Jewish ‘tentacles’ slur creates shivers at Sydney festival

In decades on the frontline of advocacy work in Australia, including 17 years at the helm of the New South Wales (NSW) Jewish Board of Deputies, I had never encountered in an open public forum the slur that Jews have “tentacles”. Until now.

During my years as chief executive of the NSW Board, combating antisemitism was foremost among my responsibilities. These were preceded by 18 years editing the Australian Jewish News, whose pages I used to shine a light on all manner of bigotry, from Aboriginal issues, to Islamophobia, to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning) rights, to anti-Jewish racism.

The latter brand of hate manifested in a plethora of ways, all of them pernicious, all of them hurtful and offensive. Yet in all that time, and despite being frequently targeted, both as a representative of the Australian Jewish community and personally by antisemitic words and deeds, I had never encountered this gutter-dwelling slur.

The venue was the Sydney Writers Festival, which annually features international and Australian authors and attracts thousands of patrons, creating a collegiate environment which is conducive to articulate presentations by writers and respectful debate. And is a supposedly safe space.

One such session, just days ago, focused on antisemitism and featured two erudite speakers: British barrister and author Philippe Sands, who is best known for his landmark book East West Street, on the origins of genocide and crimes against humanity; and Australian author Michael Gawenda, the former editor of The Age, a mainstream Melbourne newspaper, whose autobiographical book My Life As A Jew was published three days before the 7 October massacre. A thoughtful conversation ensued, skilfully chaired by Michael Visontay, the commissioning editor of The Jewish Independent.

Then an unidentified woman rose to her feet during the question-and-answer segment and brazenly announced that the speakers and audience were sidestepping “the elephant in the room” – the “tentacles” of Australia’s “Israel lobby”.

Allegations that there is a nefarious Jewish lobby at work in Australian civil society are tired and hackneyed, and wilfully ignore the reality that lobbying is an integral feature of democracy, whether it be the railway workers’ lobby, the teachers’ lobby, or the pharmaceutical lobby. It’s quite simply about accountability. What sent a cold shiver reverberating among many of the Jewish members of the audience was the reprehensible trope that Jewish Australians have “tentacles” and use them to unduly bend society to their will, and that it was thrown out so extraordinarily casually, confidently, and unashamedly in a public forum of several hundred people.

It was sadly symptomatic of the alarming upsurge of anti-Jewish racism which has damaged this country’s long-held claim to be the most successful multicultural nation in the world.

• Dr Vic Alhadeff OAM is the former chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies in Sydney, Australia.