Since October 7 and more importantly the days following I’m horrified that in Australia we have experience such an antisemitism. My parents came here from Egypt in 1956 and sought to create a new peaceful Jewish life away from the Muslim fundamentalists. It worries me that Australia is being heavily influenced by the same people who spout hatred and antisemitism from their pulpits in the mosques. And the AUS government is doing nothing to stop this. The Jewish community here...

The events of October 7 came as a profound shock to me. A pogrom in Israel in my lifetime. A deliberate targeting of peace builders and young people at a music festival. It shook me to my core.

I have always felt safe and secure in Australia, strong in my sense of identity as a Jew and an Australian and proud of the contribution our community makes to the broader community. As Geoffrey Blainey wrote recently in the Australian, Jews have...

Everything in my life changed since 7/10.

First, my relationship to Australia has changed. I came here in 1971 as a young bride and fell in love with Australia. It felt like home, was home. I considered myself blessed to have two homes that I love: Australia and Israel. October 7 changed this. I feel betrayed by Australia in so many ways… I know it will change, but for me Australia somehow died on the 9th October at the feet of...

Since October 7, my parents-in-law have been displaced from their family home of 40 years. My husband will never see his childhood home again.  My nieces and nephew in Israel have spent nights sleeping in shelters. Their formative years are marred forever.

Since October 7, I hesitate when someone asks me where I’m from. I search their face for clues and answer with bated breath. Sometimes I just lie.

Now, my children cannot wear sweaters with Hebrew letters in public. They demanded...

I have just watched a video where a Holocaust survivor likened the genocide in Gaza to the Holocaust. He also said that fascism depends on indifference, and not to be silent. And I haven’t. I have written three articles on the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. And have written to politicians including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. In one email I concluded “The immensity of the suffering of the people in Gaza is unacceptable. We must...

For many years I’ve been involved in the feminist movement in Israel. I was in Israel on October 4th for a major peace rally, with peace activists from around the world as well as hundreds of Israeli Jews, Christians and Arabs from the group Women Wage Peace and our Palestinian partners, Women of the Sun.

Many women from the peace movement were murdered on October 7th. These included one of the two founders of Women Wage Peace Vivien Silver. It took...

I am a mother of two primary school boys and since October 7, while I live in Australia and have an Australian passport, I am no longer an Australian parent. My experiences seem so remote from those of non-Jewish parents.
My parenting has changed. Since ‘Israel’ became a slur word, and our Jewish school increased its security and the frequency of its emergency drills, my main parenting strategy became evasion – hissing at my husband when he mentions the news,...

Rivers of ink have been spilled since the October 7 attacks and we are none the wiser for it. Indeed, almost a year on and we are locked in an intractable war. In Israel, yes. In Gaza. But also at home. With our friends. With our families. With ourselves.

To be honest, I am still struggling to process it. The only thing I can say for sure is that my sense of self has fundamentally changed. Judaism has always been at...

This is a letter I sent to the Chancellor of the University of Sydney in May 2024

Dear Chancellor,
When growing up in primary school, just after the WW2 war ended, as the only reffo kid in the school, I remember the teachers very clearly. They were all returned servicemen, who had lost their teenage years, their mates, and their health when they explained to us the meaning of free speech, for which they had fought.

They said “Your right to swing...

I’m an Oleh (immigrant to Israel) from Australia and live in Carmiel. Before October 7th I always had a bit of question in my mind if I’ll actually live in Israel permanently or if in another few years I might decide to come back to Australia. Since October 7th I understand that I can’t see myself living anywhere else.

With 12 years of frontline reporting on the Israel-Palestine conflict – in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan – and friends in all these places, as well as family and friends in the Negev, opposite the October 7 slaughter, my views haven’t changed much.
Hope of a resolution is further away than ever, since the murder of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 and the end of the Oslo agreements, which were supported by 75% of both sides.
For the first...

October 7 was the day I felt everything crumble

Without really knowing it, I had spent three years putting up walls. Somehow, this world which I had been thrust back into, my so-called ‘real life,’ was too lurid, too sonorous, too discombobulating. I needed to keep it at bay. There was such a thing as too much freedom, or so I felt. I needed defences.

