‘No citizen is safe’ if tide not turned on rising anti-Semitism, says Peter Wertheim

Death threats, abuse on the streets and incitement to violence against Jewish Australians has reached the highest level on ­record.

Death threats, abuse on the streets and incitement to violence against Jewish Australians has reached the highest level on ­record, prompting the head of the nation’s peak Jewish body to lash out at authorities for not doing enough to stop it.

The trend has left many in Australia’s 100,000-strong Jewish community shaken and scared, as Jewish schools, synagogues and organisations become the targets of pro-Palestinian ­extremists and racists.

The surge in anti-Semitic incidents across the country spiked after Hamas massacred 1400 Israelis on October 7 and has risen further as Israel’s war on Hamas has led to a large civilian death toll in Gaza.

Peter Wertheim, the co-chief executive of the country’s peak Jewish body, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, has criticised authorities for failing to act on the rise in hate speech and violent threats against Jews.

“The major concern of the community is the apparent ­absence of any legal action against hate preachers and against calls for violence or threats of violence at public demonstrations,” Mr Wertheim said.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim.

“We’ve seen very little in the way of prosecutions or enforcement action that would implement the laws that we have in place to deal with that sort of incitement.

“It impacts on the freedom of every citizen because any group of people, whether it’s the Jewish community, or anyone else, is not free to go about their daily lives with a sense of safety and security, then ultimately, no citizen is safe.”

Mr Wertheim cited the lack of action in relation to a radical ­Islamic preacher in western Sydney who urged worshippers in Australia to unleash jihad and ­described Hamas terrorists as “honourable men”.

The ECAJ, which tracks the ­incidence of anti-Semitism, says anti-Semitic acts are now at the highest level since records were kept. In this past week alone – from November 1 to 7 – 49 incidents of anti-Semitism were reported, the highest weekly figure on record, but that number is likely to rise further because ­reports of new incidents are still being made.

Anti-Semitic incidents are vastly under-reported because of the reluctance of victims to make official complaints to Jewish ­bodies. The ECAJ said the total ­recorded incidents since the ­October 7 Hamas attack was 221 – a 482 per cent rise on the 38 ­incidents reported in October 2021, the last monthly figure for October.

ECAJ research director Julie Nathan said there had been a sharp spike in all types of anti-­Semitic ­behaviour since October 7.

“We have seen increases in the threats of violence (against Jews), and an increase in death threats and an increase in harassment on the streets,” Ms Nathan said.

“The concern is that as the war continues people are going to get angrier and will they then take that out on individual Jews.”

Since October 7, she said there had been more reports of people making the sign of a gun with their hands outside Jewish schools and synagogues.

Genocidal chants such as “kill the Jews” have been reported at several rallies in Melbourne and Sydney in addition to the notorious Opera House rally of October 9 when chants of “gas the Jews” were heard.

This week, more than 100 of the nation’s remaining Holocaust survivors published an unprecedented statement calling on Australians to denounce anti-Semitism and hatred.

“Never have we, the survivors of the Holocaust, felt the need to make a collective statement such as this until now,” the statement said.

“Never did we think that we would witness a re-enactment of the senseless and virulent hatred of Jews that we faced in Europe.

“On 7 October 2023, we witnessed the horrors of Hamas’ terrorist attacks in Israel and the ­resulting war, with its terrible loss of life. Since then, we have seen an unprecedented outpouring of anti-Semitism raging on our streets, on our television screens, on social media and in our universities … We cannot allow history to repeat itself.”