We write this as women, to all Australian women. As mothers. As Jewish community activists, and yes, Zionists. As the founders of Project A. And as Australians who are now asking ourselves, quietly and urgently: is this the country we want to be?
The Bondi Chanukah Massacre, the targeting of Jews gathered to celebrate a religious and cultural holiday has shaken something deep inside all of us. We know this because since that awful night, the messages of support, guilt, and collective heartache haven’t stopped.
Australia is shaken not only because of the violence itself, but because of what it reveals about the moment we are living in. A moment where hatred is increasingly excused, rationalised, or dressed up as something else. Where people fan flames and then act surprised when we’re burnt by the inferno. When people gleefully call to globalise the intifada and indeed are surprised when it shows up on our shores.
Our feminine nature is often described, rightly as collaborative and peace-building. We are connectors, nurturers, bridge-builders. We hold families and communities together. But we are also lionesses. And when our children are threatened, when our people are hunted, when we or our neighbours are targeted for who they are, something ancient and immovable rises in us.
This is that moment.
There is a moral reckoning underway in Australia, whether we acknowledge it or not. A reckoning about what we stand for and just as importantly, what we should refuse to stand for. Neutrality is no longer neutral. Silence is no longer benign. Language matters. Who we amplify matters. Who we excuse matters.
We have watched as extremist rhetoric has been softened, sanitised, or justified under the banner of “context” or “debate.” We have watched as antisemitism has been minimised, relativised, or ignored, even as Jewish Australians are told to stay calm, not overreact, not make it “about us.” That allegations of “gas the Jews” screamed at us on the steps of the Opera House in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 massacre, were “only” chants for “where’s the Jews” as though that was meant to make us feel better. We are the hunted.
But when hatred is given cover, it does not stay contained. When radicals are legitimised, they do not moderate, they escalate. And when violence finally erupts, it is already too late to ask how we got here.
So we ask, plainly: What do you stand for? And just as crucially: What don’t you stand for?
Do you stand against anti Jewish hatred? All of it? Even when it is uncomfortable or politically inconvenient? Do you refuse to give oxygen to those who glorify violence or dehumanise entire communities? Do you draw a clear line, without caveats?
Women have a unique role in moments like this. Not because we are softer but because we are stronger than we are often given credit for. We know how to hold complexity without collapsing into moral confusion. We know how to build bridges without surrendering our values. We know how to say NO, clearly, firmly, and with love.
This is not a call for division. It is a call for unity.
For courage. For moral leadership. For women to stand together and say: hatred has no home here.
Because if we don’t, if we hedge, excuse, or look away then yes, we must ask ourselves honestly: is this the Australia we want our children to inherit?
We believe it doesn’t have to be. And we know women can help lead us somewhere better.
Moran Dvir and Lillian Kline are cofounders of Project A, a women led, mainstream Jewish advocacy movement formed in the wake of Oct 7.