As Australia touts efforts to combat antisemitism, Jewish leaders demand more action

While a new task force dedicated to fighting anti-Jewish violence has begun to work, recent arson and graffiti attacks on local synagogues leave the community vulnerable, angry

Swastikas daubed on a synagogue in Newtown on January 11, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Screen grab via ABC News)
Swastikas daubed on a synagogue in Newtown on January 11, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Screen grab via ABC News)

An Australian task force dedicated to combating antisemitic attacks has already received 124 reports since it was established last month, with 102 of these under investigation, according to a statement published Tuesday by the office of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Listing a series of steps the Australian government has taken to combat antisemitism since October 7, 2023, the statement said that Albanese is “taking action to stamp out the scourge of antisemitism.”

However, following a recent uptick in violence that includes a series of recent arson attacks on local synagogues, representatives of Australia’s Jewish community say much more action is needed.

Albanese met with the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales on Tuesday to discuss rising incidents of antisemitism, and the three agreed to work together to stop these incidents and ensure that those responsible are punished. The group will coordinate efforts with Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, whose position was created last July as a response to rising anti-Jewish activities.

Albanese pointed to Segal’s position as one of a line of measures taken to alleviate the situation, along with the creation of Special Operation Avalite, with 21 counter-terrorism police and experts, to investigate threats against the Australian Jewish community. Other initiatives include a ban on the Nazi salute and hate symbols, criminalizing doxxing, introducing legislation to outlaw hate speech, and committing more than $60 million to improve safety and security at Jewish sites across the country.

Jewish leaders claim these efforts are not enough to stymie the wave of antisemitism. Following an attack last week on a synagogue in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) Co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said it is clear that “the government has failed today to grasp the true severity of the moment.”

“We need education and policing and sentencing guidelines to drive this terror from our midst,” Ryvchin said on Sky News Australia. “We are in a situation now where the community wakes up every morning and we don’t know which synagogue or school is going to be hit, and the community is suffering for it.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jillian Segal (L) stands next to the co-CEO Alex Ryvchin as he speaks during a media conference in Sydney on October 9, 2023. (DAVID GRAY / AFP)

Liberal MP Julian Leeser agreed. “When the government say they have done everything that they can [to combat antisemitism], it is just a lie,” he said in a television interview shortly after the prime minister’s announcement was made.

“It’s just like the lie they told the Jewish community before the last election, that there would be no difference in the policy in relation to the Jewish community and Israel, between the coalition and Labor. No greater lie has ever been told in Australian politics,” said Leeser.

The number of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia quadrupled in the year after Hamas terrorists launched the war against Israel on October 7, 2023. Some 2,062 incidents were recorded between October 2023 and September 2024, compared to 495 incidents a year earlier, according to data from ECAJ.

Anger against the government is running high in Australia’s community of some 120,000 Jews, including many Holocaust survivors, where many are strongly critical of the government for what it sees as insufficient action. Some charge that the left-wing Labor government is afraid to take a strong stand for Jewish interests due to federal elections planned for next summer, where it is counting heavily on Muslim votes. An arson attack in December against the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne was seen by many as a turning point in a situation that has become untenable.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (C) and members of the local Jewish community visiting the torched Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 10, 2024. (DEPARTMENT OF PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET / AFP)

Ryvchin said the spike in attacks was “painfully predictable” following the government’s weak response to violent anti-Israel protests immediately after October 7, along with its lack of action to attacks on college campuses, helped to “create the leeway in which extremism thrives.”

After the Adass Israel Synagogue attack last month, Ryvchin and other ECAJ leaders sent a letter to Albanese outlining a number of steps needed to calm the crisis, including providing funding for community security; teaching antisemitism education in schools; a ban on protests outside synagogues; moderation of government statements about the the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a national cabinet meeting of all state and territory leaders to implement uniform policing guidelines.

Only one of those items, funding for community security, has been provided, ECAJ noted. The time has come for the government to stop talking and do more to fight antisemitism, it added.

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