I have a small anecdote that gives me some hope. I had to come into the city today (I also live in Melbourne) and the tram stopped at the Arts Centre. A woman from Yarra Trams calmly explained that the trams had to stop outside the city because of the anti-Israel rallies.
At that point, I got angry. I snapped and said something like, "these people are sick - they're lowlife anti-Semites." The woman from Yarra Trams responded, "hallelujah - someone agrees with me."
It reminded me that there are plenty of sensible people out there. But the sensible people aren't the vocal ones.
Wowzers. Even as a non-Jewish atheist, I found that a bruising read, like being gut punched and copping blows to the head as I attempted to understand and absorb the obvious pain and despair being communicated. I can only imagine how Jewish people are feeling as one year on the long, long fight continues.
I'm a subscriber to the excellent History of the Crusades podcast series. As a patron, I have access to some extra episodes, including some on the Jewish experience in the Middle Ages. The massacres in the Rhineland preceding the Second Crusade and the birth of the blood libel in Norwich are particularly illuminating on the failure of those in charge to prevent them and the readiness of the masses to believe anything negative about Jews. It's pretty clear to me that after nearly 1,000 years, nothing much has changed except the Jews ability to defend themselves. So they must fight, and more power to their arms.
https://crusadespod.com/ There's a LOT to check out, as you will discover. Sharyn's been at it for a long time. The Crusade against the Cathars and the Baltic Crusade episodes were just as fascinating as the Middle Eastern campaigns. Those medieval Christians were a bloodthirsty lot!
This is a terrific piece, Julie, in fact one of your best. I have followed your writing all through the past terrible year and I cannot thank you enough for all of them.
Tomorrow, 7 October, I will simply be empathising with Jewish people - particularly those who were killed or harmed by the fascist crimes of 7 October 2023, and those close to them, and more generally with all Jews.
I’ve read much this past year but never has a piece resonated so well with me. It’s like you’ve been inside my head, scouring my every thought and anxiety. You’re just a whole lot better than me at putting them into words! I too have found my magen david. I too have worried about the growing anti semitism, laid awake at night wondering which of my non Jewish friends would hide me, if needed, how will my children’s partners (all non Jewish) relate to this, how will I get my parents, in their 80’s to Israel, if Australia becomes too inhospitable, how will I know when it’s the right time to leave??? The only difference is I have revisited the Hebrew songs of my youth and listen to them all the time. They make me cry. I can’t say why. The song I’ve not been able to sing for months is the Australian anthem. I may never sing it again.
Julie I've read every heart felt word you have written here - so raw and so true. Just know that there are many, many people who think like you, support you, stand with you. Also many who see and now detest our spineless politicians of all colours who are more concerned with getting their votes secured for the next election/s rather than the need for some clarity and reality of what the State of Israel (indeed Western Civilisation) is facing due what happened on Oct 7th.....
Thanks Julie. Yes, identity pride of every and any sort is totally nauseating. Who one really is is not a matter of pride or shame, it is simply a matter of fact. 'Identity pride' is a denial of fact, it is an inherently constructivist performative fiction, and it is opposed to fact; it is opposed to truth. It is because you stand with fact, with truth, that you discover the world is throwing reality itself under the bus for the sake of optics, for demonic morality plays, for cheap polemic virtue signalling that expediently scapegoats people it knows nothing about. As a function of fact you discover that you are a Jew and that antisemitism is again being revived, and that you must stand with other Jews and that the symbols of your people are now sacred to you. It is strange what fealty to truth - and equally fealty to lies - can do to a person. You teach us all about holding to truth in as much honesty as can be mustered in tumultuous times. You teach us about the emotional, relational, employment, and 'standing' cost of so doing, even in quiet and apparently safe Australia. Thanks Julie.
As a non-Jew but someone whose relatives married Jews and who has lived in Israel in the (hope-filled) 1970s, my heart goes out to you, Julie. As always, love your writing.
We are victims of our own tolerance and openness. Also victims of having believed that this tolerance and good faith will be reciprocated by all those who've received their benefits.
The funny thing is that I've had friendships with 100x more Muslims/Arabs in Australia than Jews and can honestly never recollect seeing any visible antagonism despite Palestine being a forever problem.
We live in a time when we are expected to respect each other's lived experience.This piece is about the callous disregard of our lived experience in Australia for the whole past year.
Continuing thanks for your writing, Julie. I can't tell you how many times I have been in many difficult conversations about October 7 and reached an impasse where the other person says 'anyway what would you know? Are you even Jewish?' - and I am always able to send them one of your pieces on point. The tragedy of the Australian commons at the moment is there are not enough people in gatekeeping positions who can hold two or more competing ideas in their head, never mind working through a dialogue between them. Your writing enables that - if people want to do it, rather than hiding behind hashtags and going with the populist (ahem) flow of the river.
An absolutely extraordinary piece, Julie! Thank you for speaking for all of us. A week ago I began wearing a Jewish pendant for the first time in my life and for exactly the same reason that you do.
