Strangers in a strange land

Two weeks ago, a group of students from a school in country Victoria travelled four hours to Melbourne to take part in Zionism Victoria’s Connecting Cultures program.

Their excursion included a visit to St Kilda Shule and a tour of the Melbourne Holocaust Museum.

They had never stepped inside a shule before. They had never met a Jew before. They might never meet a Jew again. But as part of our program, which aims to break down barriers, challenge stereotypes and promote understanding and respect, they now had some kind of insight into the Jewish world.

A great story, you might think, for The AJN. Certainly, its journalists thought so. And armed with a beautiful photo of the students standing on the St Kilda Shule bimah with Rabbi Yaakov Glasman, they contacted the school for comment.

The school, however, declined. More than that, they actually urged The AJN not to run any story at all. They were, it seems, fearful that in the current climate there would be a backlash – given what was going on in Gaza, people would not take kindly if it got out that they’d visited the Jewish community at this time.

At this time – when antisemitism is soaring, when the world should be standing in solidarity with the Jewish community – it appeared this school wanted to completely disassociate itself from Jews.

I learnt The AJN had had to drop the story on Monday, November 6. The following morning, I woke to the news that our Wall of Hope at Melbourne’s Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre, which bears the slogan “Bring Them Home Now” above photos of the hostages held by Hamas, had been daubed with the words “Free Palestine”.

And then, on Friday, the fire at Burgertory across the road from Beth Weizmann, which prompted hate-filled accusations on social media, fuelled by irresponsible headlines in the mainstream press, and which in turn led to the evacuation of a synagogue and the horrific scenes in Princes Park that night.

Head into Sunday and, while a few hundred of us basked in the glory of a gorgeous day in Caulfield Park, with kites soaring high in the sky in memory of the cancelled Kfar Aza kite festival and as a reminder of the hostages we hope will soon be free, the brief glimpse the mainstream media afforded us was eclipsed by the tens of thousands attending the pro-Palestinian protests across the country.

Fast forward to Tuesday and the issue of antisemitism hit the headlines again. It was a year ago that then Victorian premier Daniel Andrews had promised $3 million to tackle the rising tide of Jew-hatred and now, when the money seemed to be needed more than ever, the media were asking why it was still sitting in a government bank account.

Of course, we can’t wave a magic wand – there’s no immediate panacea – to make antisemitism vanish just like that. But the funding would enable the community to launch critical initiatives geared towards preventing a repetition of the violent scenes witnessed in the heart of Caulfield the previous week.

On to Wednesday and another story in the press – this time about some rather shocking comments that had been posted by a pro-Palestinian activist online in recent weeks – one apparently calling for an Israel solidarity rally to be bombed, another saying Zionists in Melbourne and Sydney “need to be dealt with” and a third, in the wake of the Burgertory fire, stating, “Melbourne will come and take over Caulfield like u think u can take over Gaza. Caulfield will be compromised very soon.”

Precisely what the author meant by “compromised” is unclear, but given the tone of his earlier posts, it certainly seems quite threatening.

I think back to this time a year ago. The situation we as a community find ourselves in could not be further removed from the celebrations of Israel’s 75th anniversary we had been planning for 2023.

True, the social and political upheaval sparked by the Netanyahu government’s controversial reform proposals had already cast a shadow prior to October 7, but who among us could have foreseen the peril Israel faced, the global outpouring of anti-Zionist sentiment and the unprecedented spike in antisemitic activity that came crashing down on our own doorstep.

The one positive is that after a year of waiting, last week concluded with the Victorian government finally announcing that the funds to combat antisemitism would at last be forthcoming.

But how much of a positive is that really? Of course, we’re tremendously appreciative of the government’s support and their commitment to our wellbeing and security.

But it says something about the world we live in that almost 80 years after the Holocaust, we are still forced to confront the oldest hatred.

Even here in Australia, a nation that prides itself on the rich tapestry of its ethnic makeup, a country where praise for the immense contribution of the Jewish community is virtually de rigueur when the great and the good address a communal gathering.

Even here, where multiculturalism is hailed as a non-negotiable fact of life, we’re once again wondering if there will ever come a time when we no longer feel like Moses before us … strangers in a strange land.

Zeddy Lawrence is the executive director of Zionism Victoria.