Let's Be Kind Sydney

This started as a happy new year post, but last night at 1.15am a police helicopter hovered in the sky above our house with its spotlights shining down onto the streets, searching in a menacing way, the beams interrogating the local parks, streets and homes, it felt like a horror movie.

My first thought was that it was police looking for violent thugs who are regularly damaging property, torching cars and spray painting anti-semitic slurs on homes, childcare centres, synagogues and businesses in the eastern suburbs of Sydney where I live.?I’ll never know, but the police presence in my ‘hood is definitely increasing in a disturbing way.

People in our neighbourhood and surrounding suburbs have been shocked, saddened and genuinely frightened by the recent violence and hatred shown towards Jewish people and it has to stop.

I chair the Sydney Community Foundation, which exists to drive collective giving in our city and tackle local issues.? We raise, invest and grant funds to local organisations to support the most vulnerable people in our city through education, advocacy, law reform, back to work and crisis programs.

Community Foundations were set up across the world to bring people together, to foster inclusion and belonging – and we all know that this is a measure of a vibrant and successful community.

I think this is what the majority of us want for Sydney.

Sydney siders are proud of our multiculturalism and diversity.?Every day we enjoy the benefits of the many cultures and religions that co-exist in Sydney, in our glorious food, our fashion, the languages, festivals and different religions that we celebrate all year round.

So, how did we get here? To a place where Jewish school kids are scared of getting the school bus and ask their parents why people hate them; where I worry when I see men on the train wearing their Kippahs, scanning the carriage to see whose watching them; where Jewish people feel threatened and fearful going about their day living in Sydney?

This violence and hatred has to stop.?It is not who we are and we need to call it out and champion kindness, understanding and tolerance.

We are all capable of this.

I call on everyone to get involved in their communities, look out for each other and be kind.?

Together, we can make 2025 a year where understanding triumphs over hatred, where our diversity makes us stronger, and where every Sydney sider feels safe and welcome in the place they call home.

Let’s do it.

#sydneycommunityfoundation #sydney