Julie, thank you for articulating the distress and discombobulation that so many of us Jewish Australians feel right now. And giving those outside our community a glimpse into our new lives.
However, I am saddened to read that you wear your magen david as "battle gear" and not with a sense of pride.
😀 Thank you Bianca. Re Jewish pride.. well, long story, and probably even a book! But don't feel sad for me : it may be partly a question of temperament. As in: I'm wired for battle more than I am for "positive" emotions. My cross -- or magen david!-- to wear I guess. x
Thank you so much, Julie for this article. I admit I felt a fair amount of shame and anger reading about what it has been like for you and the Jewish community the past 12 months. The anti-Semitism has been horrific enough but added to that is that the community feels and in fact has been abandoned by the government and even the rest of the community. I think goys like me really need to step up more in our every day lives and go out of our way to make sure Jews know we have their back. Governments can only do so much and our government has done a lot less than that!
Thanks for the solidarity Peta. But I don't think you should feel shame. You're speaking out here! I think it's our leaders who ought to feel shame. The buck stops with them.
A very moving piece. It is truly awful to confront the fact that large numbers of our fellow Australians, middle class and educated, now find themselves to be strategic allies of Hamas and Hezbollah. And to realise that our PM and foreign minister are so morally weak that they can’t see the damage they are doing to this country’s social fabric by their equivocations in the face of ‘progressive’ anti-Jewish hostility.
Yet it should be easy enough for leaders to acknowledge our fervent wish for peace in the Middle East without pretending that it’s as simple as demanding an immediate cease-fire and the creation of a Palestinian state. What did they imagine Curtin and Chifley were doing in 1945? Calling for peaceful negotiations or fighting a desperate war in the Pacific?
I felt very sad reading this article.
I have a small anecdote that gives me some hope. I had to come into the city today (I also live in Melbourne) and the tram stopped at the Arts Centre. A woman from Yarra Trams calmly explained that the trams had to stop outside the city because of the anti-Israel rallies.
At that point, I got angry. I snapped and said something like, "these people are sick - they're lowlife anti-Semites." The woman from Yarra Trams responded, "hallelujah - someone agrees with me."
It reminded me that there are plenty of sensible people out there. But the sensible people aren't the vocal ones.
Nicholas-- thank you so much for sharing this anecdote. It gave me a lift, I won't lie.
Wowzers. Even as a non-Jewish atheist, I found that a bruising read, like being gut punched and copping blows to the head as I attempted to understand and absorb the obvious pain and despair being communicated. I can only imagine how Jewish people are feeling as one year on the long, long fight continues.
I'm a subscriber to the excellent History of the Crusades podcast series. As a patron, I have access to some extra episodes, including some on the Jewish experience in the Middle Ages. The massacres in the Rhineland preceding the Second Crusade and the birth of the blood libel in Norwich are particularly illuminating on the failure of those in charge to prevent them and the readiness of the masses to believe anything negative about Jews. It's pretty clear to me that after nearly 1,000 years, nothing much has changed except the Jews ability to defend themselves. So they must fight, and more power to their arms.
Thank you for the solidarity David. I've heard about that podcast, will definitely check it out.
https://crusadespod.com/ There's a LOT to check out, as you will discover. Sharyn's been at it for a long time. The Crusade against the Cathars and the Baltic Crusade episodes were just as fascinating as the Middle Eastern campaigns. Those medieval Christians were a bloodthirsty lot!
This is a terrific piece, Julie, in fact one of your best. I have followed your writing all through the past terrible year and I cannot thank you enough for all of them.
Wow, I'm so thrilled to hear that Pia. Thank you. x
Tomorrow, 7 October, I will simply be empathising with Jewish people - particularly those who were killed or harmed by the fascist crimes of 7 October 2023, and those close to them, and more generally with all Jews.
Thank you Paul for your moral clarity, always.
I’ve read much this past year but never has a piece resonated so well with me. It’s like you’ve been inside my head, scouring my every thought and anxiety. You’re just a whole lot better than me at putting them into words! I too have found my magen david. I too have worried about the growing anti semitism, laid awake at night wondering which of my non Jewish friends would hide me, if needed, how will my children’s partners (all non Jewish) relate to this, how will I get my parents, in their 80’s to Israel, if Australia becomes too inhospitable, how will I know when it’s the right time to leave??? The only difference is I have revisited the Hebrew songs of my youth and listen to them all the time. They make me cry. I can’t say why. The song I’ve not been able to sing for months is the Australian anthem. I may never sing it again.
Oh my God Nadine, these comments left me gasping for air. Like it was you living in my head. Thank you for your raw honesty. Solidarity.
Julie I've read every heart felt word you have written here - so raw and so true. Just know that there are many, many people who think like you, support you, stand with you. Also many who see and now detest our spineless politicians of all colours who are more concerned with getting their votes secured for the next election/s rather than the need for some clarity and reality of what the State of Israel (indeed Western Civilisation) is facing due what happened on Oct 7th.....
