RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://quillette.com/2024/12/08/hatred-and-indifference-in-modern-australia-antisemitism-synagogue-ripponlea/

Two days after Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis, I was sitting at my desk in the Sydney Central Business District. Zoe, my colleague, stood up from her desk with a worried look. Holding her phone, she told me that the New South Wales Board of Deputies had received a police warning: the safety of Jews in the city could not be guaranteed. The message she had just received was encouraging them to leave.

That message, combined with the knowledge of an upcoming pro-Palestinian protest in the city, made me feel something that I’d never felt before as an Australian citizen. I felt queasy as I remembered other times when Jews had felt safe in their own cities—then suddenly no longer.

It was during that moment of fear that I realised what antisemitism really was. Not being Jewish myself, I had never had a personal connection with the Holocaust. My knowledge of antisemitism was purely theoretical and abstract. It was a phenomenon I had read about in books, seen in films and documentaries, but it hit me that day like a slap to the face. I realised that antisemitism is two things: active, vicious hatred and cool institutional indifference towards that hate. And it was that institutional indifference that made me feel afraid.

The vicious hate manifested that night when a mob congregated on the steps of the Opera House chanting “where’s the Jews,” “fuck the Jews,” and “fuck Israel.” But what unnerved me was the indifference of authorities who had permitted this celebratory march from Sydney Town Hall in the first place. This was compounded when only one person was arrested at that rally where flags were burned—and that was a bystander carrying an Israeli flag.

Since that day, Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese has followed the model of indifference shown by the NSW Police. He says “antisemitism has no place in Australia,” while anti-Israel protesters freely demonstrate in front of synagogues. He takes no responsibility for surging attacks on Jews while simultaneously undermining the world’s only Jewish state. While Albanese might not be personally antisemitic, his intentional paralysis speaks of something more damning.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/12/08/why-young-british-jews-are-leaving-for-israel/

For most British teenagers in their final year of A-levels, thoughts are now turning to choosing universities, attending open days and organising accommodation. But for a growing number of young British Jews, these familiar rites of passage are being replaced by more urgent concerns: joining the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) or volunteering in Israel.

The change in the priorities of young British Jews shows how much their world has changed since 7 October last year. First, Hamas’s brutal slaughter of civilians in Israel provided a horrifying wake-up call. And then the subsequent surge in anti-Semitism in Britain and Europe made it clear that many supposedly tolerant institutions are anything but.

‘I had always intended to join the IDF’, 17-year-old Thalia Cohen tells me. ‘But the events of 7 October solidified my decision. I want to help Israel defend itself and make sure something like that never happens again.’

Orli Miller completed her sixth-form studies this year. Visiting British university campuses since 7 October has transformed her view of the UK. ‘I visited one of the universities I’d applied to, and I was deeply unsettled by what I saw’, she recalls:

‘Posters of hostages taken by Hamas had been torn down. I realised this wasn’t an environment where I’d feel comfortable or supported. As a Zionist, I knew I’d be much happier in Israel, where I can align my actions with my beliefs without fear of judgement.’

Orli initially applied to serve in the IDF but was turned down on medical grounds. But rather than return to a university campus in the UK riddled with anti-Semitism, she chose to sign up for Sherut Leumi, Israel’s alternative national-service programme. Participants get to work in a wide range of areas, including healthcare, nursing homes and in disadvantaged communities.