Why a surge in anti-Semitism is a danger to all Australians

Cars and buildings in Sydney’s eastern suburbs have been targeted in recent months. Picture: Tim Hunter.

As the Australian Jewish community wakes to another serious anti-Semitic crime in our cities, we wonder how “one and free” we truly are.

It is a sad but simple truth that public spaces are no longer safe for Jews in Australia. If we travel into the CBD in Melbourne or Sydney on a Sunday we will see protesters calling us colonialists and oppressors. We will see flags of terrorist groups whose stated aims are to kill as many of us as possible. We will see anti-Semitism explained away as “anti-Zionism”, as if pathological hatred of the Jewish state and a call for its extinction somehow does not call for extermination of the Jewish occupants of that state.

In December 2024, far right protesters stood on the steps of Victoria’s Parliament House with a banner stating “Jews hate freedom”. Spewing hatred and lies, they said we used money and power to control the government, and that “this country should not belong to the Jews”. They even claimed we firebombed our own synagogue.

A car in Queens Park in Sydney’s east was targeted with an anti-Semitic message. Picture: Supplied

Note the way in which these fanatics seek to exclude us from society: we are too white for some and not white enough for others.

The horseshoe theory posits that the extreme left and extreme right of politics share many common traits, one of which is the use of anti-Semitism to drive their respective agendas.

In Australia, only Jewish politicians and leaders have their off­ices vandalised. Only Jewish students are told they are not welcome on university campuses. Only Jewish neighbourhoods experience repeated arson attacks on cars coupled with racist graffiti.

These repeated attacks, both physical and verbal, seek to silence and erase us from daily life in Australia. Some of us have stopped wearing religious garb in public; some of our students now study online; we secure our synagogues and communal institutions behind ever higher walls, with more security cameras and more guards. Star of David necklaces are now sometimes worn using long chains so they are concealed from public view.

On the other hand, many of us have chosen to fight back by being even more open and proud of our Jewishness than previously.

We have been fortified by the avalanche of messages of support we have received across the past 15 months from Australians of all backgrounds. We know the fanatics are fringe minorities whose words and deeds are profoundly repulsive to most Australians.

Yet historical memory and intergenerational trauma are inescapable. The terrorist arson attack against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne inevitably prompted comparisons with the dark era in Europe that culminated in the Holocaust, even though our heads tell us it is not the same now.

During the past 15 months, almost every Australian Jew I have asked has told me of the thought that has crossed their mind at least once: “When is it time to leave?” Some have taken active steps: learning Hebrew, updating their Australian passports. Others are watching quietly and waiting. Almost all have considered it.

We know the vast majority of our fellow Australians are well disposed towards our community and certainly do not abhor us.

But enough do. The boldness of their activities shows that they consider themselves enabled, free to hate us and attack us without consequence. Clear and strong government leadership from an early stage would have better protected the Jewish community.

But now it may be too late. Anti-Semitism has been released. It is alive and well in Australia, and our society is diminished because of it.

If there is to be a remedy, it can only come from a joint effort – from government, from community and from individuals. Good people must stand up and say “no more”, “not here”, “not in our name”.

When Australia fails to protect any minority group from harm, it fails basic standards of inclusiveness and common decency that are supposedly part of Australian culture. When that occurs, Australia fails as a nation. None of us can let that occur. Australia’s soul is at stake.

Daniel Aghion is president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.