Many years ago, when I was a young rabbi, I faced a challenge which I was not qualified for.
An old friend’s brain cancer had returned.
When I came to visit him, family members sat outside his room. His wife rose and came to speak to me.
She told me that her husband’s doctor had told her that he had only a week left to live. Then she said “Please, can you tell him that he has little time left and say Shema with him?”
I immediately said that I would, even though I hadn’t the faintest idea how you tell someone that the end of their life is very near.
I entered the room and sat with my friend holding his hand.
I have always thought that Hashem had pity on me at that moment, because my friend asked me, “Do you think Hashem will give me a second chance?”
Taking the lead, that Hashem had provided I replied, “Well Avi, it’s always a good idea to say Shema…just in case.”
Avi understood my meaning immediately and asked me to say Shema with him. Still holding his hand, we said Shema together and then I told him how to say the viddui prayer.
After that, a distinct calm enveloped my old friend. He was ready, and actually content to die. After a while, I opened the door and told his wife and children to come in.
Avi passed away the next day.
Tomorrow, I am going to a shiva here in Jerusalem. The parents come from Manchester, England too and they are keen for people they know from “the old country” to come and help them with their loss. I am going soon with my daughter-in-law who is related to them.
Yet at this particular shiva… we all are.
Their son was one of those massacred in the Bondi Beach attack.
And I have to tell you that I am more than angry that this shiva and the other fifteen are happening. I am in fact furious.
Australia’s leftist Labour government is led by Anthony Albenese who won the general election in 2022.
As a university student, Albanese led a group within “Young Labour” that was aligned with the “Hard Left.” The Australian politician Andrew Leigh, who serves as a minister in Albenese’s Government maintains that the student group Albenese led had “links with broader left-wing groups, such as the Communist Party of Australia and the African National Congress.
Today, Albanese declares his politics to be “Progressive” and it would be possible to defend him as having thrown off the extreme-left badge of his younger years. Except, that is, when it comes to Israel and Jews.
Video footage shows Albanese early in his parliamentary career joining an anti-Israel demonstration and flag burning. Banners read, “Stop the Israeli slaughter, Free Palestine Now.” He even addressed the demonstration.
His appalling “Missing in action” response to the many attacks on Australia’s Jewish Community since October 7 including a synagogue firebombing, arson, Nazi graffiti on Jewish schools, and demonstrations calling to “Gas the Jews” has gained him the reputation as someone exuding more than a whiff of antisemitism.
In September of this year, he joined the UK and Canada’s Prime Ministers in recognizing the “State of Palestine.” This declaration came before any Israeli hostages were released by Hamas, which was not made a condition of that recognition.
The move was rapturously received by Hamas who declared that it showed that their attack on October 7 was justified.
It is interesting to note the similarities between all three PMs, and Albanese and Starmer in particular.
All three governments have welcomed mass immigration and facilitated in particular the growth of Muslim communities. All three Leftist governments have a close political relationship with their Muslim communities and count heavily and confidently on their electoral support. All three are fierce protectors of those communities leading to charges, particularly in the UK of “two tier government.” Starmer’s universal nickname is in fact “Two Tier Keir.”
The initial statement of PM Albanese on the attack provoked outrage; it did not explicitly name the Jewish community or the antisemitic nature of the attack.
Another thing he omitted to mention, was the source of the attack; the Muslim community.
This double refusal, the first, to effectively protect the Jewish community, and the refusal to confront the anti-Jewish hatred from Muslim communities, is an almost universal phenomenon across the West.
Islamic extremists understand the rules of the game perfectly. The West’s tolerance of their provocations and hate speech, allows them to move to hate attacks. Tolerance of those, allows them to move to mass murder.
Pitiful and cowardly leadership of the UK’s Prime Minister was universally declared to have been the accelerant that led to the recent murders of Jews in a Manchester Synagogue. Australia’s weak and cowardly leadership has now led to the death of Sixteen Jews at a Chanukah celebration.
All three countries, and many more like Ireland, Norway and Spain, are as close to death through their government’s refusal to confront the cancer metastasizing within their Muslim communities as my friend was, lying in that hospital bed all those years ago.
They have all betrayed their countries and are killing their history, culture and people.
As for Australia, after the massacre Albanese all but invited to happen, I had a thought.
The unofficial national anthem of Australia is a song called “Waltzing Matilda.” It reflects the values and character of the Australia that was. It is a song Australians sang, bravely marching off to protect their country and people in two world wars.
Ironically, the ten-year-old girl killed on Bondi Beach was also called Matilda.
In my fury at Albenese’s Labour Party and their betrayal of their Jewish citizens, I re-wrote the lyrics of that proud old song. I think my words reflect the Australia as it is now under his “leadership.” I also think it explains why there are sixteen Shivas taking place.
Once a little Aussie girl went to a party
This will be nice and fun said she
Only just ten years old, her eyes full of laughter
Her life would soon be over; she was the wrong religion you see.
Came along two Muslims with a burning hatred
If you’re a Jew then we’ll shoot you and you’ll die
So, they looked down their gunsights and then they squeezed their triggers
Police stood frozen in inaction, it could really make you cry.
Killing Matilda, Killing Matilda, they’ll kill Matilda with Albanese
And those in Australia’s government who invited in the killers
Will deny their responsibility and do whatever they please.
Telescopic sights showed the little girl smiling
Killing children gives Jihadis such a thrill
When they made quite sure, that their target was certain
Bullet ripped through her body, certain to kill.
Fell with fifteen others, bleeding their lives away
Old Holocaust survivor who shielded his wife
Soon the Leftist haters were busy blaming the victims
It’s obviously your own fault that you lost your life.
Killing Matilda, Killing Matilda, they’ll kill Matilda with Albanese
And those in Australia’s government who invited in the killers
Will deny their responsibility and do whatever they please.