Stand with us to fight scourge of hate, say Jewish leaders
On the first anniversary of the country’s worst hate crime, the Jewish community just wants to be embraced as the regular Aussies they are.
Stand with us, don’t leave us behind. Talk with us. Eat with us. Laugh with us. Get to know us. This is the plea to all Australians from the country’s Jewish community a year after the worst anti-Semitic attack yet, the torching of the Adass Israeli synagogue in Melbourne’s Ripponlea.
Gathered outside the burnt-out synagogue which stands as a symbol of the worst two years of anti-Semitism in the nation’s history, Daniel Aghion, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said hatred was not the Australian way.
“Our nation prides itself on its fair mindedness. What happened here a year ago, and has been replicated in other anti-Semitic incidents over the past year, is as alien to our national values as you can get,” he said.
“If you want Australia to remain the friendly, inclusive and welcoming place we all know it to be, then stand with us. Don’t leave us behind.’
“Contact your local Jewish synagogue or community and offer your support. Attend our events, try our food.
“ Get to know us as Australians and as Jews.”
Mr Aghion said the key to dealing with the sort of anti-Semitism we have seen in Australia was “education and positivity”.
“Jews don’t have horns. I don’t hide them under my skull cap. I am an Australian. I was born in this city. I’m a proud Australian, and I’m a proud Jew and I am part of this country.”
In a show of solidarity towards Australian Jews on the anniversary of the synagogue attack, Jewish leaders from the seven countries with the largest Jewish populations paid their respects at the yet-to-be rebuilt synagogue.
But Mr Aghion also used the anniversary to criticise the Albanese government for its failure to implement the recommendations of the report of the Special Envoy on anti-Semitism Jillian Segal.
“We have a problem that is leeching into Australian society. It needs to be attacked, and it needs to be attacked hard and effectively, that is the only way to deal with anti-Semitism,’ he said.
“(But) five months later, the government has not implemented the (Segal) plan.
“It has not said what it will do, and it has not even responded. That is simply unacceptable. I call upon the government to provide its response to the strategic plan, particularly its emphasis on education and positivity.”
Mr Aghion was speaking after the release this week of an ECAJ report which revealed that Australian Jews had suffered a second year of unprecedented anti-Semitism, with the number of assaults, abuse, vandalism and hate messages totalling 1653 in the past 12 months, almost five times the level before the massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023 and the war in Gaza.
Mr Aghion said Australia was leading the world in the percentage increase in anti-Semitic incidents. “Australia is leading an international race to the bottom. That is not the competition that Australia wants to win,” he said
Speaking ahead of an inspection of the burnt-out synagogue, Marina Rosenberg, a senior vice-president at the Anti-Defamation League in the US, said the world’s Jewish community expressed their solidarity and support for Australian Jews. “You are not alone in your pain, you are not alone in your resilience. We are here to show that we are together fighting this tsunami of anti Jewish hate that we’ve been seeing, not only here in Australia, but all over the world. We’re here to call on the Australian government, but also our governments, to do more, to do better and to act now before it’s too late.”
The federal government has pledged $30m to rebuild the Adass Israel synagogue, which is expected to be completed by 2029.
Peter Wertheim, ECAJ’s co-chief executive, said the synagogue attack had “cast a pall on Jewish life” in this country: “It is something that has unnerved so many people in our community because it is precisely what they thought they were getting away from (by coming to Australia).
“Even more disturbing was the subsequent revelation that it was an orchestrated act by a state actor, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp of Iran.
“(But) if the people who carried this out thought they would break the will of the Australian Jewish community they were spectacularly mistaken. It has galvanised and united our community like nothing before.”
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