In Jacinta Allan, Melbourne Jews have discovered a friend

L’Chaim. It’s a simple Hebrew toast. Translated literally, it means “to life.”

When Jacinta Allan raised her champagne flute on Tuesday night and offered the traditional salutation to mark the anniversary of Israel’s independence, there was nothing simple about her gesture.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan outside the Adass Israel synagogue after it was destroyed in December 2024.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

A year ago, Allan was asked to perform the toast at the same Jewish community event and declined.

She offended some in the room and was castigated by others. With the benefit of reflection, the organisers realised fault was partly theirs for not anticipating it might present a problem for a Labor leader to celebrate Israel in the middle of a horrendous conflict in Gaza.

It was less a case of ill will than unfamiliarity. Back then, the Jewish community, having grown used to Daniel Andrews’ reflexive support for Israel, was still getting to know Victoria’s new premier.

She was sworn in just 10 days before October 7, having come to the job as a career politician from Bendigo, who in her previous parliamentary duties had never had reason to form clear views about Israeli security, Palestinian self-determination and what those questions mean to Melbourne Jews.

There was a misplaced assumption that Allan, as a woman of the Labor left, would view Israel solely through the prism of Palestinian displacement and the electoral calculus of inner-city seats either held by or swinging to the Greens.

To people who saw her this way, her refusal to toast Israel’s independence confirmed she was no friend.

On Tuesday night, it was a very different mood in the room.

There is a growing recognition among Melbourne Jews that Allan, after an uncertain start, has become a good friend in difficult times.

Allan, before offering the toast, made clear her deep misgivings about the Netanyahu government, its conduct of the war and particularly, its withholding of aid from Gaza.

The premier with Jewish community leaders outside the Adass Israel synagogue.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

“However, we must remember this fact,” she said. “The government of Israel is not the same thing as the nation of Israel and the people of Israel. And the government of Israel is not the same thing as the Jewish community here in Victoria.

“It distresses me that some are unable to recognise this distinction. Members of the Jewish community in Victoria have suffered as a result. People have been bullied, vilified and hurt.”

Allan and Opposition Leader Brad Battin were both invited to speak at the annual event co-sponsored by the state government and state and federal Jewish representative groups – the ZFA, Zionism Victoria, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria.

Former Victorian premier John Brumby was also there, along with federal Labor MP Mark Dreyfus, state MPs from both major parties and Jewish community leaders in the arts, law, media and business.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler.Credit:

After the premier bid the room L’Chaim, Zionist Federation of Australia chairman Jeremy Leibler thanked Allan for her words and her response to last year’s firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea.

Leibler said the arson attack felt like “a culmination of many months of escalating hatred” that had coursed through pro-Palestinian protests and university encampments. When the Victorian government returned to work this year, it made good on Allan’s promise to the Jewish community to toughen the state’s anti-vilification laws.

“Premier, I vividly remember turning up to Adass on that Friday morning with you, the smell of smoke still lingering in the air,” Leibler said. “I saw the deep impact this had on you and I witnessed within a very short period of time your decisive response, not just in words but in action.

“You sent an incredibly powerful message – that Jewish life in Victoria would not just be acknowledged but protected. And when your government introduced the new racial vilification advocated for, you followed through on that commitment.

Zionism Victoria president Elyse Schachna told Allan her government had sent the “strongest possible message” that antisemitism would not be tolerated.

The comments are part of a determined effort by Jewish leaders to reset the relationship between Australia’s Jewry and the Australian Labor Party following the Albanese government’s re-election.

They also consign to history a federal Coalition campaign which, on its fringes, sought to exploit the government’s tepid response to rising antisemitism and anxiety within the Jewish community.

Some Jewish leaders were willing to ride this political wave. Leibler made clear his view that Jewish interests are better served when they don’t become campaign fodder.

“There are many things I’ve learned over the last couple of years,” he said. “The most important is the power of leadership and cost of its absence. While some seek to exploit our divisions others strive for common ground.”

It is no small thing for Allan to toast Israel’s independence at a time when international condemnation of the war in Gaza is reaching a crescendo. The decision is unlikely to win her votes outside her party room or support from within.

It is also what a friend does. L’Chaim.

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