Australian Jews suffer 738 per cent spike in anti-Semitic abuse

Jewish parents are warning their children to hide their identities as the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia reaches a sickening high.

Jewish parents are telling their children to hide their true identities as an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitic hatred surges through Australia.

The Executive Council of Australia Jewry recorded 662 anti-Semitic incidents across October and November, which included everything from death and bomb threats directed at Jews to assaults.

The figure represents a horrifying 738 per cent increase on the number of incidents recorded in the previous year.

The ECAJ cited one instance in which a 72-year-old Jewish man was last month assaulted in Melbourne after his attacker spotted Jewish items in his car.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry recorded 662 incidents of anti-Semitism across October and November 2023, a 738 spike from the same period in 2022.

In Sydney earlier this month, food and a box decorated with swastikas was thrown at a group of 13-year-old girls wearing their school uniforms.

The ECAJ said Australian Jews have also been subjected to extreme and widespread verbal abuse over the past year, with many variations of “f*** the Jews” repeated across the country.

One of the most shocking incidents highlighted by the council involved a man on a tram in Melbourne, who told a Jewish man he would “gun down 10,000 of you tomorrow” if he had a machine gun.

“I’m going to blow a hole through your synagogue,” he is recorded as saying.

Holocaust survivor Ernie Friedlander addressed the shocking statistics on Friday and declared the surge in racial hatred was “unAustralian”.

“I just hope people will wake up, get up and stop and think and consider the consequences of their actions,” he said.

Holocaust survivor Ernie Friedlander called on Australians to ‘wake up’.

Anti-Jewish graffiti discovered in Melbourne from November 18.

ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said Jewish families were now being forced to have “difficult conversations” about their place in Australia.

“Parents are speaking to their children about not disclosing their Jewishness in public, about hiding Jewish attire and symbols,” he said.

“The fact that in our society, in our time, these conversations are taking place, that one segment of our community feels that unsafe and that vulnerable from other Australians, it’s a shame for our country.”

The council cited instances of hateful graffiti, like the prominent graffiti on a Melbourne apartment block which read: “kill Jews, Jews live here.”

A few days later, the words “bring back Hitler, finish the job” were discovered in a bathroom in Sydney.

In October 2022 the ECAJ recorded 35 incidents of anti-Semitic abuse, but the number skyrocketed to 316 this year – a staggering 803 per cent increase.

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the ECAJ said Jewish families were now having ‘difficult conversations’.

South Australian Holocaust survivor Andrew Steiner said he had recently seen “concerning cracks” begin to appear in Australian society.

“We are extraordinarily successful multicultural, homogeneous society,” he said in Adelaide in November.

“However, there are unfortunate, concerning cracks which have appeared and need to be dealt with.”

The wave of racism comes after Palestinian terror group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing hundreds of Israeli civilians and taking 240 hostages.

Israel responded with force and continuously bombed the densely-populated slip of land.

The retaliation campaign, though directed at Hamas fighters, has resulted in thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths.

The intensification of Palestinian-Israeli war sparked fierce commentary in Australia, with pro-Palestinian rallies held in major cities across the country.

During one rally at the Sydney Opera House two days after the Hamas attack, a group of men chanted “f**k the Jews” and “gas the Jews”.

MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

Compared to people with other health conditions presenting at an ED, people with mental illness are: 

• nearly twice as likely to arrive by ambulance
• 10 times more likely to arrive by police or correctional services vehicles
• twice as likely to be in ED for more than 8 hours
• over represented among those kept waiting in ED for an inpatient bed
• even more over represented among those delayed in leaving ED due to an inpatient bed not being available. 

Originally published as Australian Jews suffer 738 per cent spike in anti-Semitic abuse