Down Under with the Jews of Australia

JVL Introduction

Haaretz reports that in Australia’s recent election many young Jews broke with tradition and backed the climate change-fighting Greens – even though they are viewed by many in the Jewish community as hostile to Israel.

Climate change and other issues matter to young people in Australia who are not put off the Greens by their criticism of Israel’s occupation and many community leaders’ attempts to rubbish them as antisemitic. (Their refusal to endorse the IHRA definition of antisemitism last year even led to the Australian Jewish Association accusing the Greens of “having ‘antisemitism’ as part of their ‘ethos’”!)

Jews in Australia are pretty conservative with over 70% of them estimated to vote Liberal (i.e neo-liberal right wing). Many younger Jews, like younger generations in the States and elsewhere, despite being brought up in quite pro-Israel communities, find fighting climate change or anti-asylum policies much more in accord with their Jewish values than the need to be “pro-Israel”.

And many who do care about Israel also oppose the occupation and support Palestinian rights.

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This article is the first in a five-part series – we’ll add links to the later parts in due course.

This article was originally published by Haaretz on Sun 3 Jul 2022. Read the original here.