‘There’s nothing more important than dealing with violent bigotry’

In the first of a series of conversations, Vic Alhadeff meets Adam Geha, a Lebanese Christian who is working to promote greater participation in March of the Living by the wider community.

I was born in Beirut in 1971, a child of the civil war. It was a reign of terror which impacted me profoundly. I lived within an external hell but an internal heaven. We grew up as a Christian family in a Muslim area of Beirut. It was a loving family that valued education and was a haven of tranquillity in a world that was violent and unpredictable. One night a bomb exploded in the apartment next door.

My father was a mechanical engineer who specialised in air-conditioning. He relocated to Saudi Arabia for three years and we eventually joined him there. While seeking refuge in Damascus, terrorists broke into our hotel. My mother was hit by two bullets and my father and two brothers were taken hostage. I was hiding in a closet in a connected room with an aunt. Fortunately, we all survived.

In Riyadh I attended a Muslim school, memorised the Koran and prayed five times a day, as Muslims do. As a result, I developed an interest in multi-faith work and from an early age wondered why faiths dedicated to love and charity often end up fighting. Yet I’m not a pacifist; Hitler needed to be opposed. But force must be a last resort because of the horrors it inflicts on the innocent.

I see the meaning of life as personal and transcendental. Personal because it resides in relationships. That’s where I find my motivation, through my wife Julie – a devout Catholic of Croatian background – and our children, Immanuel, 14, and Eva, 10.

But life is also transcendental; the only race the human race should be focused on is the one between our wisdom and power. Sadly, our power eclipses our wisdom as a species.

My mother is Australian of Lebanese descent and was smart enough to ensure we had dual nationality at birth. We moved here when I was nine. After finishing my education, I moved into the finance industry, with a focus on investment banking and venture capital.

In 2018 the wife of a colleague, Rodney Walt, gave a presentation to the staff of the fund management company I run about her participation in March of the Living (MOTL). Her testimony was so compelling that I found myself declaring that Rodney and I had to go. When I realised how desperately it needed funding, I said I’d help. I now regard it as part of my mission.

There were only three members of the wider community on the March in 2019. The Holocaust was perpetrated by Christians, so it’s important that Christians participate. My involvement aims to promote participation by the wider community. That’s where the real work is and the best way to combat antisemitism.

The Holocaust angers me. I read The Diary of Anne Frank with profound anger and sadness. She was a tender-hearted soul grappling with adolescence. There’s nothing more important than dealing with violent bigotry. If compassion and kindness were the norm, the Holocaust would not have been perpetrated. We can blame Hitler’s Nazi killing machine but there were many accomplices.

March of The Living Australia has been run without a paid executive team, thanks largely to the herculean efforts of voluntary CEO Cedric Geffen. Our priority must be to fund an executive team. That's where my focus is. The March is expensive, costing $17,000 a person, requires a significant commitment, two weeks, and is emotionally confronting.

Visiting concentration camps and mass graves is harrowing. We need to subsidise it if we are to encourage young people from the wider community to participate, and we need to advocate the benefits - deeper understanding and a safeguard against genocide.

I’m one of a group of benefactors and community leaders who have joined with the CEO of March of The Living to scale it up. I became a member of the board ten days ago. I spread the message by publishing articles, speaking at conferences and hosting boardroom lunches. My business encourages our staff to go by paying 70 percent of the cost and asking participants to give presentations on their return. 

The majority of Australia’s Lebanese Christian community is supportive of Israel and the program. Whenever I encounter antisemitism, I challenge it by speaking about the contribution of Jewish thought and community to Australia and the West, the respect Israel has for human rights and the perils of prejudice.  I make no secret of my support for Israel and the Jewish people. If ever I feel uncomfortable, that's all the more reason why I should speak up. 

My children have been lucky enough to attend many Shabbat dinners at the houses of my friends. That's the best introduction to Jewish life and tradition I can give them. I make it a point to remind them Christianity wouldn't exist but for Judaism, and that the great commandments of Christianity - love God and love your neighbour - are quintessential Jewish commandments. Judaism comprises the moral furniture of the Western world with the value it places on the sanctity of life.

Photo: Adam Geha (Giselle Haber)