There’s no single ‘Jewish community’ [PM Albanese, 10 February]; we’re like Medusa: many-headed, and we speak with many, dis-unified tongues.
This is the first I heard that ‘the Jewish community asked for their head of state to visit’ – I, certainly, was never asked, nor was my ‘Jewish community.’ And my ‘Jewish community’ does NOT have any ‘head of state.’
‘Jews’ + ‘head of state’ conflates ‘religion’ + ‘sociopolitical entity’. This conflation, among other things, fans the embers of antisemitism. The State of Israel, President Herzog, Israeli politicians including PM Netanyahu, many Australian Jews, and our prime minister should know better than to project this conflation repeatedly.
Herzog is President of Israel, which is made up of Jewish = 73%, Islamic = 18%, Christian = 2%. [Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics] As such, Herzog is head of state of ‘Israelis’ – not just the subset of ‘Jews’.
This conflation ensures that criticism of Israel is taken as antisemitism. Who would want that?
Bottom line is that ‘Jews’ do not have a ‘head of state.’
‘Jews’ do not constitute a ‘state’; ‘Jews’ is a collection of individuals who follow a particular religion with a variety of similar-yet-different traditions/customs. Albanese should know better! We all should!
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
