Australia Mayor With Jewish Roots Shuns Synagogue in Israel Feud
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Dave Goldiner January 16, 2017
An Australian mayor whose father’s family is Jewish is under fire for boycotting an annual synagogue event because of what he called Israel’s “illegal” and provocative policies.
Peter Abelson, the mayor of Mosman, near Sydney, said he wouldn’t go to the new year event at the Great Synagogue in Sydney because of Jewish support for Israel.
“I should express my deep personal concern about the gross and illegal occupation of the West Bank which creates intense international division and bitterness and, unresolved, will cause endless terrorism across the globe,” said Peter Abelson, the mayor of Mosman, near Sydney.
Rabbi Benjamin Elton of the Great Synagogue said he was flabbergasted by Abelson’s response, which he called blatantly anti-Semitic.
“I’m astonished, really,” Elton told the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies. “To boycott a Jewish event in Sydney because of the actions of Israel, that’s a form of anti-Semitism.”
Abelson, who is also a university economics professor, countered that he has Jewish roots and has every right to speak out against Israel.
“To say someone who is critical of the West Bank is anti-Jewish is just nonsense,” he said.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
