Speech by ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin to Emanuel School’s prizegiving, originally published in the Australian Jewish News.

In 2023, not long before Octo­ber 7, I had a book pub­lished called The 7 Dead­ly Myths which expos­es the con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries that under­pin anti­semitism.

This time, I want to talk to you about sev­en truths. Sev­en guid­ing prin­ci­ples that I have observed in my life, and par­tic­u­lar­ly over the past 14 months.

1. Don’t be afraid

That doesn’t mean that there is noth­ing to fear. The things we are fac­ing are very real.

But fear only cor­rupts our response and weak­ens us for the fight. Those of you who are going on to uni­ver­si­ty, or busi­ness or to trav­el or what­ev­er you choose to do, do so with­out fear.

If it helps dis­pel the fear, remem­ber that you are not alone in any­thing you do. You have a great and mighty civil­i­sa­tion, the Jew­ish civil­i­sa­tion, that stands behind you. And you have a com­mu­ni­ty, which is real­ly a fam­i­ly of fam­i­lies that stands beside you.

And if you need fur­ther inspi­ra­tion to be strong and of good courage look to our broth­ers and sis­ters in Israel.

The absolute last thing you should fear is being chal­lenged by words or ideas. This school, your fam­i­ly, your com­mu­ni­ty has giv­en you the best edu­ca­tion and sup­port there is, but even more than that, you are on the side of truth so just speak it.

2. Never hide your identity

Nev­er do that. It goes beyond pride. It is a mat­ter of basic dig­ni­ty and self-respect. Nev­er hide who you are.

If you do, lit­tle by lit­tle you will stop recog­nis­ing your­self and then all is lost.

3. Don’t turn away from your Jewishness

It is not easy to be a Jew. It’s not always cool to be a Jew.

As I’ve said, I wouldn’t wish it on any­one, but I’d die before giv­ing it up.

And it is easy under the strain of con­for­mi­ty to just set aside your Jew­ish­ness or your love of Israel with a sim­ple shrug of the shoul­ders. To aban­don it through apa­thy.

You have no right to do that.

Because what you have is not yours alone. It has been hand­ed down to you. You hold it on trust for those to fol­low.

You hold it on behalf of the major­i­ty of our peo­ple and your own fam­i­ly who nev­er made it.

You are their emis­sary and their hope. Don’t let them down. I know that might weigh heav­i­ly on you but that’s the way it is.

4. Don’t withdraw from society

It is easy when faced with prej­u­dice to seek the com­fort of your own and to cut off non-Jew­ish friends, find work in Jew­ish law firms, Jew­ish busi­ness­es for fear of fac­ing peo­ple who may not accept you. I’m see­ing a lot of this in the com­mu­ni­ty.

I under­stand it com­plete­ly. It’s tempt­ing after a peri­od of trau­ma to say as the poet Agnon said after the mas­sacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929, “my atti­tude is now this: I do not hate them and I do not love them; but I do not wish to see their faces.”

Don’t do that. This coun­try is yours too. We helped build it. We helped make it what it is. This is the freest and most for­tu­nate coun­try on earth. Don’t let any­one make you feel like you’re an out­sider or you don’t belong.

Our mis­sion is to bring light. Our gift is our ethics. We have to show peo­ple who we are and stride con­fi­dent­ly into every forum – pol­i­tics, the arts, the pro­fes­sions, wher­ev­er you want to go. Go there. And go there proud­ly as a Jew­ish Aus­tralian.

5. Honour your mother and your father and your grandparents

Lis­ten to their sto­ries for they explain why you are as you are.

They may be crazy, believe me I know, but in the full­ness of time they turn out to be right. So col­lect their wis­dom and car­ry it with you.

6. Money isn’t the most important thing

When choos­ing your pro­fes­sion or field find your pur­pose and back your­self.

But if you think mon­ey doesn’t mat­ter in life and will just fall into a lap, you’re a fool. And we’re no fools.

Final­ly, to achieve any­thing in life, espe­cial­ly hap­pi­ness you need to:

7. Find where you belong

Some peo­ple live their whole lives and nev­er feel like they belong any­where.

To find it you have to explore, you have to be pre­pared to say “yes” even though say­ing “no” is always eas­i­er, you have to be pre­pared to fail dis­mal­ly, embar­rass your­self. But none of that is of any con­se­quence in life. And the foun­da­tion of your belong­ing, to which you can always return, and which you can nev­er change is your fam­i­ly and your peo­ple.

Your fam­i­ly is the best fam­i­ly because it is yours. And your peo­ple are the most extra­or­di­nary peo­ple because that is exact­ly what they are.

So con­grat­u­la­tions stu­dents, par­ents, teach­ers on a long, long year, may the hol­i­days renew us, and may each of the year 12s go proud­ly into this world, know­ing who you are, and seiz­ing every­thing that you desire.