Jewish Australia’s relationship with the Albanese government is, to put it mildly, complicated.

Nowhere is this more acutely felt than in Australia’s most Jewish electorate, Macnamara, currently held by Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns.

Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns faces a battle in his seat of Macnamara.Credit: Justin McManus

With early voting now open, electors in Melbourne’s bagel belt suburbs of Caulfield, Elsternwick and Ripponlea are weighing what message to send, if any, about the government’s response to October 7, the war in Gaza and the corrosive forces that have spun off into their communities.

Like the abysmal conflict still raging in Gaza, there are no good choices on offer.

To understand the prevailing Jewish sentiment towards Anthony Albanese and his government heading into this election campaign, this column sought the views of Peter Wertheim.

Wertheim is one of the co-chief executives of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, a peak body which represents about 200 Jewish schools, synagogues, sporting clubs, and cultural organisations. As an organisation, it has been a vociferous critic of the federal government’s tepid response to antisemitism unleashed by the war.

Wertheim is also one of the few Jewish community leaders with a direct line to the PM. As a former Slater and Gordon lawyer whose clients included trade unions and the Labor Party, and an honorary solicitor for the Aboriginal Legal Service and East Timor Relief Association, he has a long-standing relationship with the ALP, Albanese, and........

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