True Equality

True equality

The letter from “Name with held” (“Isolated by polarisation”, Letters, 7/10) resonated with our experience in the Jewish community. It is a sad state of affairs (on top of all the other sadness) when an Australian Jew feels it necessary to write anonymously because of the criticism their questioning of Israel’s actions and compassion for both Palestinian and Israeli lives will attract from their own community.

Somehow many fellow Jews assume that showing a deep sadness for the suffering of people in Gaza is somehow denying the awful injustice of the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, or is just a weakness, or a naivety. We shouldn’t accept that the misery of thousands is the price to be paid for the safety of Jews in Israel or anywhere else. When we start treating some lives as less important than others, we can justify almost anything.

There is never a time to depart from showing compassion and humanity to all humans – no matter their religion, ethnicity, colour or sexual orientation. To paraphrase a Talmudic saying, to save a single life is to save an entire whole world. No life is more important than another.

Kim and Guy Abrahams, Richmond