Purim and Plitim

Purim and Plitim (Refugees) – Purim reminds us of the marginal in our society and its call to be inclusive of all people. As part of our Purim experience, several students accompanied Mrs Sebban to visit Villawood Detention centre and to bring some joy into the lives of its residents.

Below are the reflections of one of these students:

Miriam Itzkowitz – Year 11

On Thursday, amongst all the Purim ruach and craziness, Esther Reznikov and I, accompanied by Shira Sebban, went to Villawood Detention Centre to visit refugees.

Purim is in the month of Adar, which is meant to be the month of joy and happiness, however, the mood at Villawood seemed generally quite glum and down; the opposite of what Adar is meant to be about. This was my second time at Villawood, and I definitely found this trip to be particularly meaningful.

Aside from this day being Purim, it was also the Iranian new year. Villawood has many Iranian detainees, some being Kurdish, and others Muslim and there was no way to facilitate the celebrations of the new year. Understandably, being in detention isn’t meant to be enjoyable and celebratory, but I feel as though this is something so small that can easily be accommodated, especially seeing as many of the detainees may find an action as small as this to be extremely meaningful and uplifting from their otherwise rather solemn lives at Villawood.

We met an Iranian refugee, Ahmad, who has been in detention for six years. He is twenty one. Ahmad is in detention indefinitely, which means that he hasn’t actually been given a sentence so he has no idea how long he has left in detention. The only reason he’s being held there is in case he does something wrong. In case. Ahmad reluctantly came to Australia as a teenager with his mother. Being a rowdy teen (as many of us are), he pulled off some kind of stink which wound him up into detention for a longer amount of time. His mother lives here as a refugee, as well as his older brother who moved here a while before. He is severely depressed. 

What I noticed is that there are different standards for Australian citizens and refugees. For example, if I were to throw a raging party and the police were called, I may get a warning or be told to turn the music down, whereas if a refugee were to do this, they could be taken straight to detention, no questions asked. Refugees are asked to live up to almost impossible standards which we don’t have to.

I spoke to several refugees throughout the day who said they’d just appreciate it if there was more freedom and opportunity for them in detention, rather than having essentially nothing to do.

I was actually surprised at the reactions from some of the refugees when I told them I’m Jewish and told them about my recent trip to Israel for Chavayah. With many of them coming from Muslim countries, I thought there would be some deeply inherent hatred towards me or Israel, but I was proven wrong. Most of them were very interested, asking me about it, if I could speak Hebrew and just about Judaism in general. I feel this is a really nice way to show that not all refugees are horrible people, and rather, just people who are very warm-hearted, interested and accepting. These refugees are open-minded – we’re the ones who need to learn to accept difference and change.