‘We won’t be silent on antisemitism or Israel’
“I thought maybe I’d have 10 minutes … but my meeting with both of them became much more than that. I was so warmly welcomed,” says Pastor Baynes.
Eighteen church ministers have visited Temple Shalom Gold Coast to give moral support to Jewish Queenslanders on the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas massacres, and in the face of rising antisemitism.
The visit to the Progressive congregation – on October 5, Shabbat Shuvah — was organised by Gold Coast Pastor Sue Baynes – following a letter endorsed by some 50 Christian communities last November.
“To our dear Jewish friends, like you, we are overcome with sadness regarding the situation in Israel and we’re praying for the immediate and safe release of the hostages being held by Hamas. Though we are on the other side of the world, we have never felt so close and are standing with Israel now more than ever,” began the November 14 letter.
Pastor Baynes told The AJN that when she arranged to show the letter to Temple Shalom’s Rabbi Adi Cohen and Gold Coast Hebrew Congregation’s Rabbi Nir Gurevitch, “I thought maybe I’d have 10 minutes … but my meeting with both of them became much more than that. I was so warmly welcomed.”
Rabbi Cohen asked her to video a reading of the letter for his congregants. Rabbi Gurevitch said he would read out the letter in shule. Pastor Baynes had earlier established a close relationship with Jewish communal figure Ron Weiser at the Gold Coast’s annual Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast in July 2023.
Addressing Temple Shalom congregants and church representatives on October 5, Pastor Baynes reflected,” Rabbi Adi asked me why I and the Christian churches choose not to be silent. Simply this — 90 years ago, most of the Gentile churches and communities around most of the world were silent – although there were some notable exceptions.
“But today, we say ‘never again!’. We will not be silent, but rather use our collective voices to speak up and say antisemitism is not welcome in our city, and as Christians we stand with you, our Jewish friends, in a commitment to unity and love.”
Pastor Baynes, a local minister for 12 years, who, uniquely in an Australian municipality, has the role of pastoral care adviser in the office of Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, a practising Christian, emphasised that the initiative was church-led, but is in line with the mayor’s goal of strengthening communal ties.
The synagogue visit came as Gold Coast Council received two pro-Palestinian petitions to scrap its sister-city relationship with Netanya. One of the petitions has already been rejected. In fact, Pastor Baynes has foreshadowed a Gold Coast mayoral visit to Netanya in the near future.
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