Adelaide Jewish leader condemns Victoria Police after ‘racist abuse’

A senior Adelaide Jewish leader says police sent a strong message when they decided to do nothing after an alleged racist attack in Melbourne.

A senior Adelaide Jewish leader has told of his horror at anti-Semitic abuse he endured and warned against turning a blind eye to hatred.

Veteran community leader Norman Schueler, who in September was verbally attacked in Melbourne by a man performing a Hitler salute and demanding the killing of all Jews, delivered the message to a Holocaust commemorative service on Wednesday night at Adelaide’s Catholic cathedral.

He argued the inhumanity that nearly destroyed the Jewish people and ruined Europe was present today, declaring it would be “criminal not to use the resources we have at our fingertips to defend society”.

Norman Schueler is the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission chairman. Picture: Salty Dingo

A rising global tide of anti-Semitism has included rapper Kanye West, posting bigoted comments on his Twitter account, and NBA basketballer Kyrie Irving being suspended over posting a link to an anti-Semitic film.

In his speech, Mr Schueler recalled the abuse he suffered when celebrating the Jewish New Year with family and friends in Melbourne on September 28.

“I was on the pavement on Burke Road, Camberwell, talking on the phone to my cousin when I hear words that I never expected to hear except in historical films,” he said.

Mr Schueler then described how he used his phone to start taking photos of the alleged offender, who he suspects only then realised he was Jewish.

Mr Schueler then called triple-0, before a stranger approached, comforting him, condemning the racism and volunteering as a witness.

But Mr Schueler, the immediate past chairman of the South Australian Multicultural and Ethnic Affairs Commission, condemned Victorian police for releasing the alleged offender without charge.

“This sends a message that we can denigrate our fellow Australians, threaten them with death, invoke the most painful aspects of our history to taunt and intimidate, and no action will be taken,” he said.

“ … Our mission to eradicate bigotry is incomplete. Repeating the vicissitudes of the past would constitute not learning the mistakes of history. Surely, we are not that stupid.”

Mr Schueler also is a long-serving past president of the SA Jewish Community Council, past National Australia Day Council member and a former Executive Council of Australian Jewry vice-president.

The commemorative service marked the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or The Night of Broken Glass”, when violent anti-Jewish demonstrations erupted across Nazi Germany, Austria and part of Czechoslovakia.