One of the furthest places from Holocaust in Europe was Australia, which welcomed the largest number of Jewish refugees after Israel.
It was a peaceful country, however under the surface there was antisemitism. Jews were not allowed to join golf clubs in Melbourne, so they bought land and set up a Jewish Golf Club. For years they were not allowed to join the main business club in the city. My own father was at a top school, Scotch College where he had one single friend. That friend turned on him one day with the words “… Jew” and that was the end of the friendship. Years later he enrolled his children in the new Jewish school, a school without an academic record, solely because he wanted us to have friends.
But it was basically quiet. Until now.
Recently one of the community’s children was attacked at the local railway station by a mob of Middle Eastern appearance. Loud demonstrations are weekly incidents in the city with thousands of kaffiyeh-wearing people requiring not only police presence but interstate police having to be brought in as violence rears its ugly head.
The universities are centers for more demonstrations. Local councils in capital cities and in country towns are passing resolutions that are pro-Palestinian. Ugly scrawling on Jewish school buildings is happening. One demonstration outside a synagogue on Shabbat caused the service to be abandoned for safety reasons. But the worst is how children are being targeted on social media. Photos of Jewish school children together or of those graduates who have joined the IDF are appearing in a threatening manner.
Jewish members of Parliament have stood up to try to stop this behavior. There are four times as many Muslims as there are Jews, and their leaders are not standing up to condemn the violence. The police are finally charging those who are violent at demonstrations. The financial cost to the police is huge, an imposition on a society that until now enjoyed normality.
The media have made a point of asking individual demonstrators questions on what they are standing for. The majority of those questioned are simply joining the mob and have no idea what the issues are. This evokes memories of the nineteen-thirties as the Nazi era began, taking with it almost the whole population of Germany.
The seventh of October last year is now not on the agenda – forgotten. These demonstrators are funded to appear with huge signs, all wearing kaffiyehs, both Australians and Muslims.
As the war continues in Israel, Al Jazeera, the BBC and others loudly broadcast both half-truths and lies, and social media and the local newspapers are being inundated with more lies. The mindset of the Australian public, particularly the young and vulnerable is being swayed against Israel and the Jews all over the world.
Recently the Australian Government gave out three thousand tourist visas to Gazans, vetting their applications in less than an hour. These were not humanitarian visas, only a quick way to enter the country, and nowhere to send them back in case they are convicted of support of terrorism or violent acts. Australia is capable of taking refugees in large numbers, however terrorists are not welcome. The failure to check out applicants for visas is now being debated in Parliament.
French Jews live in the country of their birth in large numbers, their grandparents having moved there from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Only a few hours away from Israel, many bought apartments in Israel which they used for holidays. With the large immigrant population identifying with the anti-Israel cause and murders, the Jews of France are considering their future. Should Australians?
It has always been “Wait Until Tomorrow” for Jews over the years, over the centuries. More than a few young Jews are making Aliyah, but not families. Australian Jews now are in a quandary – whether to leave their lives and re-establish in a country where everyone knows of death, or to be simply uncomfortable until the worst happens.