President Isaac Herzog had a simple message to Australia’s Jews on Tuesday, as anti-Israel protests rocked the city of Sydney during the second day of his Australian visit: “Stay proud, Jewish, and Zionist.”
The message was delivered at two public events: the first in the morning at Moriah College to hundreds of flag-waving Am Yisrael Chai students, and the second in the evening at Chabad of Bondi, which lost a number of members – including its assistant rabbi, Eli Schlanger – in the December 14 terrorist attack on the first night of Channukah at the beach just down the road.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was at the evening event at Chabad.
“The terrorists sought to instill fear in the Jewish people – we will respond with renewed Jewish pride,” Herzog said. “They sought to divide our people with religious hate – we will respond with solidarity between all people of moral conscience of all faiths.
“They sought to turn our festivals into mourning – we will come together determined and unified, to celebrate our traditions, our heritage, our people.”
Albanese, who stood next to Herzog in front of the open ark in the sanctuary in the Chabad center, as a prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel was recited in Hebrew, did not address the gathering, but solemnly read out the names of the 15 killed. A number of them were members of the Chabad synagogue, and seats were left empty in the packed room in their honor.
Australian PM Albanese during Herzog’s visit to Chabad
One attendee at the ceremony speculated that Albanese did not speak at the event because of concern over how his words would be received. The Australian prime minister entered the hall alongside Herzog to warm applause. The two are scheduled to hold a formal meeting in Canberra on Wednesday.
While Albanese did not speak at the Chabad event, in parliament, he addressed the violent protests that have greeted Herzog’s visit and the criticism he has faced, including from within his own party, for inviting Herzog to Australia.
“In Australia, we can disagree peacefully and with respect,” he said. “I will treat President Herzog with respect. I’ve known him for a long period of time. He is someone with whom you can have a respectful discussion while examining the differences that exist. But he is here primarily to provide comfort for people who not only need it, but deserve it at this time.”
Albanese stressed that he will not “walk away from my support for his presence here, because it is appropriate that he be here at this time. And it’s appropriate that people understand the context, which is there: a community that is hurting, a community that is reaching out and just asking for some understanding.”
Albanese said it was time to “turn the temperature down” and that Australians do not want “the conflict to be brought here.”
Herzog, speaking at Moriah College, said that the demonstrators are not representative of the silent majority of Australians who want to see ties with Israel return to what they once were.
Before taking questions from students in the upper grades, the President and his wife, Michal, were greeted by hundreds of grade school children waving Israeli flags to the sound of Am Yisrael Chai over the loudspeakers.
Addressing the current state of Israeli-Australian relations, Herzog recalled his 2008 visit to the country, when he was met warmly by both sides of the aisle in parliament – a time of deep bipartisan support for Israel.
“Clearly something has happened in the last generation, and it has set in deep, and it has to be met,” he said, referring to Israel’s current standing in the country.
Herzog said he was well aware that the “demonstrators and protesters who are cursing us, saying the biggest lies and defamation against our nation,” are not going to listen. But, he said, “I believe that in the silent majority of Australians, there are many who definitely want to hear,” and to move the ties back to what they once were.
Herzog acknowledged the “ups and downs” Israel has had with the current government, but said that one of the goals of his current visit is to put the relations “back on track, upgrade them, and improve them.”
Herzog noted that the “huge wave” of global antisemitism is something that “we never expected to see in Australia, which is also the land of the free, and was also a safe haven to so many Jews who had come under the most horrific of circumstances.”
His recommendation to the students was the same as it was at the Chabad event: “Stand up, look them in the eye, don’t be afraid,” and be proud to be Jewish and Zionistic.
Asked by a teacher who identified herself as a Lebanese Christian whether he could ever imagine a day of peace between Israel and Lebanon, Herzog replied: “Absolutely, yes.”
“I know that the majority of Lebanese would love to live in peace with us,” he said. “Lebanon is a multicultural society, and I think now there is an opportunity, after Israel hit Hezbollah hard, that there is an opening for political change as well.”