{"id":3724,"date":"2024-12-09T13:39:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T21:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=3724"},"modified":"2024-12-09T14:01:28","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T22:01:28","slug":"such-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2024\/12\/09\/such-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Such a week…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Part of the annual report into antisemitism in Australia was released last week<\/a>. Also last week (just before I left Melbourne to come home, in fact) a synagogue was firebombed. Thankfully there were no casualties in the attack. But..<\/p>\n

I am now facing the deluge of comments one gets after the news was released. So many of those talking about the attack believe it is by \u201cZionist Jews.\u201d I want to stand up and shout that every single one of these people is a bigot. They\u2019re using the fourth definition to \u201cZionist\u201d to replace most of the poison inherent in the words they’re using to replace “Zionist”, such as “Jews.” This definition reflects the emotion and hate in the mind of the user. It does not reflect Australian Jews at all. Take my siblings: some support Israel, some don\u2019t, some are quiet on the subject because they believe it\u2019s not anyone else\u2019s business. And one of us (not me) is Ultra-Orthodox and has links to the burned synagogue. None of us have any wish to burn down any synagogue, much less one filled people books we love and people who know members of our family.<\/p>\n

I saw walls of Talmud charred to black and it reminded me of the times when (in Europe) supersession saw Jews expelled from their homeland of hundreds (possibly up to 1400) years, and in other places saw cartloads and cartloads and cartloads and cartloads of Talmuds burned. Those burnings were to make certain that Jewish culture and religion was frozen at the time of Jesus, because that was the only relationship with Jews that these particular Christians could handle. Note I said \u201cthese particular Christians.\u201d Most contemporary Christians and contemporary Muslims do not condone barbaric acts. They are not the people crying that all Jews need to be deported from Australia, to make way for a return of the old White Australia.<\/p>\n

The \u2018old White Australia\u2019 is a fiction. \u201cWhite Australia\u201d is complex but has very little in common with what those shouting think. I want to sit down and teach them some history. Literally, in terms of people, before Europeans came it was not White at all, and when the First Fleet arrived\u2026 there were Jewish convicts on it. The members of the public shouting about Australian Jews not being White and not being wanted here has returned, but I\u2019m still told I have White privilege. Most of those telling me I have White privilege and should be deported came from families who arrived here after my own. And the shouts are louder right now.<\/p>\n

I can give you the old and new definitions of Zionism if definitions can help you deal. I can also give you a photograph. The photograph is more, fun, so I\u2019ll only give you the definitions if you want them (just ask!).<\/p>\n

Why the photograph? The Myer Christmas windows are a feature of the Melbourne landscape at this time of year. This year, the pro-Palestinians marchers (some of them are the same people who want me deported and blame Jews for everything that hurts) protested against them. We all looked for reasons. Maybe it was because Myer was founded by someone Jewish\u2026 except Sidney Myer converted to Christianity. Maybe they hate all people who have Jewish ancestry? That’s the purity of blood notion, used to hurt those who could not shake off their Jewishness enough in Early Modern Spain and Spanish territories. If you’re not familiar with this long moment in the history of the Spains, look up ‘Torquemada.’\u00a0 Jewish ownership of business? Myer is not owned by Jews. This means that either the Christmas windows themselves are deeply offensive (and aimed at children, therefore problematic) or those protesting them are idiots. I\u2019ll let you decide:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
Melbourne, December 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of the annual report into antisemitism in Australia was released last week. Also last week (just before I left Melbourne to come home, in fact) a synagogue was firebombed. Thankfully there were no casualties in the attack. But.. I am now facing the deluge of comments one gets after the news was released. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[636,56,17],"tags":[656,112,970,965],"class_list":["post-3724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-life-experiences","category-rants","tag-antisemitism","tag-australia","tag-jews","tag-melbourne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3727,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3724\/revisions\/3727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}