Rabbi’s four questions
"Why this year can we not recline or relax? … We are grief-stricken, uncertain of the future."
In the spirit of the seder’s Four Questions, Rabbi Allison Conyer posed her own questions to ministers and MPs, as Progressive Judaism Victoria (PJV) staged its first-ever ‘Passover in Parliament’.
Welcomed to the March 20 gathering by MPs David Southwick and Paul Hamer, Victorian Parliamentary Friends of Israel’s bipartisan co-chairs, Rabbi Conyer – who chairs the Assembly of Rabbis and Cantors of Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region and is senior rabbi of Temple Beth Israel – asked some of 2024’s most disturbing Jewish questions.
“Why this year can we not eat bread – which represents life as usual … Why is it that Jews in Victoria don’t feel comfortable stating their point of view?
“Why this year is there so much bitterness, sadness and grief in our community? … This year cancel culture against Jews and Israel perpetuates one minority group being singled out to feel unsafe and devalued.
“Why is the bitterness of Hamas atrocities being ignored or denied? … Nobody’s talking about the thousands of Israelis who have been displaced and rockets and bombs continuing to fall on Israel.
“Why this year can we not recline or relax? … We are grief-stricken, uncertain of the future.”
Rabbi Conyer pointed out that university students are afraid to speak up and Jewish women are demoralised by the ‘Me-too, unless you’re a Jew’ phenomenon.
PJV president Maureen Barten told guests Pesach is “the most celebrated holiday in the Jewish calendar”, and the event would demonstrate “how we contextualise the Passover story, making it relevant for us today”.
Among some 35 MPs were Multicultural Affairs Minister Ingrid Stitt and upper-house deputy government leader Lizzie Blandthorn. They joined Jewish Community Council of Victoria president Philip Zajac, Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Casutto, Never Again Is Now president Mark Leach, and representatives of PJV’s affiliated shules and Netzer.
Attendees were given a primer on the principles of Pesach, as they lunched on seder-plate favourites.
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