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the melbourne jewish report | April 2022
AROUND
T H E
COMMUNITY
Hatred has no place
RABBI GABI KALTMANN ARK CENTRE I decided to become an ordained rabbi because I wanted to serve my community. I have a naturally outgoing personality. I like people and enjoy textual study, so the profession seemed like a natural fit. Most days my job revolves around ritual: from leading daily prayers to officiating at weddings and funerals and being there for my congregants who can call me at any time for anything that they need My work is not limited to the Jewish community though. I sit on multifaith boards and advise state and federal governments. I founded the Pillar of Lights multicultural festival in Federation Square. I cherish my friendships with other communal faith leaders. That is why when hostilities flared between Israel and Gaza last month the reactions from my fellow faith leaders hurt. The gut punches hit me quickly and severely. Phone call after phone call, text message after text message. “Israel is an apartheid state.” “Israel is committing genocide.” The calls were from people I had worked with. They were from other faith and community leaders, from friends and professional colleagues. During the pandemic we had spent hours on the phone talking, trying to keep our places of worship open and safe for our congregants. And yet now, they were telling me that Israel was committing atrocities. Those calling me spanned all faiths. Most did not mention the recent terrorist attacks in Tel Aviv and Be’er Sheva, nor the stoning of buses in Jerusalem, nor the rocket attacks that never seem to cease. Somehow, though, they felt berating me as a community rabbi meant I had some shared responsibility for the Israeli government’s actions. Like most Jewish people around the world, I prayed for speedy resolution of this latest conflict. I am a millennial, a 30-year-old who joined social media at the age of 17, when Facebook was still in its inception. In the 13 years since, my generation has witnessed the way the platform has morphed from being fun and social to something far more sinister. It has become a place where fringe opinions gain traction to amplify their hate to a large audience. Denigration, abuse and conspiracy theories abound. In short, social media has become simply terrifying. In the past month, influenced by mass hysteria, people I know and respect felt validated to express positions that don’t acknowledge the long and complex history of the Middle East. Most people I follow felt that they had the right to weigh in on the conflict. While the comments were about Israel, they were addressed to all Jews. The hate on my feed was endless for the entirety of the duration of the fighting. It seemed to come from all sides and from everyday people, not just from the fringes of society, where you may expect to see such hatred to propagate.
Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann (in the forefront of the photo) with Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the Ark Centre recently We must learn how to combat this intolerable and incessant vile rhetoric. Social media animosity leads to devastating real-life consequences. My old rabbinical school in Caulfield was recently graffitied with the words “Free Palestine”. My son’s school was targeted with similar scrawl on the main driveway, next to the school building. These are Jewish places of worship and education, far from the conflict and not involved in any political activity. These places are where we, as Jews, want to feel safe to pass on our ageold traditions, but there is a deeply unsettling feeling brewing. Despite the anxiety that many Jewish people are feeling right now, I strongly believe that the solution is more dialogue and discussion, more education and empathy. Instead of blasting each other on social media or on impersonal platforms, we need to get personal with each other and talk face-to-face. I refuse to let this experience dampen my commitment to intercultural and multifaith work. There is so much good that can be done and I wholeheartedly believe that as long as we are committed to education and dialogue, hearts and minds can be shaped. I’m not pretending that the road ahead is easy. Sometimes the hate and prejudice can feel insurmountable, however we all need to start somewhere. If you have never met a Jewish person, it somehow feels easier to denigrate an entire people. Once I explained how Jewish people globally felt under attack due to hostilities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, many of my fellow faith and community leaders apologised. They still had their concerns, but they had a new understanding of what it meant to be a Jewish person living in the diaspora during a fraught period in Israel.
What is happening in Australia and around the world scares Jewish people more than you can imagine. The events in the Middle East are complicated, but intense emotions and discussions
on social media that demonise all Jews have repercussions. As we come together celebrating the Jewish State’s 74th birthday, let us take a moment to reflect that Australia is not immune.
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