Rabbi Moshe Kahn meets with Albanese

A senior Melbourne rabbi has met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Multicultural Affairs Minister Anne Aly in Canberra to advocate for a different approach to tackling antisemitism, one focused on building Jewish identity and pride rather than simply responding to hatred.

Rabbi Moshe Kahn, president of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria and director of Chabad Youth, said he instigated last week’s meetings himself on behalf of the organisation and its broader network. The meeting with the Prime Minister followed an earlier discussion, after which Albanese asked him to build a relationship with the Multicultural Affairs Minister.

“It was a very positive meeting,” Rabbi Kahn said, describing the engagement as part of an effort to create “a more cohesive and positive working relationship with the community.”

While acknowledging scepticism within the Jewish community about the government, particularly around policy and decision making relating to Israel, Rabbi Kahn said he believed the government held genuine concern for Australian Jews.

“There’s a genuine care and worry for the Australian Jewish community, and a general want and desire to see them thrive,” he said.

Rabbi Kahn said he raised the fear currently felt across the community, including the desire of some Jews to hide their identity and become more insular.

His proposed solution, he said, was not simply about security measures or building “taller walls and bigger walls, because that only will allow that sentiment to continue to build.”

“The more insular and disconnected you become, the greater the divide and the barrier, and the harder to reintegrate everyone,” he said. “My solution to that was to build stronger resilience and bigger identity and prouder identity and ask the government to support that initiative.”

Rabbi Kahn expressed concern that the community risked being defined by the hatred directed at it.

“I think we’re going down a path where we’re becoming victims, and we’re becoming identified by antisemitism, and that’s not our identity,” he said. “Identity is not the hatred of the world, identity is who we are, and for me, that’s something which is really important of how we move forward as a community.”

He said he was confident the government would implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission, but stressed his own focus was on proactive community building.

Rabbi Kahn said he felt genuinely listened to and described the relationship as ongoing.

“It’s an open door,” he said.