I am delighted to have another article in the Newcastle Herald today – again it is centre page under their editorial….and again they did me the courtesy of publishing it without editing it down….I am grateful to the Lord for these opportunities….carpe diem!
Here is the full text –
The cinema was packed. The usual noises of people eating crisps and slurping juice could be heard as the film started. And then slowly but surely the place became quiet – deadly quiet. As we left the cinema no one send a word. I think most of us were in shock because of what we had seen. The film was Schindler’s List – a film that I have watched many times since – to remind me of man’s inhumanity to man…or to put it more bluntly, of humanities inhumanity towards the most persecuted group in history – the Jews.
When I came to Australia, I was so proud of its history of being the most welcoming country (outside of Israel) to the Jewish people. Here was a place they could come, thrive and be safe. No more. Two years of increasing antisemitism came to a head last Sunday when 15 people were killed on Bondi beach just because they were Jewish.
I am not Jewish. But my whole life is based on what we have received from the Jewish people. I read the Hebrew psalms every day – and we sing them on Sunday. We continually pray for the peace of Israel. So, I have spent the week in shock and in mourning. But that is nothing to pain and distress the Jews of the Hunter Valley (between 500-1,000) have felt.
I spoke to Rabbi Yossi Rodal, a friend of the murdered Rabbi, and the leader of the Newcastle synagogue, and offered him whatever support we could. He said that everyone in his congregation knew someone who was affected. He was not surprised that this had happened as in recent years the Jewish community has been feeling more vulnerable. Horror, grief and anger are the predominant emotions. But also, gratitude for the support of the wider community, as we evidenced by the hundreds who attended the Menorah lighting at the Newcastle synagogue on Wednesday evening. I was there – standing with the multitude outside. Hearing the Kaddish (the Jewish prayer praising God in the midst of mourning) was one of the most haunting and beautiful things I have ever heard.
Here is my recording of the Kaddish (from outside)…
Then I spoke to a Jewish friend who has somewhat ironically just started attending Scots Kirk. After church on Sunday evening, she was with her new friends from the church in a hostelry on Beaumont St. When the news came through on her phone she was stunned – although it was also something she had expected. “What struck me most was how unsurprised I felt that it happened on such a sacred day.” She has been enormously grateful for old bosses and friends who have reached out. “Violent terror attacks on Jewish people are always deeply, personally upsetting. But the antagonistic, politicised, dehumanising commentary on the internet rock me further, permitting no time to mourn or process as human beings should be allowed.” My friend feels safe in Newcastle, but would be reluctant to walk around in clothing that identified her as a Jew.
I deeply empathise with this. Attacks on Jews and antisemitic dog whistles on social and news media are everywhere we look, perpetuated politically by the left and right wing, and socially by algorithmically supported cultural figures.
It has also shocked me as a ‘person of faith’ how empty and unwelcome I find the meaningless meme so often uttered by politicians – ‘our thoughts and prayers are with you’. This from people who often don’t pray and who I suspect, if they thought a bit more, might realise that it is actions that are needed, not Hallmark cliches. Tightening gun laws, dealing with hate speech, are good ideas…. but they don’t change human hearts.
This is a defining moment for Australia. How we respond will tell us who we really are. I take some hope from the response of Ahemd al-Ahmed, the Muslim who bravely tackled one of the gunmen. I take hope from the hundreds of people who stood in silence and solidarity with the Jewish mourners outside the Newcastle synagogue. I take hope from the dignified and deep response of the Jewish people themselves. But most of all I take hope from the Jew who came into the world to cause ‘great joy for all the people’. For many of us this Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ will be especially poignant. He is the Light in a world that desperately needs some enlightenment.
David Robertson
Minister, Scots Kirk, Hamilton.
19th Dec 2025
Beaumont Street Blues – Article in the Newcastle Herald
Nicola’s Lessons from Auschwitz