Today, on Monday the 11th of November, at 11:00 AM we paused to remember. We paused to remember the end of World War One, the anniversary of the Armistice which ended the fighting with Germany. In November1997, Governor General Sir William Deane issued a proclamation calling on all Australians to observe a minute or two on this date to remember all those who died or suffered for Australia in all wars and armed conflicts. While it is hard to know how many Australians stop and observe this silence, the act of remembrance is certainly recognised and acknowledged by the Australian Defence Force. In fact, the Australian Army introduced an Army Remembrance Pin in 2015 which acknowledges the service of army members who have died in service since the conclusion of the Second World War.
Our Jewish ex-service leagues across the country (like VAJEX, NAJEX and WAJEX) hold remembrance services on the Sunday before or after, which will allow more of the community to attend. Many of our schools and community organisations will pause and reflect on the day. Our six ADF Jewish Chaplains will be at these events, as will many of our Jewish men and women who serve in the Australian Defence Force. They will, no doubt, also call on the memory of Australia’s great military strategist, Sir John Monash, a proud Jew.
As Jews we are only too familiar with the act of remembering; not only as a way of connecting to the past, but also as a means to build an identity and prepare for the future. Just as we observe Pesach every year, not only as a glorious celebration of a freedom past, but as a contemporary commitment to ensuring liberty is allowed to thrive. As T.S Eliot expressed it, we care not so much about the pastness of the past as we do about the presence of the past.
This year, many Jewish Australians will reflect on the enormous contribution and sacrifice of Jewish men and women who fought for Australia in disproportionate numbers in World War One and Two, and who have died and been injured in conflicts since then. We will recall the sacrifice of Greg Sher who gave his life on 4 January 2009 in Afghanistan.
But this year Jewish Australians will also surely be flooded with the remembrances of the past year and a war that continues to tear at the fabric of Jewish identity. We will recall the several hundred Israeli soldiers who have died since October 7, 2023; the desperate hostages and their anguished families; the thousands of grieving parents and children; the unbearable losses of what World War One poet Wilfred Owen called the pain and pity of war. War, in his understanding, is a manifestation of the brutality of the human heart. The tragedy of war lies in the paradoxical suffering and force that are necessary to protect life against those who seek to extinguish it.
Israel stands accused of fighting an unjust war, of using disproportionate violence, of recklessly killing civilians and of committing a genocide against them. The death of innocents is a terrible inevitability of war and one that we should neither minimise nor dismiss. Our hearts should break for all who are caught in the middle of this war. But let us not forget the sad and undeniable fact that Hamas and Hezbollah initiated this war, continue to hold hostages, and continue to hold their own people as hostages. They bear responsibility for using their people as human shields, as a war tactic; they continue to shoot countless rockets at civilian targets in Israel. The Israeli army does make mistakes and these need to be acknowledged and investigated, but it does not set out to target innocent civilians and certainly not to indiscriminately kill children. It does, however, need to have the courage and clarity to know the distinction between revenge and retaliation, and when to cease fighting, as Gallant and the heads of the Israeli Security Services recently said regarding Gaza.
The charter of Hamas remains the annihilation of Israeli-men, women and children – as does the charter of Hezbollah’s masters, the Iranians. If anyone has genocidal intent, it is these captains of depravity. And if Israel was unable to defend itself, that is exactly what Hamas and Hezbollah would do. For these parties, war is holy, for Israel war is not holy but necessary along the lines of the Talmudic dictate: if your enemy stands up to kill you stand up first to prevent them. Rabbi Ritchie Moss expressed it elegantly when he suggested that a moral soldier fights reluctantly while a ‘holy warrior’ glories in the fight; a holy warrior fears times of peace because he then has no purpose, a moral fighter dreams of a time when peace will reign.
We as a people long for the fulfilment of Isaiah’s dream that nation will not lift sword against nation, and they will no longer learn to wage war. That’s worth pausing to remember.
The VAJEX Remembrance Day service will take place next Sunday morning, the 17th of November, at 11:00 AM at Burnett Grey Gardens, Ripponlea.
Rabbi Ralph Genende OAM
