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The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry (ECAJ), Australia’s peak elect­ed nation­al Jew­ish roof body, has released its annu­al Report on Anti­semitism in Aus­tralia for 2022. It can be accessed via the ECAJ web­site at ECAJ Anti­semitism Report here.

The fol­low­ing are the prin­ci­pal find­ings:

Dur­ing the twelve-month peri­od, from 1 Octo­ber 2021 to 30 Sep­tem­ber 2022, there were 478 anti­se­mit­ic inci­dents logged by the ECAJ and its con­stituent and asso­ci­at­ed organ­i­sa­tions. Over­all, this rep­re­sents a 41.9% increase in the num­ber of anti­se­mit­ic inci­dents in Aus­tralia over the last two years, made up of a 35% increase dur­ing the year end­ing 30 Sep­tem­ber 2021, and a fur­ther 6.9% increase dur­ing the year end­ing 30 Sep­tem­ber 2022.

The aver­age num­ber of report­ed anti­se­mit­ic inci­dents in recent years was 298. As such, the total num­ber of report­ed inci­dents in 2022 is above that aver­age by 180 inci­dents.

Dur­ing the year end­ing 30 Sep­tem­ber 2022, the num­ber of anti­se­mit­ic pos­ter­ing and stick­er­ing inci­dents in Aus­tralia increased by 70% over the pre­vi­ous year (from 72 to 123). Graf­fi­ti inci­dents were up by 18% (from 106 to 125).

There were decreas­es in three cat­e­gories: phys­i­cal assault (down from 8 to 5), ver­bal abuse (down from 147 to 138), and mes­sages (down from 103 to 76). Van­dal­ism remained the same at 11.

Julie Nathan, ECAJ Research Direc­tor, and author of the ECAJ Anti­semitism Report, said that these inci­dents are “the tip of the ice­berg”, as many go unre­port­ed.

“A study by Monash Uni­ver­si­ty in 2017 showed that almost one in ten adult Jews (9%) had said they wit­nessed or expe­ri­enced ver­bal insults and harass­ment or worse over the pre­vi­ous 12 months. This would sug­gest that the actu­al num­ber of anti­se­mit­ic inci­dents in any one year could be up to 17 times the num­ber report­ed.”

Ms Nathan attrib­uted the sig­nif­i­cant 70% increase in inci­dents in the poster cat­e­go­ry (which includes hate pro­pa­gan­da mate­r­i­al such as ban­ners, cloth­ing, flags, leaflets, posters, plac­ards and stick­ers) to two fac­tors.

“First­ly, the COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions which pro­duced mass street protests, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Vic­to­ria, and the anti­se­mit­ic con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries asso­ci­at­ed with the anti-vaxxer, anti- lock­down camp, result­ed in large num­bers of anti­se­mit­ic plac­ards at protests and anti­se­mit­ic stick­ers on the streets.

Sec­ond­ly, there was an increase in neo-Nazi activ­i­ty, prop­a­gat­ing anti­se­mit­ic pro­pa­gan­da mate­r­i­al in the form of posters, stick­ers and the like.”

Ms Nathan expressed increas­ing con­cern at the rise in neo-Nazi activ­i­ty and the pro­lif­er­a­tion of neo-Nazi groups.

“Most of these groups are con­nect­ed to each oth­er and share pro­pa­gan­da mate­r­i­al, espe­cial­ly posters and stick­ers”, Ms Nathan said.

“Many neo-Nazis are becom­ing brazen in their activ­i­ties. Over the last 12 months, groups of young men per­formed Nazi salutes out­side a Holo­caust Muse­um in Ade­laide and held their neo-Nazi flag in a pub­lic park in Syd­ney. They also tar­get­ed syn­a­gogues with anti­se­mit­ic posters and stick­ers. Neo-Nazis are not just a threat to the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty but also to Aus­tralian democ­ra­cy and our tol­er­ant and lib­er­al way of life.”

Ms Nathan also accused anti-Israel activists of under­min­ing the fight against anti­semitism by cam­paign­ing against adop­tion of the inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised and accept­ed Inter­na­tion­al Holo­caust Remem­brance Alliance (IHRA) Work­ing Def­i­n­i­tion of Anti­semitism by par­lia­ments, uni­ver­si­ties, and com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions.

“This cam­paign has false­ly claimed that the IHRA Def­i­n­i­tion pro­hibits any crit­i­cism of Israel, despite the fact that the Def­i­n­i­tion states explic­it­ly that “crit­i­cism of Israel sim­i­lar to that lev­elled against any oth­er coun­try can­not be regard­ed as anti­se­mit­ic”.

Ms Nathan explained: “To fight anti­semitism, you first need to define it. With anti­semitism on the rise, the IHRA Work­ing Def­i­n­i­tion of Anti­semitism is a vital edu­ca­tion­al tool in iden­ti­fy­ing and call­ing out con­tem­po­rary anti­semitism in all its forms.”

Ms Nathan com­mend­ed the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mel­bourne, Australia’s high­est-ranked uni­ver­si­ty, for its recent deci­sion to adopt the IHRA Work­ing Def­i­n­i­tion. She called upon polit­i­cal lead­ers, the media, law enforce­ment, oth­er Uni­ver­si­ties, edu­ca­tors, faith lead­ers, and oth­ers in posi­tions of pow­er or influ­ence, to “show lead­er­ship and take deci­sive action against anti­semitism by per­son­al exam­ple, includ­ing the adop­tion of the IHRA Work­ing Def­i­n­i­tion, and through edu­ca­tion.”

Ms Nathan said: “We need edu­ca­tion not only about World War II and the Holo­caust but also about con­tem­po­rary anti­semitism and the mul­ti­ple forms that it takes, as well as anti- indige­nous, anti-African, anti-Asian (east and south), anti-Mus­lim, anti-Hin­du and anti- LGBTIQA+ ani­mos­i­ty. These are com­mon­ly-held prej­u­dices in Aus­tralia and we can only begin to address them when stu­dents learn about the specifics of each of them and why they are false and harm­ful to all of us.”