Grapevine December 11, 2024: Dereliction of duty Down Under

As someone born and raised in Australia, it is impossible for this columnist to ignore the unprecedented rise of antisemitism since October 7, 2023, in her hometown of Melbourne.

The firebombing that destroyed part of the ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel synagogue, along with five Torah scrolls, drew sharp condemnation from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, but at the same time was condemned by Jewish community leaders who complained of the inadequate clampdown on antisemitism by Albanese’s government.

The synagogue was built by Holocaust survivors from Hungary.

The attack and the damage have served to strengthen solidarity between all sectors of Melbourne’s Jewish community.

Prior to the government’s announcement that it is establishing a task force to combat antisemitism. Josh Frydenberg, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Australia and New Zealand, a former treasurer of Australia who before that held ministerial portfolios in resources, environment, and energy wrote a sharp letter to the prime minister, which reads as follows:

Letter to Australian PM

“The firebombing of the Adass synagogue in Melbourne is an absolute outrage, the latest in a long list of dangerous antisemitic attacks that have occurred on your watch.

“Social cohesion has broken down. The Jewish community is living in fear. Antisemitism has been normalized.

“So toxic has our environment become, one of our most distinguished Australians, former governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove, has felt the need to say ‘Hitler would be proud.’

“Prime Minister, what will it take for the penny to drop? For you and your ministers to step up, not step back from the challenges we face? To do your job, enforcing the law, leading from the front and not merely mouthing worthless words that mean nothing and lead to nothing?

“Your government’s inaction has emboldened those that hate and those that harm. It is clear to all those who want to see.

“This week hundreds of people were locked down in Sydney’s Great Synagogue, including your former colleague, Indigenous champion, Olympic champion Nova Peris, as pro-Palestinian protesters made it unsafe to leave.

“The week before in Woollahra, cars were torched, property defaced with antisemitic messages of hate.

“Days before that crowds openly called to globalize the intifada, called Jews Nazis, as they freely waved the flags of Hezbollah, a listed terrorist organization.

“And on and on it goes.

“On a daily basis Jewish Australians are intimidated and harassed, in our streets, on our campuses, and in their workplaces.

“Jewish artists are doxed and canceled. Jewish-owned businesses are boycotted and attacked.

“Young Jews are now fearful to publicly identify with their faith, while Holocaust survivors, long given a safe refuge and warm embrace here in Australia, now talk openly about leaving this country.

“Prime Minister, how have you let it get to this?

“Responsibility rests at your door. Our community, which has contributed so much to our country, now feels alone and vulnerable.

“If our prime minister does not and will not answer the call to action, what hope do the rest of us have of effecting real change?

“Let me be clear, this is not about Israel, although your government’s abandonment of a fellow democracy whose security and intelligence cooperation has saved Australian lives has been all too clear.

“This is about Australia, the country we want to be and not what we have become.

“We are at a pivotal moment in our history. Our treasured values of tolerance, respect, and the freedom to live freely and proudly practice one’s faith and traditions has been undermined, leaving us all less safe as a result.

“Once social cohesion has broken down, it is only a matter of time before another community is next.

“This is why the attack on Adass was not an attack on one, it was an attack on all.

“All Australians are paying the price, as our leaders have gone missing.

“Please, Prime Minister, see what is happening, understand what is happening, and act.

“To do otherwise is a dereliction of duty.”

■ BUT THERE’S also a reason for Melbourne’s Jewish community to rejoice. This week, the executive committee of the Mount Scopus Foundation, whose members are mostly alumni of Mount Scopus Memorial College, a Jewish day school founded in the same year as the State of Israel, hosted a gala dinner to mark the unveiling of a project that will enable the creation of a consolidated school campus combined with a state-of-the-art community hub.

In addition to bringing together the three campuses of the college, it will also enrich the community with new opportunities for facilities, cultural programs, and more contacts within the Jewish community.

Headed by David Gold, Mark Joel, and Tali Borowski, and including the college principal, Dan Sztrajt, who is also an alumnus, the foundation’s committee acquired land in the heart of Jewish Melbourne.

When the college initially opened, it was within walking distance of midtown Melbourne. Then, it moved out to Burwood, an outlying suburb, which at the time was far from Jewish residential, communal, and commercial areas. The college grew considerably over the years, necessitating additional campuses.

