For the crime of being Jewish, my people die and fight alone [View all]

SYDNEY — Summer is meant to bring long days, sun-drenched afternoons at the beach, melting ice creams and the sound of children laughing. For Jews in the Southern Hemisphere, it is ushered in by the Festival of Light — Hanukkah — a season meant to be marked by joy. That is not the reality we are living in here.

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For the past two years, our community has lived with a rising torrent of antisemitism. For months, communal leaders warned governments and authorities that the discourse was deteriorating — that words would one day turn into violence, and violence into bloodshed.

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We need a moral reckoning. In August, an estimated 100,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbor Bridge to protest a conflict thousands of miles away. Many marched out of genuine concern for human suffering. Others marched because of their hatred toward Jews and Israel — a hatred they made explicit on placards and banners celebrating those who preach violence.

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If 100,000 people can mobilize for a distant war, surely a million could rise up today and say: enough. Not with flowers alone. Not with thoughts and prayers. But with action. With a collective demand that antisemitism — in all its forms — is wrong and must stop now. This needs to occur in every country claiming to live by Western democratic values. We need to hear your voice! I fear that such a vision exists only in my imagination.

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We will gather. We will rally. We will continue our quiet, stubborn protest — bringing light into the world one candle, one good deed at a time. We will embody the values of those who were killed. We will move forward. But we will probably do so alone.


https://wapo.st/3L08uHR

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