High Steaks: Qld Jewish leader Jason Steinberg on the rise of anti-Semitism
For many Queenslanders, the mere hint that this could happen here seeems utterly preposterous, but Jason Steinberg says the recent “hate” he’s witnessed means he’s not so sure.
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In their darker moments, a bleak question arises in the mind of the average Queensland Jew:
“Who would hide me?’’
Who on earth in Sunnybank Hills would play the Miep Gies to a 21st Century Anne Frank?
Is there an Oskar Schindler in a Browns Plains factory outlet prepared to hire a Mietek Pemper?
Or would Lamington National Park, up behind the Gold Coast, offer a natural sanctuary, as the forests of Eastern Europe did for an estimated 25,000 Jews during World War 11?
“Seriously, it’s a question that people now ask themselves,’’ says Jason Steinberg, president of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies as he finishes off his battered fish and chips in the cheery atmosphere of “The Hamo’’- the heir to the historic Hamilton Hotel on Racecourse Road built in 1865 which bequeathed the entire suburb its name.
The eye fillet and salad are superb along with the service and Winnie’s Kitchen and Bar, filled with chatty diners, is clearly heralding the start of the festive season as Jason, not without a hint of gallows humour, ponders a Sunshine State re-run of the European Holocaust.
It is, of course, utterly preposterous to suggest Australia is about to round up Jews and exterminate them in industrial complexes at the edge of our cities.
Yet, as Jason evenly points out, it was equally preposterous in 1933 Germany to suggest such a hideous scenario.
The land which gave the world Beethoven was perhaps the most sophisticated nation on earth with its STEM sector awash with talent and its universities a beacon to scholars across the globe.
Jason, along with Queensland’s 5000 strong Jewish population, is painfully aware that anti-Semitism, only a few years ago the province of the ignorant on the periphery of the political far right, is back in vogue.
October 7 2023 was their wake-up call.
Jason was at a family function on Brisbane’s northside that afternoon when phones started beeping with social media alerts about an attack on Israel which were concerning, but hardly unprecedented.
“I did at first think, ‘well, it’s just another terrorist attack,’’ Jason recalls.
Later than night the true extent of the horror emerged, with more than 1200 dead in a carnage unprecedented since the Holocaust.
“When we heard of Hamas members, ringing their families, excited that they had killed Jews, that sent chills across me, across everybody.
“It sent shivers down the spine because it was a deliberate and barbaric attack with mutilations and rape, just beyond belief.’’
As the Queensland Jewish community gathered to console one another, the next shock was the absence of contact from Queensland’s wider community leaders.
“No one was really reaching out to us is Queensland and then, on October 8, in Sydney, we heard (Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun) say “I’m smiling I’m happy, I’m elated, it’s a day of courage’’ then we heard ‘gas the Jews’ or “where’s the Jews’.
“Whatever it was, it sent another shiver through us all.’’
“We have known for a long time Iran has been a threat to Jewish people, but at that point we did not know whether or not this was the beginning of some global intifada.’’
Jason says those crucial few days were the time for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to speak forcibly, using strong language indicating public displays of antisemitism were unlawful and would never be tolerated in Australia.
But while he says Opposition leader Peter Dutton has been consistently prepared to condemn anti-Semitism in unequivocal terms, a vacuum opened up after October 8 and hatred was allowed to take hold.
There are now weekly reports of insults and threats being made against Queensland Jews.
In this state alone there has been a reported seven physical, criminal assaults on people who were wearing something identifying them as Jewish such as a shirt saying, “I support Israel.’’
That the grandfather of bigotry and intolerance, which occupied the darkest crevices of old Europe for centuries, could suddenly open up in sunny Queensland still perplexes Jason.
His grandparents on his mother’s side were from London’s Eastern End.
His father’s people came from Russia which they fled in the 19th Century with little but the clothes on their back after a pogrom.
When his ancestors arrived in Brisbane they headed straight for South Brisbane and New Farm, joining a thriving immigrant community where people finally felt safe and welcome, sleeping with the windows open and leaving the doors unlocked.
His ancestors were friends with the ancestors of the famous Brisbane restaurant clan the Gambaro family who were once New Farm grocers.
“It was called Jew Farm rather than New Farm in the day, but in a nice way - there was a real affinity among the people because most were immigrants or children of immigrants.’’
Like many immigrant clans, education was the parents’ mantra, instilling in the Australian-born generation the importance of learning.
“Education is so important in Judaism - it fosters thinkers and doers and people who give back.’’
Jason went to “Churchie,’’ played sport, made friends, invited them all to his Bar Mitzvah and remembers only one serious antisemitic incident, which didn’t exactly traumatise him.
A boy at the school insulted him about his heritage, they got into a fight, and that was the end of the matter.
“It ended in a bit of scuffle and, away we go, all fine after that!’’
His experience mirrored that of most Australian Jews, many of whom arrived in the mid 19th Century and began carving out their place in Australian history.
From Sir John Monash, the great World War 1 General to Isaac Isaacs, Australia’s ninth Governor-General from 1931 to 1936 to the Myer family of retail fame to Sir Matthew Nathan, appointed governor of Queensland in 1920 and chancellor of the University of Queensland from 1922 to 1926, the extraordinary Jewish contribution to the nation has long been recognised.
The Queensland Jewish Deputies which started in 1948 and remains affiliated with around 30 organisations takes on the responsibility of protecting and giving voice to Jewish Queenslanders.
Jason and other members recently played a key role, along with other faiths, in modernising and strengthening Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 to ensure racism and bigotry would be not tolerated under law.
Now he and his community are waiting to see if those laws are prosecuted in our courts, but he is not holding his breath.
Only a few weeks ago as he and his community commemorated Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) when Nazi leaders unleashed nights of violence on German Jewish businesses on November 9/10 1938.
Guests at the Holocaust Museum (many quite elderly) who were leaving after the service were faced with a roaring mob in central Brisbane shouting the “from the river to the sea’’ slogan which Jewish people view as a genocidal determination to obliterate the state of Israel.
“The roaring noise was just terrifying,’’ Jason recalls.
“I am not advocating that people be stopped from protesting.
“But this is just hatred, hatred of me and my family.’’
He believes white supremists taking to the streets declaring “Australia for the white man’’ and voicing contempt for other races would be readily arrested and charged.
But the vilification of Jews appears to result in few arrests.
Three days after our lunch a fire rips through the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s southeast.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “unequivocally’’ condemns the attack, saying “I have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism.’’
In Jason’s view, that message should have been delivered on October 8 2023 after the Sydney protests.
“Words matter,’’ Jason says.
“If our leaders don’t deliver a clear and strong message, a vacuum opens up, and the hatred pours in.’’
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