Victorian leaders gather under sukkah

Political leaders from both sides of Victorian politics joined Melbourne’s Lord Mayor under a sukkah next to State Parliament on Wednesday, where antisemitism dominated the speeches.

The sukkah at Gordon Reserve is the centrepiece of Sukkah in the City, an annual event organised by Rabbi Chaim Herzog of Chabad of Melbourne CBD.

“This is a big landmark location in the heart of Melbourne, it’s very important to show Jewish identity, and especially in this time that we’re going through in Melbourne,” Rabbi Herzog said.

Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece referred to the attack on an Israeli restaurant and the attempted arson attack on the East Melbourne Shule, and said the City of Melbourne had changed the way it dealt with hate.

“We’ve taken a whole new approach to tackling antisemitism, tackling hate. It starts with really practical things, like the fact that when somebody reports antisemitic content and materials around the city, we get it down in one hour,” he said.

He said 3,000 items of hateful material, including stickers and graffiti, had been removed in the first year of the policy.

“I never thought we’d see this in Melbourne, the most successful multicultural city in the most successful multicultural country in the world.”

Ryan Batchelor MP, representing the Labor government, said the sukkah’s location next to Parliament made it “a very visible celebration of Jewish culture and tradition here in the city”.

“Particularly this year, it’s so important that we keep this tradition of this here in Melbourne alive and strong,” he said.

Deputy Opposition Leader and Member for Caulfield David Southwick said the crowd was the biggest in a number of years.

“But certainly since October 7th, the numbers have dwindled because people have not felt safe in the city.”

He said a Coalition government elected in November would introduce protest permits and move-on powers. He also said he had written to the Premier asking that a vigil at the State Library on October 7 next week, which he described as “celebrating one of the worst atrocities since the Holocaust”, not go ahead.

Shadow Minister for Multicultural and Multifaith Affairs Evan Mulholland said that while the sukkah itself was fragile, “what it represents is that the community itself is strong”.

“We won’t come to a community like yours and say one thing and then go to another community and say a completely different thing,” he said.