Now, in an era in which Jewish solidarity is imperative, all three campuses will be located together in the suburb of Caulfield, in which there are other Jewish schools and institutions, as there are in all the neighborhoods adjacent to Caulfield, and the college will offer opportunities for adult cultural events.

Geographically far from the rest of the Jewish world, Australia is not lacking in Jewish life, which flourishes in the full richness of its diversity.

■ FOR YEARS people living in close proximity to Sde Dov Airport in Tel Aviv complained about the noise made by low-flying planes. Opened in 1938, and named after Dov Hoz, one of the pioneers of Israeli aviation, the airfield was located in the midst of a residential area. After much controversy, it finally ceased operations on June 30, 2019, and the land was rezoned for high-rise luxury residential towers. Commercial flights were transferred to Ben-Gurion Airport.

The residential project, known as Ashira, is being built by the Avisror Group. The presenter of the project is popular actor Yehuda Levi, who has purchased a mini penthouse in the project, and who participated in laying the cornerstone. Also present at the ceremony were senior representatives of the Tel Aviv Municipality, architects, interior designers, and future residents.

■ OVER THE past year, many business enterprises have either downsized or closed down completely. But some are expanding, such as the recently opened Deli Vino wine bar in Tel Aviv, whose owner, Vladimir Dyachenko, announced at the opening that he intended for the Deli Vino brand to become the largest wine and delicatessen chain in the country.

Among well-known connoisseurs of both food and wine who attended the opening of the new store were lawyer Sassy Gez, broadcaster Merav Miller, Yosi Biton, a partner in KPMG, and many other prominent business figures, as well as people from the food and hospitality industries.

Guests were treated to the most sophisticated wines and other alcoholic beverages from the best wineries and distilleries in the world, all of which are in stock at Deli Vino branches in Netanya and Tel Aviv.

It’s quite a usual practice these days to have printed photos of the guests on magnets awaiting them on a table as they exit an event. But the people at Deli Vino went one better and printed portraits of the guests on the labels of wine bottles.

The Netanya link in the chain, which is the company’s flagship store, is doing well, and the plan now is to launch a series of workshops and tastings for wine lovers.

Broadcast shakeups

■ VETERAN JOURNALIST Calev Ben-David, who for the past eight years has been a news and current affairs program anchor at i24, bid viewers a graceful and gentlemanly farewell last week.

Early in his career in Israel, Ben-David worked for The Jerusalem Post, rising to the position of managing editor. He was later the founding director of the Jerusalem office of The Israel Project, a US-based advocacy group that took journalists, political figures, and others on tours of Israel for the purpose of seeing many facets of the country for themselves and forming opinions on the basis of what they saw and the people they met. Ben-David was also the political correspondent for the now defunct IBA News and later the Israel bureau chief for Bloomberg.

At i24, he was the presenter of The Rundown and Jewish World Weekly, and as popular for his broad New York twang as for the content of the programs.

At his farewell appearance last week, he said: “Unfortunately, I have to report that I will no longer be appearing on i24NEWS as anchor of its nightly news show, The Rundown, or the host of Jewish World Weekly, a program I proudly created.

“After eight years at the channel, I depart with sadness, but no regret. Quite the opposite; I am grateful to have contributed to the effort, especially in the months following Oct. 7, to demonstrate the importance, the necessity, of having an English-language channel, one which certainly focuses on news from an Israeli perspective but still adheres to the journalistic principles of fact-based reporting, allows for a multiplicity of views across the Israeli political spectrum, and, at least from my anchor’s chair, tries to present the story in the broadest possible context, and allow guests to freely express their opinions instead of forcing my own on them and the viewers.

“I thank all my colleagues past and present at i24NEWS for their support and patience over the years. Next month I can mark having spent four decades as a journalist in Israel, and 40 years has a special meaning in Jewish tradition, marking the end of one journey, and beginning of a new chapter. Whether that will be a continuation in the journalistic field or something else, I can’t say, but if not, my time at i24NEWS, especially over the past 14 months, will mark a fitting capstone to that long career.”

