‘I’d feel safer in Israel’: ME conflict affecting mental health in Australia

“Honestly? I know it’s a war zone, but I’d feel safer in Israel than in Melbourne,” says a participant in Jewish Care Victoria’s new community consultation report.

The report’s findings offer a sobering insight into the myriad of mental health challenges facing the community, broadly organised into two themes: trauma-based impacts and identity-based impacts. While the trauma-based impacts include acute feelings of grief, mental ill-health, and rising antisemitism, the identity-based impacts include questions of identity, relationship conflicts and concerns for the future.

“The biggest takeaway was that it reaffirmed how diverse this experience has been, that each person has experienced this so differently,” says Cassandra Barrett, Community Education and Partnerships Manager at Jewish Care. “But what's common to everybody is pain. What drives that, and the form it takes, varies.”

“Maybe the pain is ‘my adult child hasn't spoken to me in a year, because they want me to disavow Israel’. Or maybe the pain is, ‘my kids are in the IDF, and I'm terrified’. Or maybe the pain is ‘the growing antisemitism makes me feel like I don't belong in Australia anymore’.”

Funded by the South-Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network, the report is part of a Commonwealth Government initiative to support the mental health of the Victorian Jewish community in the wake of October 7.

Representatives from Jewish community organisations and settings participated in consultations from May to July, with a particular focus on young people and first responders. For Barrett, it was important to include a broad range of perspectives, including those that might not be represented by mainstream community representatives.