Baptist Church accused of anti-Semitic flyer

A Baptist Church in one Queensland City has angered the Jewish community after it distributed a flyer boasting an infamous anti-semitic cartoon.

The cover of the flyer from the Independent Baptist Fellowship Cairns which boasts an anti-semitic cartoon inside. Picture: Supplied

The Jewish community and anti-hate organisations have been enraged by a Baptist church leaflet featuring an infamous anti-Semitic caricature that was distributed in a Queensland city.

Jewish leaders say it is the latest in a surge of anti-Semitic attacks in the wake of increased fighting in the Middle East, sparked by the October 7 terrorist attacks.

Dispersed by independent Baptist Fellowship Cairns, the flyer titled “Where Will You Spend Eternity?” was dropped in letterboxes across in the suburb of Edmonton in Cairns, which is home to more than 10,000 residents.

Placed at the bottom of the flyer, a black and white cartoon of a Jewish person in a kippah with a hooked nose and scheming hands – one of the most famous anti-Semitic images on the internet – was paired with an excerpt from Ecclesiastes.

The bible verse referred to lusting for money, that “he that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver,” a trope that has historically been a “dangerous association” to the Jewish community.

Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said he had received complaints from community members about the material and was extremely disappointed by the use of the “vile caricature”.

“This is hate speech … it is simply throwing fuel on the fire of anti-Semitism which is spiralling out of control across the nation,” Dr Abramovich said.

“Who would have thought that in 2024 Australia we would see a religious organisation peddling demeaning and dehumanising stereotypes of Jews that are rooted in classic antisemitism?”

He said the “warped and prejudiced” worldview against Jewish people should never be normalised by a church.

Dr Abramovich said a non-Jewish person had complained to the pastor of the church for using the caricature.

The independent Baptist Fellowship Cairns in the suburb of Woree is a ministry of the Grace Baptist Church of Milanda, which dubs itself “an old fashioned country church”.

The church did not respond to calls from The Australian.

However, the church told The Cairns Post it did not produce the material and they had not noticed the caricature until several weeks after the flyers were distributed.

“We didn’t mean any offence to the Jewish community,” a spokesman said.

“We will look into this.”

The spokesman declined to say where the material came from.

“It is usually the usual suspects – the neo-Nazi’s, the white supremacists – trafficking this (image), but to actually see a church using this image … and indulge the playbook of Jews and money … amplifies the problem,” Dr Abramovich said.

“When people get something from the church they assume they are speaking the truth.”

Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission has called on the church to apologise. Picture: Josie Hayden

He has called for the independent Baptist Fellowship to publicly apologise, condemn anti-Semitism and promise it won’t happen again.

Anti-Semitism had been on the rise since the outbreak in October of the Israel-Hamas war and Queensland officially banned distribution, publication and public display of hate symbols, such as Nazi flags and tattoos, in October, with those found guilty to face six months’ jail.

However, the Attorney-General is still in discussions with the Commissioner of Police, the Crime and Corruption Commission Chair and the Queensland Human Rights Commissioner to identify which symbols of hate are to be criminalised.

“My concern (is), that these types of materials are becoming mainstream and normalised,” Dr Abramovich said.