Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, sends out daily bulletins of antisemitic incidents in Melbourne, though the photograph of the anti-Netanyahu poster taken on the corner of St. Kilda and Dandenong roads was sent by someone else. Although Abramovich is given a platform on both the print and electronic media to report on and condemn such incidents, as does the Australian government, the incidents continue to increase despite generous contributions by members of the Jewish community to human rights organizations, the arts, academic institutions, hospitals, politics, environmental protection, journalism the legal profession and more.
■ WHILE HIS first love is and eternally will be Jerusalem, President Reuven Rivlin loves every town and city in Israel, especially Beersheba, which he says is an example of turning Zionism into a reality in the Negev, and will therefore always have a warm place in his heart. The feeling is obviously mutual, because when Rivlin visited the Beersheba Mental Health Center this week to meet with heads of mental health centers in the Southern District, he also stopped off at Beersheba’s City Hall where Mayor Ruvik Danilovich presented him with honorary citizenship of the capital of the South, and thanked him for his constant assistance as a member of Knesset, speaker of the Knesset and throughout his presidency.
“The least we could do to acknowledge what you have done is give you Honorary Citizenship,” said Danilovich.
At his meeting with heads of mental health centers, Rivlin was shocked to learn how long youngsters with mental health issues have to wait for an appointment with a therapist. It is inconceivable that children and young people from the South with mental health issues, brought on by living under security threats for two decades coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, should have to wait for between eight months and two years to be seen, said Rivlin.
“It is untenable that there should be gaps between mental health provision in the South and in the center of the country. That is a failing grade for all of us. There should be no difference. Every person in Israel deserves appropriate mental health provision, regardless of where they live or their socio-economic status.”
■ ZOOM-WEARY members of the Israel, Britain and the Commonwealth Association were thrilled to come to an afternoon tea reception this week at the residence of Australian ambassador Paul Griffiths.
IBCA chair Brenda Katten was delighted to have a live, in-person event after having been forced for so long to resort to online contacts. And Griffiths for his part said it was hard to believe that this was the first event he was hosting at the residence eight months into his term.
When she announced how pleased she was to see so many people at a live event, there was a big concurring cheer from the audience and a spontaneous chorus of the sheheheyanu prayer, signifying how happy everyone was to have lived to see this day.
Praising Australia as the first country in support of Israel and the Jewish people for many years, Katten presented a brief historical review going back to October 1917, when Australian military forces played a vital role in bringing Ottoman rule to an end, thereby prompting the famous letter by Lord Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild known as the Balfour Declaration. Herbert Evatt, the former deputy prime minister of Australia, as president of the United Nations General Assembly and chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian question, was an influential figure in the negotiation that led to the creation of the State of Israel; and Australia was the first country to vote yes on the partition of Palestine. Evatt later wrote in his memoirs, “I regard the establishment of Israel as a great victory of the United Nations.”
Katten paused momentarily to remark, “I wish they felt that way today.”
Katten also noted that Australia took in Holocaust survivors in great numbers after the Second World War. Australia was not only a good friend in the past, said Katten, but one of seven countries that consistently vote with Israel at the UN. She concluded by saying that she wished that other countries would emulate Australia’s example.
In introducing Griffiths to his guests, Katten mentioned that he had taken a sabbatical from the Foreign Service to work for an American technology company in London, but when asked if he would like to be Australia’s ambassador to Israel, his response had been, “How could I miss this opportunity to go to the Holy Land?”
Mindful of the name of the organization that he was hosting, Griffiths held up what he called “Her Majesty’s mug,” from which he drinks every morning, he said.
Griffiths, who came to Israel last September, was frustrated by his inability to meet people due to COVID restrictions, and said he was “very excited to be meeting people in the flesh.”
When he and Katten started talking some time ago about the possibility of him hosting an IBCA event, they thought it would be post-COVID, “but we didn’t anticipate post-conflict.”
Griffiths commended Israel for the success of its vaccination program, adding that his own family, who don’t live in Israel but were able to visit, were vaccinated in Israel.
Once the COVID restrictions were relaxed, he was very happy to be eating out in restaurants, though he found the civil unrest “hard to watch.” Nonetheless, it was interesting for him to talk about it with people in government and with young people in the cycling club to which he belongs. (Griffiths is an avid cyclist and brought his bike with him to Israel.)
Australia had called out indiscriminate attacks against Israel and recognized Israel’s right to defend itself, he said, but at the same time it lamented the deaths of innocent Palestinians, welcomed the ceasefire and looked forward to sustainable peace and getting closer in its relations with Israel.
“We’re a long way from each other geographically,” he said, “but our parliamentary friendship is very close.”
In addition to IBCA members and friends, guests included Cypriot Ambassador Theodora Constantinidou, Sri Lankan Ambassador Waruna Wilpatha, Nigerian Charges D’Affaires and Head of Mission Francisca Omyuli, and Canadian Deputy Defense Attaché Maj. Paul Hook, who came in civilian attire.
■ FARHUD, THE violent pogrom- carried out against the Jews of Baghdad on June 1 and 2, 1941, in which hundreds of Jews were killed and many dispossessed, will be commemorated by expatriate Iraqi Jewish communities in Israel and around the world next week.
In 2015, June 1 was proclaimed International Farhud Day at a live, globally streamed side event at the United Nations. On June 1 this year, Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi will host an 80th anniversary Farhud commemorative event in which various speakers will discuss the history, culture and expulsion of the Jews of Iraq.
Curiously, the list of speakers does not include Yossi Alfi, story-teller, author, actor and director who was born in Iraq and whose story-telling shows featuring people from all sectors of Israeli society according to national background, profession or social activism, including people of different faiths and political viewpoints. These story-telling programs have been recorded and are regularly rebroadcast on radio and television. Regardless of the topic or the national heritage of participants, Alfi somehow manages to inject something about Iraq into almost every program. It is doubtful that anyone speaks more frequently for Iraq in the most positive of terms than does Alfi.
Among Israeli Jews of Iraqi birth or descent are Shlomo Hillel and Mordechai Ben Porat, famous for their involvement in organizing illegal emigration from Iraq and for numerous public roles that they held; Rabbis Yitzhak Kaduri and Ovadia Yosef; former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Levi; business tycoon and former MK Shlomo Eliahu; former defense ministers and army generals Binyamin Ben Eliezer and Yitzhak Mordechai; authors Sami Michael and Eli Amir, former Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik, former health minister Shoshana Arbeli Almozlino, and actor Arieh Elias, among many others
■ POLISH AMBASSADOR Marek Magierowski has shared an article from Poland’s online English-language publication The First News about government plans to boost the number of people receiving COVID vaccinations.
It seems that Poles are not too keen to get a jab, so the government has come up with an incentive: a monthly lottery in which there will be two prizes of PLN 1 million (€223,000) plus a number of smaller cash prizes. In announcing the lottery, Michal Dworczyk, the government’s vaccination commissioner, said that it would also be open to people who have already been vaccinated. “No one will be excluded,” he promised.
As of Tuesday morning of this week, 18 million of Poland’s 38 million citizens had received jabs against COVID-19, with 5.5 million people fully vaccinated.
■ A MONTH has passed since the Meron tragedy. Forty-five people to whom the Sabbath was important did not live to see another Shabbat, did not hear a wife or mother recite the blessing over the Shabbat candles, which today are also memorial candles.
The reason we light at least two candles is because we are commanded to zachor (remember) and shemor (guard or preserve) the Sabbath to keep it holy.
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