Anti-Semitic abuse building, says Jewish council

Anti-Semitic attacks surged 30 per cent in the year to September, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Youth HEAR members Harrison Rosen, 23, Julia Sussman, 22, Gabi Stricker-Phelps, 20, Jesse Lenn, 24, and Joel Grunstein, 24. Picture: Jane Dempster

Anti-Semitic attacks involving face-to-face interactions surged 30 per cent in the year to September, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s ­annual report on anti-Semitism.

The report found that although there had been only a slight rise in anti-Semitic incidents overall, from 366 in 2017-18 to 368 in 2018-19, incidents involving direct verbal abuse harassment and ­intimidation increased from 88 to 114, and graffiti attacks more than doubled from 46 to 95.

The slight overall increase between 2017-18 and 2018-19 builds on a 59 per cent rise in total incidents logged in the previous year.

The high incidence of attacks and threats — ranging from physical assaults to abuse, harassment, vandalism and graffiti, to threats via emails, letters, phone calls, posters, stickers and leaflets — has prompted calls from the Jewish community for increased education about the Holocaust.

High-profile incidents included two Jewish schoolchildren experiencing anti-Semitic bullying at Victorian public schools, former University of Sydney lecturer Tim Anderson superimposing the Nazi swastika symbol over the ­Israeli flag in lecture slides that were disseminated to students, and the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s production of teaching materials claiming that Israel persecutes Arabs because “they don’t follow the Jewish religion”.

Outgoing University of Sydney women’s officer Gabi Stricker-Phelps said she had regularly ­experienced anti-Semitism on campus with a number of instances of bigotry directed against ­students because of their Jewish identify.

The total number of anti-­Semitic incidents this year comprised 225 attacks and 143 threats that were logged with ECAJ and other Jewish organisations.

The daughter of doctor and politician Kerryn Phelps and former teacher Jackie Stricker-Phelps, Ms Stricker-Phelps volunteers with Jewish youth ­organisation Youth HEAR (Holocaust Education and Remembrance) and will serve as political affairs director for the Australasian Union of Jewish Students next year. She was elected as women’s ­officer as part of an independent faction that includes moderate Liberals.

Ms Stricker-Phelps, 20, said the University of Sydney’s “Autonomous Collective Against Racism” had refused to support Jewish ­students, who were not allowed to join the group unless they identified as “people of colour”.

“Additionally, the often-­aggressive nature of pro-Palestinian activism leaves Jews who support the existence of Israel — even if not necessarily its current government — feeling excluded and at times intimidated,” Ms Stricker-Phelps said in a recent Student Representative Council motion.

The SRC opposed her motion on the basis that it included a proposal for AUJS — seen by radical left elements in the SRC as a pro-­Israel ­organisation — to co-ordinate the implementation of a “countering anti-Semitism strategy”.

“Sadly these kinds of attitudes are not unique to Australia or to universities but are becoming very much a political theme within the radical left, and of course we also see it from the radical right amid the rise of white supremacism,” Ms Stricker-Phelps said.

She said she backed the calls of Josh Frydenberg and others for ­increased Holocaust education in all schools.

“We’re at a turning point ­because we are losing our Holocaust survivors as time passes on, and the strength of the education of Holocaust studies is diminishing,” Ms Stricker-Phelps said.

“It’s not just the facts and figures we need to teach but values and how we must mitigate hate in society.’’