Given his experience and his broad range of knowledge (including an encyclopedic familiarity with the motion picture industry), Ben-David is bound to be snapped up by some English-language news outlet. It will benefit whoever gets him.

Ben-David, who has worked both in advocacy and journalism, says that advocacy is not a substitute for journalism. His own approach to journalism has been fairness, objectivity in context, and historical accuracy.

■ BEN-DAVID was not the only one making his farewells last week. In the diplomatic realm, Indian Ambassador Sanjeev Singla, his country’s longest-serving ambassador to Israel, held a farewell party at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv before taking up his next posting, in France. “I’m not complaining,” he said with a smile. Before heading for Paris, he will spend three weeks in Delhi with his family.

Although there have been some political upheavals in France, his time there will be somewhat calmer than the five plus years he spent in Israel – a period that he described in a diplomatic understatement as “eventful.”

■ SINGLA IS one of three ambassadors who set new records of longevity as representatives of their respective countries in Israel. Another is Thai Ambassador Pannabha Chandraramya, who will have served just over five years when she concludes her posting in February, and a third is Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov, who was among the many diplomats who came to wish Singla well.

Viktorov, who turns 61 next month, has been in Israel since April 2018, and has no idea how much longer he will be at his current post. “There are no limits in my country,” he said. That goes for both the time spent in any one place, or the age at which an ambassador must retire. That particular leeway is one of the residues of the Communist regime.

One of Soviet Russia’s most famous diplomats was Anatoly Dobrynin who served as ambassador to the United States from 1962 to 1986, was dean of the diplomatic corps, and is credited with normalizing Soviet-US relations.

Dobrynin, who died in Moscow in April 2010, served in the US during the administrations of six American presidents: John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Viktorov has served during the administrations of three Israeli prime ministers. Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister when Viktorov arrived. Then came prime ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid, before Netanyahu was back in office. There have also been two presidents during that period – Reuven Rivlin, to whom Viktorov presented his credentials, and current incumbent Isaac Herzog.

When it was suggested that he might stay in Israel till he’s 100, Viktorov showed that he was indeed acclimatized to the country. “Till 120,” he responded.

Although Singla served a year less than Viktorov, it was no less a memorable period. He was in Israel to witness that jubilation in 2020 following the signing of the Abraham Accords. He was later able to socialize with the heads of the diplomatic missions of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco, who at the time that he took up his post were unlikely to ever serve in Israel. He heard the anti-government and anti-judicial reform protest rallies, and he saw the demonstrations calling for the release of the hostages, following the Hamas massacre and kidnappings, and that wasn’t all.

Singla said that he felt immensely privileged to have served in Israel, adding that he will always remember the human landscape, the friendship of the Indian Jewish community, and the support he received in many quarters, particularly from the team at the Indian Embassy.Explaining his close connections with Israel’s Indian community, Singla said: “As diplomats, we are birds of passage, and connect with our tribes wherever we find ourselves.”

■ IT’S IRONIC that Asma Fawaz al-Assad, the wife of deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who with three grown children fled to Russia before her husband, has to find sanctuary there instead of in the UK, where she was born and raised. Now persona non grata in the land of her birth, Asma, who was the most influential female in Syria, now has to rely on the goodwill of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asma’s is not a Cinderella story like that of Eva Peron, the wife of Juan Peron, who was president of Argentina. The daughter of Syrian expatriates – a father who was a successful cardiologist, and a mother who was a diplomat, Asma grew up in an upper-middle-class environment and, prior to her marriage, worked in investment banking.

In Syria, she was a very influential figure in economic and government circles, and, in sharp contrast to the values of her upbringing and education, supported the murderous, tyrannical policies of her husband.

From an Israeli perspective, there is something symbolic in the fact that the Assad regime came to an end in the week of the 100th anniversary of the birth of super spy Eli Cohen, who was executed and buried in Syria. If the new powers that be prove to be as democratic as they claim, his remains may finally be returned to Israel and his family, and he will have a proper Jewish funeral.

■ TO MARK the 44th anniversary of the death of Beatles founder and co-lead singer John Lennon, who was murdered in New York on December 8, 1980, Israel Radio played a clip of a recording of Lennon, his wife Yoko Ono, and former MK Akiva Nof singing a song about Jerusalem in Hebrew.

