The firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea in the early morning of Friday, December 6, is without question the worst example of anti-Semitism in Australian history. But this might not have been the case if the fire lit on June 19 outside the Melbourne office of Josh Burns, the federal Labor MP for Macnamara, had penetrated the building – since the apartment above Burns’s office is inhabited.
A 17-year-old and an 18-year-old allegedly hit the building’s glass with a sledgehammer, started fires and defaced Burns’s image. “Zionism is fascism” was spray-painted on the building. Burns is Jewish.
The term Zionist is used to describe individuals who believe Jews have a right to a Jewish state – Israel – and that they are entitled to establish and maintain it within secure borders. In other words, I am a Zionist but I’m not Jewish. Not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews. But anti-Semitism is directed at Jews.
It was reasonable to expect the Victorian Labor government and Victoria Police would have reacted immediately with the establishment of a taskforce to investigate the attack on Burns’s office, along with other anti-Semitic actions in Victoria that have increased dramatically since Israel’s defensive war in Gaza following Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But Victoria Police did not treat the arson incident with the gravity it deserved.
Then there was the attempt to destroy a Jewish place of worship in Melbourne, sending shockwaves across the world primarily because – until recently at least – Australia was widely perceived to be an accepting and tolerant nation with a high level of intermarriage across ethnic groups and a low level of ethnic-motivated crime. Not any more, it would seem.
Interviewed in Perth in the aftermath of the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue, Anthony Albanese was asked: “This is the next in a long list of increasingly aggressive anti-Semitic events across Australia; is there anything you think could have been done earlier to address this rising tide of anti-Semitism?” The Prime Minister replied: “Well, anti-Semitism is something that has been around for a long period of time, of course, but anti-Semitism has been on the rise; we call it out whenever we see it.”
This was an inadequate response with respect to Australia.
Jews have been in Australia since European settlement in 1788 – and so has anti-Semitism. However, there has been nothing like the events of the past 14 months.
Sure, some Jews were denied employment because they were Jews and some were excluded from what were called gentlemen’s clubs. However, Jewish Australian John Monash was head of the First Australian Imperial Force in the final years of World War I and played a significant role in the defeat of Germany on the Western Front in late 1918.
And Jewish Australian Isaac Isaacs moved from the High Court to become the first Australian-born governor-general in 1931. If anti-Semitism had been all-pervasive in the decades after Federation in 1901, such appointments could not have occurred.
The most prominent anti-Semitic organisation in Australia in the 20th century was the League of Rights, a far-right group. Its leader, Eric Butler, wrote the anti-Semitic tract The International Jew in 1946. Butler had scant influence on Australian society. Moreover, the League of Rights was not into violence. In other words, something quite dramatic has taken place concerning anti-Semitism in the past quarter of a century.
Despite the anti-Semitic violence that has occurred since October 7, 2023, this message has not got through to some Australians who should know better. Two examples illustrate the point.
On December 11, NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns was interviewed by Chris Taylor on ABC Sydney Radio 702. As readers will recall, Taylor is one of the original Chaser boys made famous by the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster. The interview took place in the aftermath of a second arson attack on property in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, which has a high Jewish population.
The most recent attack not only firebombed a car but also sprayed anti-Israel graffiti on buildings, cars and fences. Taylor’s first question was: “What’s your reasoning for branding the attack anti-Semitic and not anti-Israel?” Minns was not impressed. The Premier pointed to the location of the crime along with the suggestion that Australians should “kill Israel” and made reference to recent attacks in Melbourne and Sydney. Soon after Minns said he had a “busy morning” and had to “keep moving”. The NSW Premier’s handling of this matter has been very professional.
The following morning, Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman was given a soft interview on ABC Radio National Breakfast by presenter Patricia Karvelas. Like Taylor, Sivaraman did not want to focus the discussion on anti-Semitism.
In response to a question as to whether there had been a specific level of harassment that Jewish Australians were being subjected to at the moment, the Race Discrimination Commissioner responded that “there’s definitely an increase in anti-Semitism”.
But he then spoke about “anti-Asian racism”, “First Nations racism” along with “Islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism”. In short, according to Sivaraman, “the reality is that we continually have racism operating in our society”.
This is just denial. Liberal senator Dave Sharma (who is not Jewish) explained why in a Sky News interview with Sharri Markson on December 10. Sharma said he had “seen synagogues being firebombed … I haven’t seen mosques being firebombed”. Sharma added that the attacks on Jewish religious organisations, institutions and business were “not happening to any other religious community in Australia”.
Quite so. The feeling of Jewish Australians has been well described by singer-songwriter Deborah Conway and writer Michael Gawenda, both of whom have a left-wing background. In short, many Jews feel scared.
The recent announcement by the Prime Minister of the establishment of Special Operation Avalite to investigate anti-Semitism – to be led by the Australian Federal Police – may not be too little.
But the Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing demonstrates that is too late.
Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute.
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