The irony wasn’t lost on me of course. All those long and pointless days spent staring at...

Getting the hostages back is a categorical imperative, like saving from the gas chamber. I’ve been threatened outside shul (my kippa was a giveaway) and asked three times since “are you Jewish?” in public. I wear a crucifix out now. The Green MPs Jewish “tentacles” slur is literally out of Nazi playbook. The Opera House riot (Deputies advised community to stay away) certainly has echos of late Weimar Republic.

In February, I did a course on Warm Data with systems thinker Nora Bateson. After I was doxed in the Australian media as part of a Jewish Creatives WhatsApp group, I needed a new way of thinking about the world. There, I learned about double binds and understood why I had lost my voice after  October 7. What is happening is more complex than any single narrative or point of view.

I keep trying to find a balance to grieve for...

In a letter to the Age on October 9, 2023, I wrote:

“The attack on Israel by Hamas compressed into the explosion of a few hours, is the outcome of the rage and experience of violence that Palestinians have felt since at least the Nakba of 1948. They have never given up their dream of returning home.

“For Israeli Jews and Jews abroad, the attack raises the spectre of centuries of attacks, pogroms and genocide, a spectre that blinds them to the...

I am married to an Israeli Jewish man, and after having travelled over to Israel a few times I knew that what the media tells us is very different to what reality is.

Therefore, I knew that supporting Israel was the right thing to do and everything else just made sense. The concept of Zionism is not a genocidal, racist one but rather a Jewish civil rights movement to keep the Jewish people safe. I was horrified at the rampant antisemitism...

I’m in a state of numb shock. At first the attack on October 7 overtook every other thought. It was an agony of grief and shock. But has time has gone on, I’ve come to allow the thought that Israel is as eliminationist as Hamas. It seems to me, through the sanctioned settler violence, the number of dead in Gaza, and the lack of imperative to free the hostages, that Israel is also not interested in peace. I have been...

I’ve felt a hardening of attitudes within my own progressive community. People who are open to discussion on other issues of politics and society have closed off when it comes to Israel/Gaza — no open discussion is possible.
I experience this in my non-Jewish friends, but it worries me that the spirit of argument and disagreement within our own lot is not of this moment. I disagree with vocal groups who pretend to speak for us all (as if anyone...

October 7th marked a turning point in my understanding of Australian antisemitism. Previously, I had dismissed it as a peripheral issue, believing that if ignored, the issue would remain a minor concern. I never thought it would simply dissipate. But paying less attention to it would help. This all changed during a visit to Melbourne when I had the misfortune of needing to cross through a march organised by “sonei yisrael” (Haters of [the People/Nation of] Israel). The sight of...

I’ve been tackling antisemitism for over 20 years, first during my time in the UK for my PhD, where I served as National Secretary of the Union of Jewish Students at the height of the academic boycott of Israel, and since then tackling antisemitism online.

Since October 7, not only has antisemitism skyrocketed online, but it feels like support for the Jewish community has evaporated. It feels as if some, led by Palestinian activists, have succeeded in convincing people that antisemitism...

Recently my son visited his only Jewish friend in Perth. With my heart in my mouth, I watched him untuck his Star of David necklace as he walked inside his friend’s house. I didn’t realise he’d put it on before leaving home. As we said goodbye, I reminded him to tuck the necklace away if he and his friend went out, and I’ll never forget the look of resignation on his face.

I stopped wearing my own Star of David necklace...

In May of last year I was in Israel at the end of a very moving March of the Living trip. It was a time of great joy in Israel around the time of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, and the mood was festive. It is impossible to imagine how just six months later everything changed, and caused ripple effects that are still being felt here in our communities in Australia. What has also become crystal clear is that although Israel is at...

Our lives have been divided into before and after.

I could fill a book with all that has changed: how I still wake in cold sweats dreaming of our people held captive; how the horrors of that day never leave me; how I am selling my family home this weekend because my neighbourhood feels too hostile; how I have become active...

