Brisk walks and swims along Sydney’s southern stunning beachside suburb of Coogee led to intense ‘reflections’ – not only from the sun!
By Solly Kaplinski
I really didn’t want to go. I felt I couldn’t leave Israel during these times especially with three grandchildren in the army, but my brother, Benny, was celebrating his 70th birthday and with my late mom z’’l (Of Blessed Memory), Sima’s words ringing in my ears about how important family is, I made the brief trip to Sydney, Australia, 35 hours door to door! How could I not be with him? He had also celebrated my 75th birthday with me in Israel!
I had in fact been to Australia several times during the course of my work for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Charles Jordan, JDC representative and later, JDC Executive Vice President during his visit to Australia in August / September 1947 to scout out places of refuge for Shoah survivors remarked:
“They call this: God’s country, and right they are. It has about the same climatic conditions as California, and there is an attractive blend of old and new architecture and landscaping, each community striving to outdo the other in developing its environs, parks, and playgrounds. As I watch these happy people here enjoying the benefits of truly civilized living, I see before me the faces of those for whom we care and knowing as I do of the migrant need of this country for an increase in population, I wonder how many of them who need it most will find their way to this heaven”.
In fact, JDC helped almost 20,000 Holocaust survivors reach and settle in Australia post the Shoah years. Coming to G-d’s country with nothing but the clothes on their back, the survivors laid the framework and foundation for building the local Jewish population into one of the most successful, thriving Jewish communities in the world in terms of health, education, welfare, philanthropy – and a strong identification with Israel, which continues unabated – to this day. They also contributed massively to the success of Australia as a whole.
I thought about “G-d’s country’’ in Sydney as I took my early morning brisk walks and swims and marvelled at the sight of Bondi beach and its magnificent promenade – a haven of hustle and bustle, people of all ages, shapes and sizes, worshipping their bodies, the sun god – and the pint, a truly seductive lifestyle, with people swimming in the surf from before 6.00 a.m. till way past twilight, people of all ages involved in exercising and priming their bodies, and youngsters on the beach engaged in life-saving activities and games. The nippers – as they are called – learn beach safety and awareness skills, in a fun and healthy environment. A paradise.
Benny lives a mere 25-minute walk from Coogee, perhaps one of the most beautiful beaches in the world – besides Muizenberg in Cape Town! We swam there several times and on the last occasion, we were lazily drying off when Benny asked me – I guess out of concern, whether given what’s happening in Israel, I would ever consider leaving and coming to live in Australia. I must admit I was momentarily thrown off balance by his question. I had never thought about this possibility even for a moment during our 25 years in Israel – except perhaps fleetingly, during the judicial reform chaos envisaging an out-of-control government with no judicial restraints. I had a flashback to a visit I had made to Israel back in the 90’s to interview prospective Hebrew and Jewish Studies teachers for Herzlia High School in Cape Town, when buses, restaurants and night clubs were blown up in Jerusalem – and all over Israel, with huge casualties. I was travelling on a bus with my daughter Tali who had made Aliyah on the day she matriculated from Herzlia – and I asked her whether she wasn’t afraid to be in Israel. She turned to me and replied:
“Dad, you see those mountains in the distance, the Judean desert, they belong to me – and I, I belong to them.”
And similarly, thinking about Benny’s question, I responded to him saying:
“Everything in Israel matters for me: from the trauma and the angst and the bereaved and the mourning – and the hostages, to the words in the last letter of a soldier who fell in battle: ‘I am going into this war knowing I might not be coming back, but I believe wholeheartedly in what I am doing. We have no other country, and now it is my turn to defend it, and fight the battle of all the civilians, soldiers, babies, elderly and women who were helpless in the face of Hamas’ brutality. This is the way my parents raised me, this is what I believe in, I hope you will remember me,’ – from sheer joy at our resilience, how when the chips are down, Israelis rally to the cause like no one else on this planet; how more than 100,000 Israelis returned from their vacations abroad when the war broke out to serve in the IDF – to all the bottom-up initiatives that Israelis engage in to help our fellow citizens. I embrace all of this – a life of genuine meaning and fulfilment, like never before. I own it; I wrap my arms around it. It all belongs to me – and I, I to it. Now more than ever.”
And then I thought of how Benny, out of fear, had removed the mezuzah off his front door, how we needed to speak in hushed tones, sotto voce, when people were around us. I wondered whether I should remove my Magen David while on the beach, which I have not removed in more than 60 years. I defiantly kept this precious symbol of my proud Jewish identity on! I thought about the explosion of Jew-hatred in Australia that just about everyone that I met in Sydney referenced to the point of being fearful. I thought about the Greens, the third-biggest political party in Australia, blatantly antisemitic with rarely an official eyebrow being raised and about the normalization of antisemitism and the future for Jewish children – and grandchildren.
Yes, Jewish diasporas have limited life spans as per our history – sometimes with devastating and tragic effects. And while Jews in these communities act as strong advocates and lobby groups for local Jewish needs and for Israel, I thought again about Australia, or for that matter, the country of my birth, South Africa, and Europe and ‘der goldene medina’ – America?
G-d’s country? I think not.
About the writer:
Solly Kaplinski headed up Jewish Day Schools in Cape Town, Toronto and Vancouver before making Aliyah with Arleen almost 25 years ago. His professional life in Israel is bookended by working at Yad Vashem and then at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Solly is also the author of the novella A World of Pain: A Redemptive Parable? His three daughters, their spouses and an egalitarian minyan of grandchildren all live in Israel.
While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves. LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).
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