The following article has been published in The Aus­trali­an by Julie Nathan.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust it was hoped that expres­sions of murderous Jew-hatred would be con­sidered so odious as to be a thing of the past.

The Holocaust, the delib­er­ate and planned killing of every Jewish man, woman and child the Nazis and their col­lab­or­at­ors could get their hands on, was a seminal event for humanity.

It demon­strated that although human beings have the potential to rise to all kinds of lofty heights, there is also no limit to the moral depths to which they may sink.

In far too many European minds, Jews were not seen as thinking, feeling fellow human beings but as objec­ti­fied examples of an imper­son­al “type”. The concept of “the Jew” became the repos­it­ory into which Jew-haters projected their personal insec­ur­it­ies, craven­ness, mis­an­throp­ic impulses and self-loathing.

Fast forward to the next century and another continent. Despite the best hopes, and years of education about the evils of racism, incite­ment to murder Jews has been resur­rec­ted, even in Australia, which has no history at all of official per­se­cu­tion of Jews.

The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, the peak rep­res­ent­at­ive body for Aus­trali­an Jews, publishes an annual report on anti-Semitism in Australia, which documents anti-Semitic incidents.

The latest report, just released, reveals that in the year to September there were 230 anti-Semitic ‑incidents reported, a 9.5 per cent increase.

The most prominent change has been the rise in extreme right-wing activity.

This new devel­op­ment has been pre­dom­in­antly through the formation of a neo-nazi group Anti­podean Res­ist­ance in October last year. It ori­gin­ated in Melbourne but has spread to most states.

The activ­it­ies of Anti­podean Res­ist­ance are primarily of pro­pa­ganda and recruit­ment. To this end, members of the group have been heavily involved in putting up thousands of Nazi swastika stickers and thousands of anti-Jewish, anti-homo­sexu­al and pro-Nazi posters, espe­cially at uni­ver­sit­ies, public places and in areas with numbers of Jewish residents.

These posters are not just run-of-the-mill agitprop. Two Anti­podean Res­ist­ance posters demand “Legalise the execution of Jews” and call for the killing of homo­sexu­als.

The posters have graphic images of shooting Jews and homo­sexu­als in the head.

Other Anti­podean Res­ist­ance posters vilify and demonise Jews, homo­sexu­als, Chinese students and non-white immig­rants.

Where has this resur­rec­tion of Nazi murder rhetoric come from?

During the past few years there has been a steady rise in far-right political activity in Europe and North America.

From pro­scribed neo-nazi terrorist group National Action in Britain (which Anti­podean Res­ist­ance looks to for inspir­a­tion), to the mass rallies in Char­lottes­ville, Virginia in August (in which a protester was killed by a far-right activist), and rallies in Poland of up to 60,000 ultrana­tion­al­ists (with many calling “Jews out!”) this month, neo-nazi and other extreme right groups are becoming increas­ingly active and emboldened.

Many blame US President Donald Trump, whose rhetoric and behaviour have indeed at times condoned and encour­aged racist, sexist and bigoted sentiment.

Yet on the other side of the political spectrum British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also has shame­fully tolerated and been accused of condoning anti-Semitism among the far left and Islamist groups he has courted.

However, the deteri­or­a­tion in the standards of discourse in con­ven­tion­al politics is a mere symptom of a deeper malaise simmering within Western society, brought about by growing tech­no­lo­gic­al dis­rup­tion, economic inequal­ity, job insec­ur­ity and xeno­pho­bia, and a con­tract­ing middle class.

The tra­di­tion­al social consensus about our demo­crat­ic insti­tu­tions and values is being under­mined in the process. Intol­er­ance, bigotry, hatred and violence increas­ingly rise through the cracks in the bedrock of society.

The Jewish community bears the brunt of this frac­tur­ing of society.

Because of the high incidence of physical attacks against Jews and Jewish communal buildings during the past three decades, and con­tinu­ing threats in Australia, Jewish places of worship, schools, communal organ­isa­tions and community centres need, for security reasons, to operate under the pro­tec­tion of armed guards, high fences, metal detectors, CCTV cameras and the like.

The Jewish community is the only community within Australia that has to live with such high ‑levels of security.

The necessity is recog­nised by Australia’s law enforce­ment agencies and arises from the entrenched and protean nature of anti-Semitism in Western and Muslim culture.

As history has so often shown, when people can target Jews with impunity, in the street, in insti­tu­tions or anywhere else, then sooner or later other sectors of society also will be targeted. Jews are said to be the “canary in the coalmine”.

The dev­ast­a­tion wrought by racism and racially motivated violence may start with the Jews but it never ends with the Jews.

Julie Nathan is research officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry and author of the ECAJ antisemitism report.