A vigil of solidarity
David Ossip, president of The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, retold 5,500 participants at a solidarity vigil in Sydney that 240 human beings are sitting in dark tunnels, disoriented.
He said: “They are hostages taken by the Hamas terrorists, taken by Islamic Jihad terrorists and in some cases taken by ordinary Gazans.
They’ve been there for 36 days, night and day. In fear and in shock. Entire families, sisters, grandparents, babies and children with our parents, Israelis but not just Israelis. More than half of the hostages are citizens of some 25 other countries. Today, we come together not just the Jewish community but a spectrum of communities, representing the fact that the Hamas attack was not just on Israel or on Jews. But it was on humanity as a whole.
David Ossip
Every single one of those 240 hostages is a loved individual with families and aspirations. Our pledge to them, which we reaffirm today, is that for as long as their liberty is denied, we will pray for their welfare and speak out and demand that they be set free.”
Melissa McCurdie is the Honorary Secretary of The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies and vice-president of Magen David Adom. Her cousin Annie and her husband Yuval live in Kibbutz Be’eri which Hamas attacked on October 7. They were not in the kibbutz then, but Melissa told the rally about what happened to their family.
“Yuval’s 88-year-old granny hid all alone in her safe room for 12 hours until she was rescued. Three of her family were found brutally murdered. Yuval’s father, Shalom, his aunt Leila and her wheelchair-bound husband. Even his Filipino carer was found murdered. The remainder of the family, seven of them, were kidnapped to Gaza. This includes Yuval’s mother, his sister and her husband, his cousin Sharon, and three children aged three, eight and 12.
None of these seven have been heard from since. No sign of life has been provided. No word from the Red Cross. Absolutely nothing.
Waiting and not knowing are unbearable. Please, I asked you all to talk about them.”
President of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry Jillian Segal said: “Each hostage was someone’s loved one. Many were actually involved in peace initiatives with people across the border in Gaza. So it was not only a tragedy for them and a tragedy for their families but a tragedy for the world. They and, indeed, the dead represent not only Jews but also people from over 40 nations, making this a global catastrophe. The killing and hostage-taking were just indiscriminate. So let us be clear: October 7 broke the fake peace. There can be no ceasefire until every hostage has been released. There can be no ceasefire until the power of Hamas to threaten innocent communities has been vanquished.”
Melissa McCurdie
She added: “We saw the uprising of antisemitism here and in the rest of the world against Jews on the steps of our own Sydney Opera House. And we now have ongoing waves of antisemitism in our community, washing over us, frightening and shocking hate-filled speeches by Imams, a procession of motorcycles through the east in order to intimidate us, and antisemitic incidents on the ACA Jays assessment have soared by at least 400% Since October 7. We will not be intimidated.”
Alex Ryvchin is the co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry. In his own address, he said: “We now know that evil exists, and we know what it looks like. As our people have learned through bitter experience, evil cannot be bargained with or placated. It can only destroy or be destroyed. If, before October 7, the world did not know what we, as Jews and Zionists, were fighting for. Now, at least, they know what we are fighting against. And we, our generation, have seen that antisemitism may slumber, but it never dies. Now, it exists in chants in our streets. It mocks our businesses. It tries to terrorise us in our homes and in our synagogues. And if it is not confronted by us all, it will devour once more. But we know who we are. We know that we are the eternal people, the custodians of the eternal truth of the Torah. And we know that with our fellow Australians in the civilised, peace-loving world, we will complete our mission to defeat evil and bring light to the world.
Andrew Minsky the Vice President of the Ukrainian Council of New South Wales, talked about Ukraine having to deal with the terror of the Russian invasion saying, “Hamas and Russia are the same evil, with the only difference being that one is a terrorist organisation that attacked Israel and one is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine both Ukraine and Israel are facing enemies that seek to erase them from the map.
Representatives of other ethnic communities were introduced to the vigil. Standing with Israel were the Indian, Catholic, Chinese, Syrian, Iraqi, Greek and Africa communities. There were flags of countries from which some of the hostages had come. And there were Iranian flags on show.
Jillian Segal and Alex Ryvchin
Avi Efrat is an Australian-Israeli who has been very active in Israel’s case being heard in the media.
In a very impassioned speech, he said: “We are here today to bring awareness about the hostage, and our call to action is to put pressure on the Australian government to help release our people. This is the main message that we are here. The problem in Israel Hamas/ISIS is not only the problem of Israel. It is the problem of the world. The key point is radical terror groups affect the entire whole world. They would affect Sydney, Bali, London, Spain, France, the United States, and the list goes on.”
Avi Efrat
Avi Efrat said that his meetings have been in well-known spots in the public arena and said that some of his friends were scared to go.
He said: “I have an answer for those friends. Not under this generation. This generation is different. This generation is smarter. This generation is braver. This generation has courage.
A group of women went to Bondi Beach to hold an art demonstration with towels, thongs and posters. Then, two guys came to destroy the demonstration. The group of women had courage. They confronted those two people. They took up a very important weapon, their mobile phone and took video and showed Australia and the media that this behaviour is not acceptable.”
Iranian supporters
He said he was going to Canberra tomorrow to meet politicians and that he had more events to be run in the city, and he invited today’s participants to join him.
Avi Efrat called for a one minute’s silence to honour the 1400 people in Israel, Jewish and Christian Muslim B’hai, Druze, and every member of the family of Israel lost since October 7
He concluded by saying: “And a special honour to the brave women and men of the IDF we’ve lost fighting in the fight to bring home our hostages and protect not only Israel but the entire world.”
The Central Synagogue’s Rabbi Levi Wolff recited Kaddish after asking the vigil to keep their eyes closed and to think of those who have lost their lives and to those who remain hostages.
All photos: Henry Benjamin/J-Wire
Wonderful, vital speeches saying what needs to be said and to be heard. Jillian Segal, Alex Ryvchin, Melissa McCurdie and David Ossip, such fine workers for the Jewish people. I hadn’t known of Avi Efrat, but he sounds like just what we need!
There was a similar vigil in Brisbane CBD today (Sunday) organised by the Qld Jewish Board of Deputies and the State Zionist Council of Qld. Much smaller, of course, given the smaller population here, but just as passionately coherent and solid in unity. Support was given by members of the Iranian community with their flags and also by Norman and Barbara Miller, co-founders of the Indigenous Friends of Israel – they flew down from Cairns to take part, and Norman’s speech had great emotional impact for its historical knowledge and its fervent support; he also sang beautifully in Hebrew The Shema.
We must make our presence felt in every way, stand up and be proud and show who we are.