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Careful How You Judge

23/07/2012 10:28:06 AM

Jul23

 

Azaria and the Jews
Posted 12 June 2012 by Rabbi Milecki on Facebook after the NT Coroner handed down her finding that Azaria died as a result of having been taken by a dingo.
 
Mazal Tov Lindy and Michael!
 
It's hard to put into words the very deep emotions that are running through me. Exoneration! Finally! Even after all these years, I can easily relive the sympathy I felt for Lindy and together with that, the disgust I felt when Ian Barker QC publicly celebrated his victory the night after the conviction. Truly a dark chapter in Australian legal history - and one for which many people need to answer. It seems that although the wheels of justice turn slowly, they do turn, at least in this case.
 
Ever since then I have questioned both our adversarial system and the jury system. How can laymen without scientific background possibly grasp complex circumstantial and forensic evidence? Furthermore there were indications that rather than giving Lindy a presumption of innocence, at least some of the jury assumed she was guilty until proven innocent. 
 
I also remember being shocked when I read in The Age that Azaria was a Hebrew word meaning "sacrifice in the desert". As a Rabbi who knows Hebrew I knew it didn't - it means "God is my Helper". I immediately identified the accusations against the Chamberlains with the Blood Libels that our people have suffered throughout the centuries.
 
Although there is little chance of changing our system of justice - and what better one would we replace it with anyway? - we can only hope that ordinary people will learn a lesson and will desist from passing judgement on others on the basis of scant evidence which they don't understand, or even worse, on prejudices which they hold.
Thu, 19 June 2025 23 Sivan 5785

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