They didn’t come to kill just people. They came to kill Jews

“I have no words” is in many of the many messages I have been receiving from Australia and from around the world. The words are appropriate because many of us have no words to describe the flow of liminal emotions passing through our systems as we mourn the dead and injured and as we process what the events at Bondi beach mean for the way we live as Jews in Australia. 

The thing is that there are words to describe what happened: people were murdered, assassinated, slaughtered, mowed down, terrorised, targeted, terrified, hurt, killed, maimed. There are words to describe the victims: they were Jews, Jewish people, rabbis, and they were celebrating a Jewish festival: Chanukah. 

I am finding that the media, many organisations and people expressing their shock and horror do not mention the words above - especially the word Jew or Jewish. Even antisemitic is absent sometimes. 

I am a publisher, media owner, a humanist and a Jew and I find that each article that espouses generalised platitudes about humanity is insufferable at this point. It negates the individual human experience and the very real stories of each person's experience and suffering as a result of the Bondi massacre. 

It's also dangerous. Dangerous because it allows the writer and reader to slip away from the very difficult task of embedding in our emotions and psyche the devastating nature of what has occurred. What's written are flip niceties and they mean many people will just move on rather than addressing the deeper issues we must face - the growth of antisemitism and racism in our Australia.