KEY POINTS:
- The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has released its annual report on antisemitism in Australia.
- The ECAJ and associated organisations logged 478 antisemitic incidents over a 12-month period.
- There was a 41.9 per cent increase in antisemitic incidents in Australia over the past two years.
A group of Orthodox Jewish men were verbally abused and physically assaulted in Melbourne in February last year, with their religious skullcaps forcibly removed.
A woman punched, kicked and bit a Jewish man in May after she saw his Star of David necklace.
In June, a Jewish man in Bondi in Sydney’s east was approached by a man and woman, who told him he "did not belong in the area" and was "destroying the heritage", before taking his hat from his head and throwing it on the ground.
And these are not the only violent acts of antisemitism reported in Australia over the last year, with a new report indicating they are just the tip of the iceberg.
Antisemitism on the rise in Australia
There were 478 antisemitic incidents logged between 1 October 2021 and 30 September 2022, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s (ECAJ) annual report on Antisemitism in Australia released on Friday.
The ECAJ says this is an increase of almost 42 per cent over the past two years.
The report uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism, which describes it as a "certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."
This Nazi flag was flown outside a building overlooking a synagogue in Brisbane. Source: Supplied / Executive Council of Australian Jewry
Peter Wertheim, co-chair of the ECAJ, described the findings as concerning.
"The statistics are quite alarming," he told ABC News.
"It's not the sort of thing we expect in a country like Australia, where we're accustomed to think of as a peaceful and cohesive society."
Holocaust knowledge 'diminishing' in Australia
The report also detailed discourse and action within mainstream politics, media, society, education and COVID-19 antisemitism.
It said antisemitism had been either validated or not rejected in each of these sectors, including Nazi analogies by politicians, Facebook comments on news articles, display and , and bullying or stereotyping of Jewish students in schools.
Mr Wertheim said education has a pivotal role to play in combating antisemitism and keeping the lessons of the Holocaust alive, with a recent report showing a decline in levels of awareness of the event that saw the genocide of millions of European Jews during World War Two.
"The level of historical knowledge and particularly knowledge of the Holocaust is diminishing," he said.
"It really does underline the importance of museums and school education and university education and so on."
Mr Wertheim said a "whole of government" approach was needed to address antisemitism.
"There has been work done in this area and it's positive and a good start but it's clearly not enough. It really isn't attacking it in a systematic way," he said.
"We have different branches of government doing different things, but there doesn't seem to be a whole of government approach to dealing with systemic racism and more importantly with specific forms of racism like antisemitism."
The report was released to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"Antisemitism is on the rise but it will not find a home here," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a video posted to Twitter.
"Australia will always denounce it and reject it utterly, just as we do all forms of racism and prejudice. We owe it to our country, we owe it to our Jewish community, and we owe it to our survivors.
"They deserve nothing less."
