Racism has an ugly face

Racism has an ugly face

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22324139-5000117,00.html

Christopher Bantick

Australia Herald Sun

August 29, 2007 12:00amA WEEK after the unprovoked attacks on two Jewish teenagers in Balaclava, there are some lessons to be learnt.That anti-Semitic baseball-bat wielding thugs are causing injury in Carlisle St is bad enough, but there was a fearful symmetry. It was the 20th anniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess, Hitler's Nazi party deputy. In simple terms, many Jews feel unsafe on Melbourne's streets, and this reality should appal all fair-minded people. Last October, Melbourne man Menachem Vorchheimer was attacked and vilified by a group of footballers on an end-of-season trip. This was not high-spirited fun, but undiluted racism. In state Parliament last week, the Member for Caulfield, Helen Shardey, expressed her unease over rising anti-Semitism in Melbourne. Shardey said she was told Jewish children in primary schools were being "racially vilified by other children as young as eight". Evidence from the hierarchy of Victoria's Jewish community indicates that over the past year, there have been upwards of 160 attacks on Jews in Victoria. Yet, many assaults go unreported according to Alon Tam, one of the two Jewish teenagers assaulted in Balaclava. "I guess when you're living in this area, most people see it as a thing you get used to," he said. "A lot of people don't go to the police because some people think of it as normal and people have to realise that it is not." The Jewish community is historically aware of the costs of anti-Semitism. The memory of the Holocaust and the continuing presence of neo-Nazi anti-Semitism on the internet, not to mention infiltration into European political life by far-Right groups, is reason enough for disquiet. On the same night the two Jewish teenagers were being set upon in Balaclava, eight Indian tourists were chased and assaulted by a neo-Nazi mob in the town of Mugeln near Leipzig. As it turned out, the thugs who attacked the Jewish teenagers in Balaclava chased an Indian down the street before they saw the Jewish boys. Anyone who has seen the new film This is England will realise, racially based hatred can have devastating consequences. This time it was not Jews, but immigrants from Pakistan. It is disturbing that Melbourne's Jewish community lives with lingering fear. The Jewish Community Council and the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission released a joint statement after the Balaclava violence. "We are outraged at this anti-Semitic attack which was perpetrated in the heart of the Jewish community. "Members of the Jewish community should not be subject to these sorts of attacks." Later on the day of the Balaclava assaults, I attended the ceremony to commemorate the 64th anniversary of the uprising and liquidation of the Bialystock ghetto in Poland. The service at the Holocaust Research Centre in Elsternwick was dignified and intensely moving. To prevent the rise of anti-Semitism and racism more broadly, it is imperative all Victorian children are taught about the Holocaust and why this continues to be a crime against not just the Jewish community, but humanity generally. The 64th Bialystock anniversary service in Elsternwick ended with the singing of Advance Australia Fair. The pity was that words declaring we are "young and free" seemed hollow. Two teenagers on a Melbourne suburban street assaulted for being Jewish were young but how free? Christopher Bantick is a Melbourne writer and social commentator.

Blogmaster’s rant: Why is the Jewish World in the Dark regarding the desperate rise of anti-Semitism in Australia? Who is to blame because the only story about this issue must be ferreted out by individual searches? The broadcast media could give a S..t less about Jews being beaten and Jewish business being attacked and Jews being afraid to walk the streets. What is to be done to make our communities in the Diaspora safe?.... NOTHING CAN BE DONE… PACK UP YOUR BELONGINGS AND MOVE TO ISRAEL NOW!!!.