Born in a displaced persons’ camp in 1947, Michael Gawenda spent his childhood and teenage years in a left-wing non-Zionist Jewish youth group in Melbourne. This shaped the person he became—a secular Jew who loved the Yiddish language and Yiddish culture. Gawenda went on to become a public figure during his 40 years as a journalist and editor-in-chief of The Age. Throughout this time, and since, he became dismayed and pained by the growing hostility of the left to Israel and to Jews like him who were not prepared to declare themselves as anti-Zionists. This has also forced him to examine his own Jewish identity and his relationships with his Jewish friends, and to forensically examine the basis of the critiques of Israel.
In conversation with Michael Brissenden.
Session details
When: Saturday 16th March, 1.30pm-2.30pm
Where: Darley Smith Building
Cost: $20