Just As Jews
A Reflection in Response to the Bondi Beach Massacre (Parashat Miketz 2025)
Just As Jews
We want to watch our kids run along the surf of an Australian beach.
Just as Jews.
We want to put up Hanukkah lights outside our homes.
Just as Jews.
We want to wear a Jewish pendant around our necks.
Just as Jews.
We want to live our lives.
Just as Jews.
We don’t want armed guards and police officers at our synagogues.
We don’t want to fear antisemitism or the weaponization of antisemitism.
We don’t want to be co-opted into anyone else’s narrative or agenda.
We don’t want to be held responsible for whatever is done or claimed in our name.
We want to pick up kosher chicken at Trader Joe’s.
Just as Jews.
We want to bicker and argue among ourselves about the questions of our community.
Just as Jews.
We want to be in the news for happy things, not hard ones.
Just as Jews.
We want to live our lives.
Just as Jews.
We don’t want to read out yet another list of massacred names for mourners’ Kaddish.
We don’t want our children to wonder or worry whether they are safe at synagogue.
We don’t want intergenerational trauma to be triggered and re-triggered.
We don’t want to be complicit in cruelty or the denial of cruelty.
We want to dream Jewish dreams of joy.
Just as Jews.
We want to shape our own sense of self-determination, wherever that may be.
Just as Jews.
We want to flourish in Diaspora or cherish our connection to the Land of Israel.
Just as Jews.
We want to be peace-builders, justice-pursuers and God-dreamers with all of humanity.
Just as Jews.
We want to settle our weary hearts, and be lifted up, like Joseph out of the pit.
We want to find color and vibrancy, like Joseph’s bright coat.
We want years of abundance, not scarcity, like the dreams Joseph interpreted.
We want to set aside our prayers of mourning, bury the bloodied garment of our hurt.
We want to live our lives. Simply, plainly, on our own terms.
Just as Jews.
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Dedicated to the holy memories of those Jews massacred in the Bondi Beach attack, and in honor of the righteous gentile, Ahmed al Ahmed, who risked life and limb to save them.