I used to think that by speaking Arabic, this could help to break barriers among people and different nationalities but since October 7, I have found myself being a victim of violence for answering two different Lebanese uber drivers’ questions as to where I’m from. It seems that in Australia saying “I’m Israeli” in Arabic creates hatred. Not to mention...

Before Oct 7th, I was already a proud, religious Jew, something I never tried to hide but also not something that I purposefully focused on either. Since Oct 7th, I feel like my whole understanding of reality has flipped and the world is a different place now. Over the past 11 months, I have educated myself thoroughly and it has taken a lot of grief, a lot of questioning and a lot of internal and external struggle to finally be...

I was once a fervent Zionist purchasing Israeli bonds and having an intense pride in the Israeli victory in the Yom Kippur War. I have since cashed in my bonds and published a document called Self-Determination and Human Rights. The document makes the case that a country that calls itself democratic must not favour any religion or ethnicity of part of its population. It must have a separation of religion and state. Otherwise, it will imitate those countries where we...

I’ve been carrying the broken pieces of a heavy heart around. There are days when I’ve become used to the weight and barely notice it, and days when I struggle to walk, and days I beg to put it all down, just for a moment. How can we keep breaking into more pieces? Where do we find a new heart...

The narrative many of us grew up with turns out to be much more contentious and complex, e.g. that “most” Palestinians either left Israel voluntarily or were called to leave by their leaders, prior to 1948. I now understand that some early Zionist pioneers behaved quite badly, destroying Palestinian villages and rebuilding them as Jewish, etc. However, I see no point in arguing about these or any other historical narratives. The challenge is what to do NOW!  Some form of...

I have spent the past year feeling angry that I am expected to answer for the actions of Israel because of my religion, no other reason.

After years of participating in Jewish holidays and services, learning and soul-searching, I converted to Judaism in 2023. At my Bet Din at a Progressive shul, one of the Rabbis asked me some tough questions about antisemitism. “Why,” he wanted to know, “do you want to join with Jewish people in risking being hated?” It...

How hasn’t October 7th, 2023 changed my life?

There are some moments in life that split our world into before and after. For me and so many in our community, October 7 was one of these world-splitting events.

Now I live in the after. Where there is no part of my life that hasn’t been shaped by the attempted genocide of Jews on that day, the war that has followed and the onslaught of global antisemitism that has enveloped us all in...

On September 1, I emailed my cousin in Israel about the six murdered hostages. I texted my thoughts glad that she and our extended family were not among them. Her reply somewhat surprised me by her bluntness that Bibi and his gang were totally to blame and that everyone in Israel is family. I too am not a Bibi fan, and I don’t have family being held hostage by Hamas. But  if we negotiate with Hamas where do the events...

I had the most profound experience of my Jewish life in the nine months following October 7.
I worked for the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies for about 12 years, until the beginning of 2022. On about October 8 or 9 the Board’s president asked me to ‘come back and support the community. That answered a need in me that was much deeper than the need I was being asked to address.
I helped again with the work of the...

I used to sing in the Brunswick Women’s Choir. We were invited to sing at “Chanukah – Pillar of Lights” at Fed Square. Initially the invitation was accepted.

Then the choir director said: “Its promoted as a multi cultural festival, but it’s clearly run by the Jewish community. Perhaps we don’t want to be associated?”

The comfortable white women of Brunswick were in agreement: “skipping this gig is in line with the Choir’s commitment to social justice as the event could support...

After we celebrated Simchat Torah in Australia we woke up to the news that 1251 Israeli citizens and other foreign nationals had been tortured & murdered by Hamas. Some of the survivors were kidnapped and taken as hostages to Gaza on October 7. In Australia on October 9 we witnessed Muslims in Sydney celebrating Hamas’s actions and proclaiming chants critical...

I remember October 7th so clearly, we were out for dinner with friends. As we greeted each other, we heard news that something had happened in Israel. We were aghast but reassured each other that the IDF would ensure the safety of Israel.
The following day I was glued to the media. Messages in the family What’s App came from all around the world. As Sephardi Jews, my family is scattered across many continents. My parents were born in Cairo...