On Friday night, there was an alleged arson attack on East Melbourne Synagogue, and separately an alleged attack by protesters on an Israeli restaurant in the CBD. Police have said no links between the incidents have been identified.
While criminal charges have now been laid and the justice system must be allowed to take its course, to understand the impacts of these two separate events on Melbourne’s Jewish community, you first must understand what Fridays mean to us.
It is the night where we welcome in Shabbat (the Sabbath), and the different expressions of how we do that are perfectly illustrated in both Miznon and the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation.
Sitting on the edge of Melbourne’s CBD, East Melbourne Synagogue is one of Melbourne’s oldest and most established congregations, practising ceremonies reflective of the Orthodox Jewish religion. Only a short distance away is the Israeli restaurant Miznon. Despite their differences, both institutions of the Jewish community reflect what is most important to us on that day of the week: being together.
Last Friday night, as 20 members of the East Melbourne Synagogue community were gathered around the table for Shabbat dinner, police allege a man allegedly attempted to set the building they were in alight.
And at Miznon, a protest allegedly turned violent. Protesters reportedly targeted the restaurant because it is part-owned by Israeli restaurateur Shahar Segal, who has served as a spokesperson for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been widely condemned for how it distributes aid in Gaza. But I don’t believe what allegedly unfolded at Miznon was a legitimate peaceful protest. Patrons and staff were allegedly harassed. Furniture was allegedly thrown.
Two separate incidents. Two very different spaces.
Targeting East Melbourne Synagogue strikes fear to all who feel connected to their culture, community and way of life. Many will recognise this antisemitism from the darkest times in Jewish memory.
But targeting Miznon also strikes fear for all who are proud of their culture, heritage, and background, and want to share it with their fellow Australians. It makes people question if their existence or where they were born diminishes their place in our country.
There must be a space for legitimate criticism of the Israeli government, to voice the need for Gazans to receive aid, to end hostilities and work towards a lasting peace. But we cannot accept that any of that is achieved by causing further division here in Melbourne.
Violence, pain and suffering is not a competition. And one of the most important things is to listen to different communities when they tell you what is impacting them.
It is not up to those outside the Jewish community to tell us what is and isn’t antisemitism, or to define what makes us feel unsafe.
At the same time, we must learn that two things can be true at once: that we can hold empathy for the unimaginable suffering of the Palestinian people, while caring for the safety of the Jewish community in Australia.
That we can wish for the safe return of hostages to their families in Israel, while seeing that the rise of Islamophobia here at home is true as well.
And in doing so, we must realise some things that are not true.
One of these things that is not true is that by expressing concern for rising antisemitism in Australia you are endorsing violence in a conflict on the other side of the world.
The reality is if the Jewish community doesn’t feel safe here in Australia, we are not the only ones.
Other communities are watching. They are seeing what is happening to the Jewish community when we call out what is happening to us.
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This is demonstrated to me daily when I receive private messages of solidarity and support from people who are afraid of assumptions and repercussions if they said as much publicly.
‘When my office was firebombed in June last year, it was an incident that we thought was as far as escalations could go.’ Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
The government that I am a part of needs to be open to doing more, but we can’t legislate away bigotry and hatred. Each of us have a responsibility to look at what’s happening around us. And that starts with listening to affected communities.
When my office was firebombed in June last year, it was an incident that we thought was as far as escalations could go.
At the time I said I would have done it myself if it would bring peace to the Middle East. That point remains.
How we confront these issues in Australia matters, and it too often descends into the opposite of the future we desperately want to realise.
Despite the alleged attacks on the Jewish community, there are still places for us to find hope. And this was demonstrated by the response of the staff from Max, the Lebanese-owned restaurant neighbouring Miznon on Friday night.
Standing in the doorway, it was the staff of Max who stood in front of Miznon and copped the brunt of the alleged abuse, hurling of tomatoes and the alleged smashing of the shop windows.
Because for those of us who come from multicultural and multi-faith communities, we know that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
And that the future should be one of respect, togetherness and sharing food, especially on a Friday night.
Josh Burns is the federal member for Macnamara
