“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.” This is one of the harrowing lines from a poem written by German pastor Martin Niemoeller. As we look around the western world today, these words ring painfully true for the Jewish people.

The Jewish community is experiencing a new wave of antisemitism fuelled by extreme hatred and misinformation that we have allowed to persist due to our shameful silence as a country. Hate is a powerful emotion that carries strong feelings of fear or anger and does not care about things like right and wrong. When we are silent as our Jewish neighbours are targeted, we allow this hatred to seep through the cracks and inflict more harm upon them.