Anti-Semitism festers in Victoria, says envoy Jillian Segal

Australia’s inaugural anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal says since the October 7 attacks there have been more than 800 anti-Semitic incidents recorded in Victoria.

Anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal. Picture: Nadir Kinani

Australia’s inaugural anti-Semitism envoy, Jillian Segal, has revealed Victoria is our worst state for anti-Semitism and that since the October 7 attacks there have been more than 800 anti-Semitic incidents recorded.

In her first public address since Anthony Albanese appointed her to the role last month, Ms Segal told the audience at the Fight Against anti-Semitism event at the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation that anti-Semitism is the greatest fight the Jewish community has faced through the centuries.

She said that from October 2023 to July, there had been more than 800 anti-Semitic incidents in Victoria compared to 200 recorded incidents in the previous 12 months.

“The golden age has come to an end, and this is our reality. We will rise to the occasion,” Ms Segal said. “I do not want to promise that there is one silver bullet, but I think there are a series of things that will happen here in Australia and around the rest of the world … but that is going to be a struggle.”

Ms Segal said difficult times, such as during Covid and times of economic challenges, had triggered resentment and caused people to blame others for life’s unfairness.

“Anti-Semitism, as we know, erodes everything that’s good in society. It poses a threat not just to us as a Jewish community, but to the whole of society,” she said.

“I actually think what we need to do in terms of reinvigorating the vibrancy of Jewish life is, we have to commit to participating in the life of the general community.

“We have to speak to non-Jews. We need to invite them to our homes. We need to talk to them. They need to meet us. They need to re-invite us to be on all our boards, on committees, and art galleries, that’s going to be one of my objectives.”

Ms Segal’s priorities in her three-year term include putting out a survey to help the wider Australian community understand attitudes toward Jewish people and anti-Semitism, to have a legal practitioner look into the legal framework that exists for discrimination, including looking at hate laws and anti-doxxing legislation, and to talk more about anti-Semitism in schools.

Other key initiatives include ensuring Jewish students and academics feel safe, and discussing with the business community harassment and psychological safety.

“I know you’ve even had some very confronting (incidents) here in the last week … a few weeks earlier … we have the Officeworks incident where services were denied to a Jewish person, which has very unhappy reflections on what happened in Germany,” Ms Segal said.

“Much of what has happened is a result of lack of knowledge, lack of education.

“I think a lot of young people … have no idea what it is that they are thinking and saying, they’re just feeding back what their social media has fed to them.”

Ms Segal said many other nations were dealing with hate on university campuses.

“Other initiatives that all the envoys are struggling with, of course, are universities,” she said.

“Some university chancellors, let’s say, in Italy, have stepped up and led the way for other universities to all come together.

“And the universities here in Australia did do that. Many years ago, in relation to sexual harassment.”

The lawyer, businesswoman and former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry has been tasked with engaging with Jewish Australians, the wider community, religious discrimination experts and government to find the best way to combat anti-Semitism.

The federal government is also expected to name a special envoy for Islamophobia.

Andrew Giles, Segal and Anthony Albanese. Picture: NewsWire / John Appleyard

ECAJ co-chief executive officer Alex Ryvchin also spoke at the event and said the new generation of Jews is experiencing for the first time what it means to be “truly hated”.

“For many years, parents, educators, community leaders we lamented that young Jews are growing up with no awareness of the vulnerability of Israel, of their incredible good fortune to live in a time of Israel and a strong diaspora,” Mr Ryvchin said. “They didn’t live through the Holocaust, or 48 or 67, they didn’t see the soaring moments of pride, Entebbe, the capture of Eichmann, peace with Egypt. They didn’t go to uni during the second intifada. “Now they have seen why we need Israel and why the people of Israel are our people. They now understand why we feel so connected to the Zionist project which has always been a struggle for Jewish rights and equality.”

Liberal MP James Newbury, Human Rights commissioner Lorraine Finlay and Victorian Multicultural Commission commissioner Jennifer Huppert were in attendance.