Just not kosher. The diabolical dilemma facing Jewish voters in Macnamara
Jewish Australia's relationship with the Albanese government is, to put it mildly, complicated.
Nowhere is this more acutely felt than in Australia's most Jewish electorate, Macnamara, currently held by Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns.
With early voting now open, electors in Melbourne's bagel belt suburbs of Caulfield, Elsternwick and Ripponlea are weighing what message to send, if any, about the government's response to October 7, the war in Gaza and the corrosive forces that have spun off into their communities.
Like the abysmal conflict still raging in Gaza, there are no good choices on offer.
To understand the prevailing Jewish sentiment towards Anthony Albanese and his government heading into this election campaign, this column sought the views of Peter Wertheim.
Wertheim is one of the co-chief executives of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, a peak body which represents about 200 Jewish schools, synagogues, sporting clubs, and cultural organisations. As an organisation, it has been a vociferous critic of the federal government's tepid response to antisemitism unleashed by the war.
Wertheim is also one of the few Jewish community leaders with a direct line to the PM. As a former Slater and Gordon lawyer whose clients included trade unions and the Labor Party, and an honorary solicitor for the Aboriginal Legal Service and East Timor Relief Association, he has a long-standing relationship with the ALP, Albanese, and social causes dear to the party's true believers.
In 2011, Wertheim and Albanese forged an alliance against a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign by the Marrickville council.
For Albanese, the issue was partly personal, as the local mayor was trying to oust his wife at the time, Carmel Tebutt, from her state seat of Marrickville. Having spoken to Albanese about it over the years, Wertheim has no doubt that Albanese's stance against the BDS was principled and sincere. 'I think he understands that demonising an entire nation is racist and wrong in every way and no way to end a conflict,' he says.
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