Aussie Jews Face Surge in Anti-Semitism

17 December 2023, Herald-Sun, by Duncan Evans

Jewish parents are telling their children to hide their true identities as an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitic hatred surges through Australia.

From death and bomb threats directed at Jews to assaults and anti-Jewish graffiti, the Executive Council of Australia Jewry recorded 662 anti-Semitic incidents in October and November, a startling 738 per cent jump from the number of incidents recorded in the same period in 2022.

The ECAJ cited one instance in which a 72-year-old Jewish man was last month assaulted in Melbourne after his attacker spotted Jewish items in his car.

In one case from November 16, graffiti scrawled at an apartment block in Melbourne reads “kill Jews, Jews live here”.

Australian Jews have also been subjected to extreme and widespread verbal abuse. In one incident, four males in a car in Melbourne allegedly yelled out at a rabbi and his eight-year-old son: “f–k pig, Jews die”.

Holocaust survivor Ernie Friedlander said the surge in racial hatred was “un-Australian”.

“I just hope people will wake up, get up and stop and think and consider the consequences of their actions,” he said.

The wave of racism comes after Palestinian terror group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing hundreds of Israeli civilians and taking 240 hostages.

The retaliation campaign, though directed at Hamas fighters, has resulted in thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths. The escalation of Palestinian-Israeli war has been the subject of intense debate around the world.