I’d rather be ‘woke’ than ‘asleep’ or ‘sheep’

I, along with other Jewish supporters of Allegra Spender have been called a kapo, a self-hating Jew, an Uncle Tom and a traitor whose father would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how I was canvassing and voting. And of course, we are called “woke”. Not only by people I knew many years ago but also by some people who I thought were friends or mates. Not only since October 7, but ever since Spender stood against Sharma in the last election and through the Voice campaign.

I am called names simply because in my opinion Spender’s policies are better than those of the Liberals, Labour or Greens; because I believe that Greenhouse gases are existentially more dangerous for my grandchildren than being Jewish and that renewable energy is a more efficient alternative than either coal or nuclear power; because I prefer independent thinkers who represent the community to the apparatchiks who represent a political party; because I believe that Australia’s First Nations citizens need a Voice to close the socio-economic-wellbeing gap between them and Setter-Migrant Australians and that a Voice would more likely unite rather than divide a nation that gave my refugee parents freedom and whose institutions are pretty good but could be better; because I believe that our Jewish community’s over-reaction and the Liberal Party’s politicisation of Jew-hatred has been overblown and created Jew-hatred where it hadn’t existed and disrespect for us from those who used to respect us; and because when I saw a distraught Gazan woman aged around 19 tell of losing all her family, I could not help thinking of the grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins that I never had after my mother’s and father’s families were murdered. Yes – I am woke and proud to be such. But I prefer to be “woke” than “asleep” or “sheep”.

For having these opinions, many Jewish Allegra canvassers and supporters feel pained, ostracised, alienated and “cancelled” by the rage and anger that is levelled at Spender and at our persons. For myself, I was lucky to have a father who not only taught me to step into the other person’s shoes before judgement but he also taught that hatred and rage are my antagonist’s psychological problem, not mine. To his adage, I would add that it is only my adversary’s problem up to the point at which hatred and rage are politicised – at which point it becomes my problem as well as the hater’s problem. In my opinion, Trump and mini-Trump populists are making it a global problem which I suspect and fear may eventually become a nuclear world problem.