Commentary by ECAJ president Daniel Aghion KC originally published in The Australian on 7 January 2024.

It is a sad but simple truth that public spaces are no longer safe for Jews in Australia. If we travel into the CBD in Melbourne or Sydney on a Sunday we will see pro­test­ers calling us colo­ni­al­ists and oppress­ors. We will see flags of terrorist groups whose stated aims are to kill as many of us as possible. We will see antisemitism explained away as “anti-Zionism”, as if patho­lo­gic­al hatred of the Jewish state and a call for its extinc­tion somehow does not call for exterm­in­a­tion of the Jewish occupants of that state.

In December 2024, far right pro­test­ers stood on the steps of Victoria’s Par­lia­ment House with a banner stating “Jews hate freedom”. Spewing hatred and lies, they said we used money and power to control the gov­ern­ment, and that “this country should not belong to the Jews”. They even claimed we fire­bombed our own synagogue.

Note the way in which these fanatics seek to exclude us from society: we are too white for some and not white enough for others.

The horseshoe theory posits that the extreme left and extreme right of politics share many common traits, one of which is the use of antisemitism to drive their respect­ive agendas.

In Australia, only Jewish politi­cians and leaders have their off­ices van­dal­ised. Only Jewish students are told they are not welcome on uni­ver­sity campuses. Only Jewish neigh­bour­hoods exper­i­ence repeated arson attacks on cars coupled with racist graffiti.

These repeated attacks, both physical and verbal, seek to silence and erase us from daily life in Australia. Some of us have stopped wearing religious garb in public; some of our students now study online; we secure our syn­agogues and communal insti­tu­tions behind ever higher walls, with more security cameras and more guards. Star of David necklaces are now sometimes worn using long chains so they are concealed from public view.

On the other hand, many of us have chosen to fight back by being even more open and proud of our Jew­ish­ness than pre­vi­ously.

We have been fortified by the avalanche of messages of support we have received across the past 15 months from Aus­trali­ans of all back­grounds. We know the fanatics are fringe minor­it­ies whose words and deeds are pro­foundly repulsive to most Aus­trali­ans.

Yet his­tor­ic­al memory and intergen­er­a­tion­al trauma are ines­cap­able. The terrorist arson attack against the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne inev­it­ably prompted com­par­is­ons with the dark era in Europe that cul­min­ated in the Holocaust, even though our heads tell us it is not the same now.

During the past 15 months, almost every Aus­trali­an Jew I have asked has told me of the thought that has crossed their mind at least once: “when is it time to leave?” Some have taken active steps: learning Hebrew, updating their Aus­trali­an passports. Others are watching quietly and waiting. Almost all have con­sidered it.

We know the vast majority of our fellow Aus­trali­ans are well disposed towards our community and certainly do not abhor us.

But enough do. The boldness of their activ­it­ies shows that they consider them­selves enabled, free to hate us and attack us without con­sequence. Clear and strong gov­ern­ment lead­er­ship from an early stage would have better protected the Jewish community.

But now it may be too late. Antisemitism has been released. It is alive and well in Australia, and our society is dimin­ished because of it.

If there is to be a remedy, it can only come from a joint effort – from gov­ern­ment, from community and from indi­vidu­als. Good people must stand up and say “no more”, “not here”, “not in our name”.

When Australia fails to protect any minority group from harm, it fails basic standards of inclus­ive­ness and common decency that are sup­posedly part of Aus­trali­an culture. When that occurs, Australia fails as a nation. None of us can let that occur. Australia’s soul is at stake.