Margaret Joseph: Why 2025 is a spiritual fight for our deepest national ideals

This Australia Day, it is vital Australians reject hate and division and defend our nation’s reputation as a land which welcomes people of all faiths and none, writes Margaret Joseph.

How do we protect something deeply precious to us, when we do not realise its true value until it is gone?

As we approach Australia Day, we can no longer trust all Australians feel safe and secure in their own country.

In 2024, Australians witnessed increased anti-Semitism and hateful rhetoric, ugly public violence, defacement of sacred war memorials and even attacks on places of worship.

Our civil and tolerant society historically welcomed people of all faiths and backgrounds.

So these developments represent a new and troubling state of affairs.

After Nazi Germany’s murder of six million Jewish people in the Holocaust in World War II, thousands of Holocaust survivors immigrated to Australia.

Australians in 2024 witnessed increased anti-Semitism and hateful rhetoric, ugly public violence, defacement of sacred war memorials and even attacks on places of worship. Picture: NewsWire/Simon Bullard

Survivors were confident their children could grow up here free from fear.

Indeed, immigrants from all over the world have settled in Australia in a spiritual quest for a home where their lives hold dignity, purpose and value.

My grandparents are an inspiring story of hope.

My own grandfather’s story – like so many immigrant stories – is about this spiritual journey.

In 1949, a young doctor, Farmey Joseph, fell in love with Felicity Wootten, a nurse who worked alongside him at Sydney’s Mater Hospital. But there were obstacles to overcome before the pair could marry. Farmey was unsure of gaining the trust of his prospective father-in-law.

You see, Farmey was the son of poor and illiterate Lebanese immigrants. Farmey should have been christened ‘Fahim’ but the Australian priest did not understand the parents’ broken English. So the priest baptised the baby with a uniquely Aussie version of the ancient Arabic name!

In contrast, Felicity was the daughter of distinguished World War II commander and Gallipoli veteran, Major General George Wootten. Wootten won many fierce battles in WWII, with only a brief pause to mark the tragic loss of his eldest son, a RAAF pilot, in 1943.

After the war ended, Wootten finally had time to grieve not only his son but the many young men under his command who also gave their lives for Australia.

Yet meeting Farmey gave Wootten hope for his daughter’s future.

Major General George Wootten (second from left) in Borneo, 1945. Picture: Facebook

Wootten realised Farmey’s love for his new country was more important than cultural differences between the two families. Farmey had even volunteered to serve Australia through an Army doctor training scheme. So Wootten gladly welcomed his new son-in-law.

Wootten’s attitude exemplified post-WWII confidence that people of all faiths and backgrounds could become Australian by opening their hearts to Australia’s national values of freedom, respect and a fair go for all.

In fact, Australians had gone to war not only to defend our territory but to uphold these democratic ideals.

Men who returned from war weary of violence and hatred were determined their sacrifices – and those of their mates – would matter. In one famous address to a local RSL club in 1946, WWII veteran and future prime minister John Gorton urged listeners to “build a world in which meanness and poverty, tyranny and hate, have no existence”.

Farmey heeded this message and proudly honoured his father-in-law’s legacy, serving the Riverina region as a much-loved GP for over 40 years.

Like countless other new Australians, Farmey played his own key part in the remarkable growth of post-war Australia into a vibrant, successful multicultural society.

Australia has always been a land of opportunity, even for those born into unpromising circumstances.

But the greatest opportunity of all is gaining membership in the shared fellowship of proud Australians.

People of all backgrounds and faiths move forward together, grateful for present blessings and hopeful for future advancement. Indeed, even today Australians remain united in thankfulness that our children can grow up in peaceful surrounds without fear of bombs or – most importantly – fear of each other.

If we lose this unifying aspect of our national story and revert to old conflicts and historical grievances, there is little unique value left in Australian citizenship.

Instead, Australians become just a group of people with different stories who happen to live alongside each other in a prosperous country. And even economic prosperity will not last, once we are divided against each other, because unity is necessary for every other successful national endeavour.

Current anti-Semitic attacks are not just deplorable criminal acts but assaults on our national honour.

Some battles are fought over territory but this particular battle in 2025 is a spiritual fight for our deepest national ideals. Consequently, such a fight is not just one for our Jewish brothers and sisters but a fight which engages the interests of every patriotic Australian.

This Australia Day, it is vital Australians reject hate and division and defend our nation’s reputation as a land which welcomes people of all faiths and none.

Originally published as Margaret Joseph: Why 2025 is a spiritual fight for our deepest national ideals