Do you even know a Jew?

I have tried to write this several times but perhaps I should just ask that question. How many of you who read this today even know a Jew - or know that you know one?

I have Jewish friends, good friends. They work. They pay taxes. They are law abiding citizens. They help their neighbours. We could stand in the middle of the supermarket aisles and chat like everyone else. Nobody else would even know they were Jewish.

I have been into their synagogues and been made welcome, indeed very welcome, there. They have come to marriages and funerals for my family too. More than once we have joined hands around a table laden with food and given thanks for being there. I have worked with them on complex humanitarian emergency projects where those in need are people of another faith altogether. 

The Jews I know are quite simply good, ordinary citizens attempting to get on with their lives like everyone else. Why anyone would want to harm them is beyond all reasonable comprehension. So why are sixteen people now dead when they should have been enjoying a party on the beach to celebrate Hanukkah? It makes no sense at all. 

Am I surprised this has happened? No, not at all. I am angry, very angry. I feel physically ill. I am trying not to cry. State and federal governments have been allowing "marches for Palestine" for many months now. The demands of the organisers have become greater as time has gone on. Politicians have joined the marches, including the one across the iconic bridge on the east coast. Such marches cost a great deal to police and control so that participants can safely attend. We are asked to be tolerant of all this.

There has also been harm done to synagogues and Jewish businesses and a Jewish school has been targetted. These acts have been "condemned" but they do not receive the same news coverage. There is the curious assumption made that all Jews support the actions of the Israeli government. They do not. The Jewish population is also considered to be too small, too insignificant for it to matter very much.

But, it does matter. Sixteen people have now lost their lives because, despite the warnings given, two people were able to open fire on a group of people they had almost certainly never met. That level of hatred is beyond comprehension. 

There are people of all faiths and no faith at all who will condemn what happened yesterday. It is worth remembering that we will pass them in the street and never know who they are or what they believe.