Lennon and Ono were on a peace tour and were traveling around to protest the Vietnamese War. Nof was a reporter for Israel Radio. He was also a poet, songwriter, and composer. In New York, he went to the Hilton Hotel, where Lennon and Ono were staying as part of their bed-in protest, and persuaded them to sing a Hebrew song about Jerusalem, which Nof had written and taught to Lennon at a previous meeting in Amsterdam. Then the three of them sat on the couple’s double bed and sang it. Nof recorded the event, and it was taken out of the Israel Radio archives this week.

Nof, who is also a lawyer, celebrated his 88th birthday on December 2. Yoko Ono is 91. Lennon was born 84 years ago, and despite the fact that more than four decades have passed since his death, his popularity has not faded.

■ THE FORUM of Wives of the Wounded has called on the public to mark the 17th of Kislev, which corresponds with December 18, as a special day honoring wounded soldiers and victims of terrorism.

The forum, which is supported by MK Michal Woldiger, was established almost immediately after the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023.

Wives of security personnel who were wounded when defending the areas under attack from Gaza, banded together in order to help each other cope with the new challenges confronting the families of the wounded. Whether the wounded are physically or mentally affected, or both, it places a strain on their families, in that some of the wounded are unable to perform simple tasks for themselves, and family members have to learn new skills in order to be able to look after them.

The forum wants to create greater awareness of what the wounded and their families are experiencing, and simultaneously wants greater recognition of the heroism of the wounded, many of whom have made sacrifices that have cost them limbs, hearing, and eyesight. Others suffer psychological traumas which may last a lifetime.

As the nation gradually returns to a normal lifestyle, the forum urges individuals not to forget the human costs in reaching that point.

For further information email neshothaptzuim@gmail.com

■ LOVERS OF klezmer music may be interested in attending a concert on December 22 at the Felicja Blumental Music Center, 26 Bialik Street, Tel Aviv, by the Duo Minerva, which was recently awarded the title of New Austrian Sound of Music for 2025-2026.

Now traveling the world as cultural ambassadors, the Duo Minerva, comprising clarinetist Johanna Gossner from Tyrol and accordionist Damian Keller from Vorarlberg, will give a onetime-only recital in Israel. The concert is not limited to klezmer alone, but includes other Jewish music, some with new arrangements.

The duo has won various prizes, and is included in the performers who are under the sponsorship of the renowned Club Klassik – Vienna Music Society. The concert in Tel Aviv is under the auspices of the Austrian Cultural Forum and Spectacular World of Jewish Music. Tickets are NIS 70, and can be purchased at GoShow.co.il or by telephoning *6119.

■ JUDICIAL REFORM is not a new concept in Israel. Part of Israel’s legal system is an offshoot of the British legal system which was in force during the period of the British Mandate prior to the establishment of the state. But in 1948, in the first year of the state’s existence, David Ben-Gurion wrote: “We do not yet have a jury system. I hope that one day it will be part of our legal constitution, as in England and the US. It should be the average person with common sense who will judge us.”

This year, for the first time since its establishment in 1974 under the Ben-Gurion law, the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute was among the recipients of the Ben-Gurion award, presented annually by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Institute is dedicated to preserving and promoting Ben-Gurion’s legacy, his pioneering values, his leadership vision, and his belief in the enrichment of cultural and civic dialogue.

The Ben-Gurion Award ceremony is held annually on Ben-Gurion Day, which is on the anniversary of his death, the Jewish calendar date of which was this week. Ben-Gurion died on December 1, 1973, at the age of 87.

His big dream was to make the desert bloom. He would be pleased to see the difference between what the Negev looks like today and how it looked when he settled there in his declining years.

On receiving the award from BGU President Daniel Chamovitz, Eitan Donitz, who heads the Ben-Gurion Heritage Institute, said: “This is a very meaningful moment for the institute and its dedicated, unending work in disseminating the legacy of the old man. [Ben-Gurion was referred to as the old man even before he entered the third age.] Receiving the award is a reflection of our obligation to continue to disseminate his heritage. It is both a natural and an urgent thing to do so, in order to influence Israeli society.”

Donitz added that the institute functions out of a sense of mission, with a message for Israelis of all ages, including children.

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