‘The more voices heard, the better’: Animal Justice candidate Myerson

Caulfield candidate ASHER MYERSON tells ASHLEY BROWNE that his party’s policies line up with tikkun olam.

All Asher Myerson wants is the opportunity.

A maths and science teacher at the King David School during the day, he is also the Animal Justice Party’s candidate for the seat of Caulfield at the November 26 state election.

But in the eyes of the Jewish community, he is considered a rank outsider. At its election debate, Zionism Victoria invited sitting member David Southwick (Liberal), Lior Harel (Labor), Nomi Kaltmann (Teal Independent) and Rachel Lampolski (The Greens) to take part. In their eyes they are the only candidates that matter.

If Myerson wanted to be in the room that evening, he had to buy a ticket, like everybody else.

“It’s frustrating,” he told The Jewish Independent. “A simple Google search would tell you who the candidates are, and it is a fairer democratic process to hear from all of them.

“The more voices heard, the better it is.”

He hasn’t been entirely ignored. He spoke at a candidates' forum held at the Shira Hadasha shul and has been included at a wider Caulfield event in the lead up to the poll.

But he notes the irony that it is a younger member of the community (he is 25), from the generation that supposedly invented "cancel culture", that is finding it tough to find opportunities to speak.

“My generation is criticised by the generation who run Zionism Victoria as the ones who shut down discourse. But this is the reverse. Why have only four candidates? Are my views too controversial? Are we too literal a threat?”

Myerson argues that the AJP policies, grounded as they are in animals, people and the planet, are essentially Jewish.