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Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner Ro Allen, Race Commissioner Chin Tan, VMC Commissioners, JCCV President Philip Zajac and Jewish community leaders attended The Pillars of Light Chanukah event at Melbourne’s Federation Square in Melbourne.

Premier Allan lit the giant menorah accompanied by Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann, who organised the event.

A highlight was the speech by the Muslim CEO of the Victorian Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, Mo Elrafihi.

He spoke about the importance of social cohesion, spoke against antisemitism and the effects October 7 and recent events had on the Jewish community:

In his address, he said: “I want to take this opportunity – on behalf of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria – to wish each and every one of you a happy Chanukah. This festival is a wonderful time of year. A time of re-dedication and celebration. But, this year, it is also a time of unease.

Our communities have been deeply impacted by the devastating events that we have witnessed over the past two months.  It’s important to acknowledge the hurt many of our Australian communities currently feel.

People are worried about the rising tide of anti-Semitism.  People are worried about social cohesion. And I am worried, too. I am worried because I see how far we have come and how much we have achieved together as a multicultural community. And I remember the wise words of ECCV founder and first Chairman – the great Jewish community leader Walter Lippmann – who warned that, without constructive engagement, Australia would find itself ‘polarized into a collection of unfriendly, separate subcultural groups.’ Walter Lippmann was right.

Our multicultural communities must remain strong – and be strong enough to keep engaging constructively with each other.”

There are times in life when we feel the weight of history- individually and collectively. I felt that weight in 2015 when I visited the Holy Land for the first time and – as the Australian-born son of a Muslim Lebanese father and a mother who was raised Syrian Orthodox Christian – walked the streets of Jerusalem.

Our Chinese community felt that weight in 2020 during those first fearful reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Ukrainian and Russian communities have felt that weight ever since war broke out in 2022. Our Hindu and Sikh communities felt that weight during the Khalistan referendum earlier this year. Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community felt that weight during the Voice referendum.

We all felt that weight when we saw neo-Nazis parading outside State Parliament earlier this year – or down the streets of Ballarat last week. And our Australian Jewish and Muslim communities are feeling that weight the right now. Our Jewish Community has felt that weight since those horrendous attacks of October 7. And is grappling with the rise of antisemitism in Australia.

Moments like these test us as people and communities. They test us because they apply pressure to our principles – and we find out what we really believe. That is the weight of history. The Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria was made for moments like this. Almost 50 years ago a generation of men and women who survived the Depression, World War Two and the Cold War came together to forge our organisation – Among them were people who survived the Holocaust, people who knew what it was like to be a refugee, people who experienced the White Australia policy.

What defines us as Australians is our ability to accept difference. Different backgrounds, different faiths, different languages, different sexuality, different cultures: one Australia. My point. We are all Australians. And, as Australians, we cannot let current international events undermine the social cohesion and harmony that define and benefit our multicultural communities.

The scenes we saw a few weeks ago in Caulfield and the Neo-Nazi March in Ballarat we saw last Sunday are to be condemned. Those scenes are not who we are. That is why we must stand together as Australians. We must stand together against the rising tide of anti-Semitism. We must stand together against the rising tide of Islamophobia. We must unequivocally condemn acts of hatred and violence by whoever they’re done by. We must not allow fear and prejudice to overshadow the principles that define and protect us as Australians.

And I am proud to stand here as an Australian Muslim today with Victoria’s Jewish community to celebrate the festival of lights and the differences that make our nation so great… With the lighting of each Chanukkah candle, let’s keep hoping for a better future and standing together.”

As the CEO of the ECCV and a Muslim I’m proud to have celebrated the Festival of Lights with our Jewish community and the differences that make our nation so great. The Festival of Lights is an important reminder that even in the darkest times, our multicultural communities can come together as Australians.”