| |  | | | | | | | In my many years of reporting for Haaretz, I've had the opportunity and privilege to visit dozens of Jewish communities around the world, big and small. But only from one did I come away so deeply impressed that I remember thinking to myself: There is no better place in the world to live as a Jew. I would even go so far as to call it a Jewish paradise.
That was Australia. For a relatively small community (with hardly one-sixth the Jewish population of the tiny state of New Jersey), Jewish life was so rich. There was no antisemitism to speak of, and the Jews lived well without having to work all that hard.
But that was before October 7. Who would have imagined that Australia would become a place where Jews fear for their safety, where synagogues are firebombed, and where healthcare workers are not ashamed to say they would gladly deny treatment to Israeli patients?
Is it any wonder some Australian Jews are thinking of leaving? Nomi Kaltmann reports on the increase in Aliyah from the Land Down Under, as well as another rather unusual phenomenon: Australian Jews trying to reclaim their citizenship in European countries where their parents and grandparents were once persecuted for being Jewish. | | |
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