The Jewish community

April 14, 2026

I usually respect John Warhurst, but his article on the Jewish community made me both angry and distressed. Like many other Jews I do not recognise myself in this account, which somehow assumes that the mainstream Jewish organisations represent all of us. There are many Australian Jews who would disagree with almost everything in John’s description, in particular the assumption that we all see Israel as our “homeland”: yes, Israel would recognise me as a citizen, but for me–and for many others–Israel is a foreign country and we were deeply offended when PM Albanese referred to President Herzog as “our” head of state. John acknowledges the Jewish Council, one of a number of Australian Jewish organizations which have a very different sense of what being an Australian Jew means, but by positioning it against the “official” Jewish lobby he seems to suggest that not supporting Israel is to somehow be less Jewish.