‘This is Australia’s fight,’ says Frydenberg
The foundation brings together prominent leaders from business, government and the not-for-profit sectors under the chairmanship of Frydenberg.
Former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg has told The AJN that “there are so many non-Jewish Australians of goodwill who are just as angered and upset as we are” about rising antisemitism in Australia.
Frydenberg made the comments to The AJN this week after announcing the launch last weekend of the Dor Foundation, a new national organisation to combat antisemitism and hate in Australia.
The foundation brings together prominent leaders from business, government and the not-for-profit sectors under the chairmanship of Frydenberg. Its initial focus will be on university campuses and the online space.
“I know how shocked so many in our community have been over the last 15 months as the rise in antisemitism has gone unchecked. But it is now up to us to step up and turn back this tide of hate,” Frydenberg told The AJN.
On the non-Jewish Australians who are upset about “what has happened to their country”, he said, “They are our allies, and we are theirs and together we must reclaim what has been lost. At the end of the day, we are all Australians and this is Australia’s fight.”
Former Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Nina Bassat, who is on the board of guardians of the foundation, told The AJN that while antisemitism was the catalyst, the organisation’s scope extends far beyond the Jewish community.
“This is not a Jewish problem. It’s a Jewish pain,” she said.
“We’re the ones who are feeling the pain, especially the generations younger than I and my grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
“But this is a societal problem which is going to erode and whittle down all the capital that has been built over the years in terms of democracy, in terms of multiculturalism, in terms of being a fair go society.”
Bassat identified young people as a particular concern.
“We have a real problem with the younger demographic, which either through ignorance or prejudice or being aligned to the far left, has very little understanding of the geopolitics or of the nuances, but nonetheless, is coming out as being rapidly both antisemitic and anti-Israel,” she said.
Bassat said the Dor Foundation will partner with existing organisations rather than duplicate efforts.
“We will partner rather than re-create. We have some very talented people in our community who are already doing all of that or some of that work and we hope to bring it to a national level,” she said.
The foundation’s inaugural CEO, Tahli Blicblau, said this is a personal issue for her, as her family has deep roots in Australia.
“My great-grandmother, who’s 105, claims to have been one of the first people to wear a bikini on Bondi Beach.
“So it’s this kind of amalgamation of strong Australian history and third-generation Holocaust survival that really motivates me to work on cementing social cohesion and building Australian values to the extent that we can,” she said.
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