This Chanukah, live proudly as a Jew
The outcome of this war will determine whether a Jewish state, capable of preserving Jewish life and contributions to humanity, can long endure.
The story of Chanukah is one of a victory of a rebel fighting force engaged in a just and necessary war. It shows us that sometimes in order to preserve life and one’s way of life, you have to fight.
This Chanukah, the brave men and women of the IDF are engaged in a great battle. Another just and necessary war. The outcome of this war will determine whether a Jewish state, capable of preserving Jewish life and contributions to humanity, can long endure.
At the time of writing, 105 of our soldiers have made the greatest sacrifice so that our Israel may live.
They are our sons, our brothers, our fathers. Heroes every one. We will never forget what they have done for us. May their memories bless and strengthen us.
I’ve been asked to talk about antisemitism in this country. I could talk to you about statistics that show historic levels of abuse, harassment and intimidation of Jews. I could talk to you about the escalating boycotts and targeting of Jewish businesses, artists, professionals and scholars.
About the sermons of clerics that incite against us or the Instagram influencers who lead young minds into the squalor of antisemitism. But I think you know all this already.
I want to share a different truth with you.
We cannot control the antisemite. We cannot reason with them, we cannot convince them. The power of our minds and the fullness of our hearts is no match for their stupidity.
Of course, we must educate and engage with our fellow Australians to limit the appeal and the spread of antisemitism. This is something my organisation is doing and will always do.
But we must accept that the price of being a Jew, the price of a Jewish state, the price of our survival and our victory, is to be hated.
It is a small price to pay for the greatest blessing we can receive.
Live proudly as a Jew. Take strength and joy and meaning from its abundant beauty.
Do not ask for the understanding of those who despise you.
There is an old Jewish saying that the antisemite does not accuse the Jew of stealing because he thinks he actually stole something, he does it because he enjoys watching the Jew turn out his pockets to prove his innocence.
You don’t need to turn out your pockets for anyone. Certainly not for the deniers of October 7, nor for those who question our humanity for fighting a just war against a generational evil.
In the eternal words of King Solomon: there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. A time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
This Chanukah, the Jewish people around the world feel little mood to celebrate. We are wounded from the infliction of the greatest atrocity against our people since the Holocaust.
We are in mourning for the crimes committed by men who came in military fatigues, brandishing weapons of war, who had received combat training by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards but were deployed not to defend, not to preserve life and way of life, but to fire RPGs at civilian vehicles from point blank range, to prowl through agricultural villages to torture and mutilate children found asleep in their pyjamas, to rape women and young girls in a corpse-strewn field, to drag civilians off to a medieval captivity and to parade stolen children and old women through the streets for the relish of the people in whose name they act.
There is a time to love and a time to hate. There is a time for war and a time for peace.
Today, the Jewish community feels love for our aching brethren in Israel, we feel love for our fellow Australians, and for all humanity.
But we also feel hatred now. Hatred for the rapists and torturers whose crimes we will never forget and will never forgive.
Hatred for those who force the people of Israel to send their best and brightest into tunnels and booby-trapped alleys in pursuit of 140 hostages and an enemy that happily yields up its own people as propaganda to feed the anger and prejudice of the gullible and the wicked.
And so today, is a time for war. A war against a generational evil that cannot be reasoned with or placated. An evil that must be destroyed.
And when that war is won, in the ravaged kibbutzim and towns of southern Israel it will again be a time to plant and harvest.
And for all Israel it will be a time for love and a time for peace.
Alex Ryvchin is co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. This op-ed is based on speeches he made at the Lights of Hope event last Thursday evening in Sydney and at a pre-Chanukah event for Jewish soldiers on Wednesday. His latest book, The Seven Deadly Myths: Antisemitism from the Time of Christ to Kanye West, is out now. @alexryvchin
comments