.
Whatever the good intentions, the sincere effort, the detailed plans – they didn’t protect 15 beautiful souls. And many others who’ve been injured or broken.
And we must change.
We can’t have laws that protect against hate speech and then not charge people who flout those laws with terrorist symbols, or racist chants.
“Globalise the Intifada” is violent, hateful rhetoric and we saw on Sunday what it means when somebody takes those words and acts on it.
We can no longer do nothing about marches through our city during a tragedy.
A city designed for everyone to use, live in and enjoy that have become like a drumbeat of division often joined with racist chants, violent images and in some cases banners supporting terrorist organisations.
I think of the great things that the Jewish community has given us in this country. Leaders of education, business, politics the law. The things they’ve created what they’ve added to this country, how they’ve helped make Australia the best country in the world.
To know all that and also know that Jewish life is threatened today. Yes, with devastating bullets and violence, but also with intimidation and hate speech.
With fear to go to school or use public transport or be out in the open. To be Jewish and to be targeted or killed because of it, it is devastating. So, I can see you saying, what’s the plan? Well, Rabbi Wolff only gave me five minutes.
But I think it can be best summed up by what Rabbi Motti said today at the funeral today of Tibor Weitzen. “Don’t shoot from Bridges, don’t march on bridges – build bridges.”
Let’s pull our state together and our nation together. Let’s call out racism where we see it and where we don’t. Let’s do everything to take the hate out of someone’s heart and destroy the people who try to put it in there.
I don’t have all of the answers for the many questions people are asking.
But what I do know is that Australia is disgusted by it. It is not our country. It’s not who we want to be. And we can’t let it go on.
It will not be easy to rebuild Jewish public life here, I know that, and I’ve spoken to many people both here and over the last three days, and I know that some people will believe that it might require a miracle.
But as the first Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion said, “In Israel, in order to be a realist – you must believe in miracles”.
As Rabbi Ulman said, “Chanukah, the Festival of Light, is not meant suggest that there is no darkness, only that the darkness can’t extinguish the light.
Right now, we need that light.
“Seek the lord while he is present, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked abandon his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.”
Chris Minns is the Premier of NSW. He delivered this speech at Central Synagogue on Thursday night.
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