Who Is The Disruptor?

This Sunday, Australia will bear witness to a historic moment as we welcome His Excellency, the President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, known affectionately as “Bougie”.  A childhood nickname given by his mother, drawn from the French “bijou” meaning “jewel” and a Hebrew term of endearment.  The name fits.

President Herzog’s quiet strength and soft diplomacy has graced all corners of the world, elevating Israel’s global standing and binding diaspora Jews closer together.  As former Chair of the Jewish Agency and now as President, his life’s work is devoted to Jewish unity, antisemitism, and representing Israel with dignity and resolve.

President Herzog has led many landmark firsts.  He is the first son of a former president to assume the role himself. His father, Chaim Herzog, served as Israel’s sixth president, and his grandfather, Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, Israel’s first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi. A remarkable lineage of service, likened to a “Kennedy” family of Israeli public life.

President Herzog is Israel’s first true “sabra” President (native-born Israeli).  He was the first to welcome numerous historic heads of state to Israel and the first to visit the UAE, Jordan and Turkey.  And now, Australia.

Predictably, the noise and political pushback has already begun.  Protest planning is well underway, offensive anti-Israel banners have gone to print, and familiar falsehoods are circulating once more.  We are told the visit of a President from a democratic Australian ally will disrupt social cohesion.  But one must ask: is it the President who comes to comfort, or is it the protestors who are the disruptors?

And what are they disrupting? A bolster from Israel to a shattered Jewish community? A supportive “hug” to grieving families? A stretched police department trying to facilitate a State visit?

Are these things worth disrupting?

Perhaps it’s time we disrupt the disruptors.

As Jews we can all make the effort to disrupt the anti Israel rhetoric and antisemitism that has become normalised in this country, by speaking up. Online, offline, in the office and out.  We can stand even more proudly with Israel and what it means to be Jewish.

Perhaps these agitators do not truly understand the depths of our connection to Israel, and what this visit means to us?

In this shule, and in shules across the world, we pray with our bodies, hearts and minds turned toward Jerusalem.  Not for political reasons, but because this is the site of our First and Second Temples and pray for where our Third will stand.

In our foyers, the faces of every single hostage were displayed with care and removed with pain.  Some with relief.  Far too many with grief. Because they were never only Israel’s hostages.  They were ours.

On December 14, when fifteen lives were brutally stolen from our community, they were not only Australia’s victims.  They were Israel’s brothers and sisters in the diaspora.  So, it is no surprise that President Herzog began planning this visit on December 15.  The very next day.  Because when there is a death in the family – you show up.

President Herzog is not coming to Australia as a politician.  He is coming as family. As a fellow mourner. As a caring friend. As is a patron of Jewish unity.  A leader standing with a wounded community.  A President affirming the unbreakable bond between Jewish people everywhere.

For generations, our people survived not because we were many, but because we stood together. President Herzog’s arrival is a statement that Jewish pain is shared, Jewish responsibility is collective, and Jewish unity is unbreakable. B’chol dor vador.

His visit is not symbolic.  It is essential.  This is what unity looks like.  This is what family does. Am Echad, B’Lev Echad.  One people.  One heart.

Shabbat Shalom,