Thank you Susan. So true about our politicians.
Thanks Julie. Yes, identity pride of every and any sort is totally nauseating. Who one really is is not a matter of pride or shame, it is simply a matter of fact. 'Identity pride' is a denial of fact, it is an inherently constructivist performative fiction, and it is opposed to fact; it is opposed to truth. It is because you stand with fact, with truth, that you discover the world is throwing reality itself under the bus for the sake of optics, for demonic morality plays, for cheap polemic virtue signalling that expediently scapegoats people it knows nothing about. As a function of fact you discover that you are a Jew and that antisemitism is again being revived, and that you must stand with other Jews and that the symbols of your people are now sacred to you. It is strange what fealty to truth - and equally fealty to lies - can do to a person. You teach us all about holding to truth in as much honesty as can be mustered in tumultuous times. You teach us about the emotional, relational, employment, and 'standing' cost of so doing, even in quiet and apparently safe Australia. Thanks Julie.
Paul, I'm speechless. Thank you .. as inadequate as that sounds for the depth of these remarks. We will talk more...
As a non-Jew but someone whose relatives married Jews and who has lived in Israel in the (hope-filled) 1970s, my heart goes out to you, Julie. As always, love your writing.
Meredith-- as always, thank you. You are principled and mighty.
Thanks Julie......Hungary is nowadays a v different world for being Jewish than the rest of Europe.....v different migrant groups...
Now in Taiwan....not a keffiye in sight......nor even in the Muslim parts of Singapore...they run a tight ship
We are victims of our own tolerance and openness. Also victims of having believed that this tolerance and good faith will be reciprocated by all those who've received their benefits.
The funny thing is that I've had friendships with 100x more Muslims/Arabs in Australia than Jews and can honestly never recollect seeing any visible antagonism despite Palestine being a forever problem.
Interesting. We know the loudest voices on the fringe have now grabbed the megaphone..
So true about Hungary or at least Budapest. Everything you had prepared me for Richard, turned out to be true and then some. Enjoy Taiwan-- I love it!
We live in a time when we are expected to respect each other's lived experience.This piece is about the callous disregard of our lived experience in Australia for the whole past year.
Continuing thanks for your writing, Julie. I can't tell you how many times I have been in many difficult conversations about October 7 and reached an impasse where the other person says 'anyway what would you know? Are you even Jewish?' - and I am always able to send them one of your pieces on point. The tragedy of the Australian commons at the moment is there are not enough people in gatekeeping positions who can hold two or more competing ideas in their head, never mind working through a dialogue between them. Your writing enables that - if people want to do it, rather than hiding behind hashtags and going with the populist (ahem) flow of the river.
So kind of you Natasha. And so brave and good of you to raise your voice.
I don't think it's brave I think it's just obviously the decent thing to do.
You have the rare gift of articulating how so many of us feel but cannot say. This really touched me Julie.
Fiona-- thank you. But your Adler piece was terrific and I hope you write more.
An absolutely extraordinary piece, Julie! Thank you for speaking for all of us. A week ago I began wearing a Jewish pendant for the first time in my life and for exactly the same reason that you do.
Thank you dear Lee.. we are on the same page about many things. x
Julie, thank you for articulating the distress and discombobulation that so many of us Jewish Australians feel right now. And giving those outside our community a glimpse into our new lives.
However, I am saddened to read that you wear your magen david as "battle gear" and not with a sense of pride.
Surely there is some pride in there somewhere...?
😀 Thank you Bianca. Re Jewish pride.. well, long story, and probably even a book! But don't feel sad for me : it may be partly a question of temperament. As in: I'm wired for battle more than I am for "positive" emotions. My cross -- or magen david!-- to wear I guess. x
Thank you so much, Julie for this article. I admit I felt a fair amount of shame and anger reading about what it has been like for you and the Jewish community the past 12 months. The anti-Semitism has been horrific enough but added to that is that the community feels and in fact has been abandoned by the government and even the rest of the community. I think goys like me really need to step up more in our every day lives and go out of our way to make sure Jews know we have their back. Governments can only do so much and our government has done a lot less than that!
Thanks for the solidarity Peta. But I don't think you should feel shame. You're speaking out here! I think it's our leaders who ought to feel shame. The buck stops with them.
A very moving piece. It is truly awful to confront the fact that large numbers of our fellow Australians, middle class and educated, now find themselves to be strategic allies of Hamas and Hezbollah. And to realise that our PM and foreign minister are so morally weak that they can’t see the damage they are doing to this country’s social fabric by their equivocations in the face of ‘progressive’ anti-Jewish hostility.
Yet it should be easy enough for leaders to acknowledge our fervent wish for peace in the Middle East without pretending that it’s as simple as demanding an immediate cease-fire and the creation of a Palestinian state. What did they imagine Curtin and Chifley were doing in 1945? Calling for peaceful negotiations or fighting a desperate war in the Pacific?