Letter to the editor by co-CEO Peter Wertheim, published in The Australian on 5 August 2025.
I would never criticise anybody who is genuinely motivated by compassion and concern for the suffering of people caught up in conflicts in other parts of the world. I only wonder why such compassion and concern can be so selectively applied. Hours before the Sydney Harbour Bridge march took place on Sunday, Hamas released images of a young Israeli hostage held in one of its tunnels. He showed obvious signs of being emaciated through starvation, and was made by his captors to go through the motions of digging his own grave. It reminded me of World War II images of the walking skeletons of Australian POWs in Changi prison and among the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
Yet not a single placard on the Harbour Bridge called for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages whose capture by Hamas on October 7, 2023 sparked the current war in Gaza. It seems that even people who pride themselves on their compassion can be remarkably callous.
Even people priding themselves on compassion can be callous
Even people priding themselves on compassion can be callous
Letter to the editor by co-CEO Peter Wertheim, published in The Australian on 5 August 2025.
I would never criticise anybody who is genuinely motivated by compassion and concern for the suffering of people caught up in conflicts in other parts of the world. I only wonder why such compassion and concern can be so selectively applied. Hours before the Sydney Harbour Bridge march took place on Sunday, Hamas released images of a young Israeli hostage held in one of its tunnels. He showed obvious signs of being emaciated through starvation, and was made by his captors to go through the motions of digging his own grave. It reminded me of World War II images of the walking skeletons of Australian POWs in Changi prison and among the survivors of the Nazi concentration camps.
Yet not a single placard on the Harbour Bridge called for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages whose capture by Hamas on October 7, 2023 sparked the current war in Gaza. It seems that even people who pride themselves on their compassion can be remarkably callous.
Latest
160 years of Jewish life in Queensland
ECAJ president Daniel Aghion’s address to a celebration of 160 years of the Queensland Jewish community.
When words become weapons: How ‘genocide’ and ‘racism’ were turned against Israel
Extract of speech by co-CEO Alex Ryvchin delivered at the Queensland Holocaust Museum and published in The Australian on 1 November 2025.
Redefining terrorism
ECAJ’s submission on the review of the definition of a ‘terrorist act’ in section 100.1 of the Criminal Code Act 1995.
Nostra Aetate 60 years on
Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton of the Great Synagogue, Sydney, discusses the importance of Nostra Aetate, 60 years on.