A house was vandalised

and set alight in Sydney last week. Cars were set alight as well. Apparently the family who once lived there were Jewish and that was seen as reason enough to cause the damage. That they no longer live there was apparently unknown or irrelevant in the minds of the perpetrators. 

In Melbourne another house was also damaged and this time the occupant, minding the house for her brother while he was on his honeymoon, was killed. The police are saying they think the house was "wrongly targetted". A friend in Melbourne is wondering whether the attackers also think the residents were Jewish.

Just what is going on here? When did attacking Jewish people in this country become a "thing" and why? We are told the pro-Palestinian protests "will continue even though there has been a ceasefire agreed to". Really? Why?

We have Holocaust survivors in this country - and the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. The stories are passed down the generations. I have talked to some of these people and seen the indelible marks on them. The horrors do not go away simply because time has passed. It is even harder for those who have nobody left from their childhood, who believe that nobody else can possibly understand. How can they when they have not lived through the horrors?

I really do not understand what makes people "hate" Jews. I have Jewish friends - and Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist and Christian and a few other things as well. They are simply friends. Some of them are closer friends than others but all of them are people I would be very happy to be seen having a cuppa with in the local shopping centre or inviting into my home. They hold a wide variety of views on world affairs and I do not always agree with them but I do try to respect their point of view and where it comes from.

I also try to educate myself by listening to them and to others, by reading a variety of sources. I have been known to mutter imprecations of a sort at some of the statements made by newsreaders and journalists. I have also been known to express myself in letters to the editors of more than one newspaper but I do try to back my arguments with verifiable facts. Here I tend to let go and express an opinion or two...or more!

But the idea that I should "hate" someone who has done me no harm for their faith is still something I find hard to understand.

Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost the plot with respect and tolerance of differences. Perhaps instead of being told what to think from the time we start to understand at day care or pre-school we should be encouraged to believe in ourselves and each other?