Joint statement from Catholic Religious Australia and the ECAJ.

Catholic Religious Australia (CRA) and the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ) today released a new resource to assist Catholic schools, com­munit­ies and agencies to hold better informed dis­cus­sions about antisemitism.

Titled “Address­ing Antisemitic Bullying: A Resource for Catholic Lead­er­ship and Formation”, its centrepiece is a videoed con­ver­sa­tion between a Catholic educator and leading members of the Jewish community sharing their con­sid­er­able knowledge and exper­i­ence of dealing with antisemitic incidents in the community.

The video is accom­pan­ied by dis­cus­sion guides that can be tailored to suit a staff meeting, pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment day or con­fer­ence workshop. The materials are all available online and, while pitched to CRA’s Catholic networks, are freely available to others as well.

The resource is being released at a critical time in Australia, which has seen a dramatic rise in antisemitism since October 7. However, arising from a project carried out prior to October 7, it should be noted that the resource does not engage with volatile political issues but, rather, views antisemitism through a general lens of respect for human dignity and the practical context of anti-bullying policies.

CRA President, Gerard Brady CFC, stated: “To their credit, Catholic school prin­cipals are typically highly motivated to embed values of respect and inclusion, and anti-bullying policies are already in place. What our Jewish col­leagues help us to under­stand is that not all bullying is the same – there are spe­cificit­ies about antisemitic bullying that are not always well under­stood.”

Peter Wertheim AM, co-CEO of the ECAJ, explains, “Antisemitism has specific indic­at­ors – as do other kinds of bullying such as Islamo­pho­bia and prejudice against First Nations peoples. Without a deeper under­stand­ing, antisemitic incidents can be lost in and over­looked by generic anti-bullying policies. Our hope is that this resource will strengthen both education and incident response.”

CRA and the ECAJ are pleased to offer this resource as a joint response in the 60^th anniversary year of the pro­mul­ga­tion of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document that made a ground­break­ing con­tri­bu­tion to inter­faith and Jewish relations.

To access “Address­ing Antisemitic Bullying: A Resource for Catholic Lead­er­ship and Formation”, go to: https://www.catholicreligious.org.au/addressing-antisemitic-bullying