In the Media

“When I stepped into an avalanche, It covered up my soul …”

In 1971 the celebrated Jewish poet and singer Leonard Cohen wrote these words during a period of deep depression, when “absolutely everything was beginning to fall apart”.

Over the last year, living as a Jew who loves Israel, I too feel like I have stepped into an avalanche. I am sure I’m not alone in feeling this way. Everything we have taken for granted as proud Jewish citizens of Australia seems to be falling apart. Antisemitic slurs are given voice by prominent public figures, Jewish artists are doxxed and abused, Jewish school children are targeted, university students are intimidated, and Jewish customers are denied service. Jewish businesses are being boycotted and our places of worship are being attacked.

Never before have I felt what my mother and father must have experienced in Lithuania before the Second World War, when they were forced to flee from violent antisemitic groups. Suddenly my mother’s memory of being attacked by a group of kids and having acid thrown at her when she was just seven years old doesn’t seem so distant.

Living with uncertainty

I cannot remember carrying a weight like this. During this age of rage, the hatred is ubiquitous and our capacity to communicate is collapsing. What is perhaps most distressing is the lack of filters — so many seem to feel free to express whatever comes into their mind, with little reflection, little thoughtfulness. Is social media bringing the worst out of them, or are these the antisemitic feelings that have been there all along? I try not to think about that question too often, because I am frightened of the answer.

I am in despair because polarisation reigns. Black and white are the only colours. Simplistic thinking has pervaded our public spaces — it is also sadly evident in Israel and in many within the Jewish community.

We desperately need to seek out and embrace nuance, even when it’s uncomfortable. In my interfaith work I don’t avoid the difficult or unsettling conversations with liberal Christians, Buddhists or Muslim clerics. You grow stronger through living with uncertainty and confronting dissent — this conviction underlies the Jewish tradition of debate, argument and disagreement. You encounter it on almost every page of the Talmud and implicitly in our daily prayers.

No other home

It is true that much of this polarisation and outrage is fuelled by the war in between Israel and Hamas, and a seeming inability on the part of many to distinguish between Australia’s Jewish population and the government of Israel. I too agonise over some of the actions of the Netanyahu government — especially the decision earlier this year to withhold food from the residents of Gaza.

I am driven to distraction by the right-wing extremists who are riding roughshod across the landscape of Israeli politics. My heart is shredded by the acute suffering of our hostages and their families, and by the incalculable loss of life endured by the population of Gaza.

Despite my criticisms of Israeli politics, I know there is no other country for the Jewish people. For all its faults, Israel remains a democracy where some the Netanyahu government’s harshest critics are free to express their opinions. I am thus often bewildered by the unendingly jaundiced, one-eyed coverage of Israel by mainstream media outlets — from the ABC to the BBC, from Al Jazeera to CNN.

Choosing life, choosing love

I am tempted to seek refuge in some safe corner until conditions improve. I am tired of talking about hatred. I’ve grown weary from the unrelenting barrage of hostility against Jewish people.

But the words of Deuteronomy speak to me with an alarming and urgent clarity: “I place before you today a blessing and a curse. Choose the blessing, choose life” (11:26). I will choose love over retreat, reconciliation with those who choose dialogue before death, healing and repair rather than revenge and destruction.

That’s not to say I’m naïve, however. I will not choose capitulation in the face of those who wish to destroy me, my family and my people. As a Jew this Yom Kippur, I will again reassert that we are a people dedicated to life — l’Chaim, “for life”, is the refrain of so many of our prayers.

The celebration of weddings in Israel and the interfaith engagements taking between Israelis and Palestinians constantly remind me that love can be cultivated even in the midst of war, grief and loss. In a time of hate, we need to reaffirm love.

Love and chesed (heart-felt kindness) are about not invalidating the other, but about sharing the burden of protecting your community and your country. It is about eschewing extremism (on both the right and the left) and pursuing the path of radical moderation. If we do not find that biblical darchei noam, the way of peace and pleasantness, of reaching out in care and consideration to the other, what kind of world are we creating?

The invitation to love

Love is power. American playwright Thornton Wilder called it the only hope, the only survival. South African writer Alan Paton said that when one loves genuinely, one does not seek power because they already possess real power. “And you shall love”, Veahavta, is the imperative of Jewish prayer and of our most famous prayer — the Shema Yisrael.

Back in 2020, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks invited us to reflect on the meaning of love during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur:

As we ask God to write us in the Book of Life, He asks us, what have you done with your life thus far? Have you thought about others or only about yourself? Have you brought healing to a place of human pain or hope where you found despair? You may have been a success, but have you also been a blessing? Have you written other people in the Book of Life?

As we approach the awesome High Holiday season on the Jewish calendar, I will pray more intensely and commit all the more passionately to pursue the path of life and love for my people, my community, the people of Israel, for all humanity. May we all step into an avalanche of love and compassion.

Rabbi Ralph Genende OAM is the Interfaith and Community Liaison at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.