Solace

I met with a friend last week so that we could drive to a synagogue and offer our condolences for the recent mass murder of Jews at Bondi Beach. Each of us had been seeking some way of expressing our sorrow for that atrocity committed in our own homeland. I had for days been wondering what to do and it was more difficult than the last time something similar had happened in our part of the world. Of course I will be part of the huge growth in blood donations that has marked the past few weeks. But during the Festive Season I tend to do that anyway.

I communicated with Jewish friends and asked if there were any vigils for the public to attend. There was a sense that Jewish Australians were playing things very carefully and therefore minimizing public gatherings. My hunch is that acts of terror become so much harder to perpetrate after even one has happened but the fear that more was imminient was very much felt. And that fear is always there despite an age-old resiliance. Jews seem almost uniquely subject to hostility and derision that comes at them from all directions.

I still go to Monash Uni for things like an indoor swim. I was there last week and needed a moment alone so I sat in the multi-faith Religious Centre. I was familiar with this location for choral rehearsals and the timber scent of its largest chamber evoked many-a-memory. But I was there for solace rather than nostalgia. I was safe - part of the host majority of an overwhelingly peaceful nation by world standards. And yet a part of the society of which I am a member had been traumatized afresh by two fanatics toting guns. I felt an echo of the distress that arose from that and even that echo warranted expression.

My friend and I are different politically and theologically. But we were united in other ways. Pluralists resisting populist fragmentation. Australians engaging in a civic duty. Humans expressing basic human decency. We were also lucky. As we drove our winding way we came across a synagogue in Caulfield that looked open. There congregants gathered and bouquets lay by the gate. We parked around the corner and walked. We stated our intent and were welcome to place and light some candles there. Our interactions with those present were momentary yet heart-felt. Our hosts were most gracious. We left feeling as if we had done something in making a gesture of fellow-feeling at a time in which words and deeds seem futile.