Australia's Jewish community alarmed by rising antisemitism: 'Fear and anxiety'

A devastating arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue is now being investigated as a possible terror attack, drawing worldwide attention to a stark increase in antisemitism in Australia.

Following the attacks in Sydney, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told Sky News Australia, "Sydney, per capita, has the second-highest number of Holocaust survivors in the world," explaining that they came "to Australia specifically to be free from this kind of hate." 

Friedman said that responding police told Jewish worshipers to get on the ground and show their hands. "They came and arrested us," he said. "It took them a while to realize that we're Jewish and we didn't do this." 

Zionism is not a feature of the Haredi Judaism that worshipers at the Adass Israel Synagogue practice. Yemini asked members of the community why they believed the non-Zionist synagogue was targeted. "Jews are Jews," a man wearing a kippah replied. "They're anti-Jews," another visibly Jewish man told Yemini. "Not anti-anything else."

Yemini filmed a protester outside the firebombed synagogue wearing a keffiyeh and a baseball cap featuring the Palestinian flag who held a sign stating "Nothing is more antisemitic than Zionism."

Numerous community members interviewed by Yemini said they felt unsupported by the local government. "People have been attacked here," one man reminded Victoria Police Detective Inspector Chris Murray, who was present to address the community. "Why don't you put someone in here?"

"We're doing our best," Murray responded.

Murray told crowds that police would "do everything" to "bring these individuals before the courts." Though they believed the attack was targeted, Murray said that "what we don't know is why." 

Shane Patton, Victoria police chief commissioner, told reporters at a press conference that the firebombing is being investigated as "a likely terror attack."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been lambasted for his response to the Melbourne attack, which a Sky News Australia host said was "four days too late." Yemini documented Albanese's visit to the Adass Israel Synagogue. When the kippah-wearing prime minister failed to answer questions from assembled reporters, Yemini followed him to the car, telling Albanese that "yesterday was the first time you didn't conflate antisemitism and Islamophobia." 

Though it has faced more intolerance, the Jewish population of Australia is around one-eighth the size of the Muslim population, and has been stagnant or declining while the percentage of Muslims has grown. In 2016, Jewish Australians made up 0.5% of the population, according to Monash University. Muslims made up 2.6% of the population in 2016, according to the University of South Australia. Today, Muslims account for 3.2% of the Australian population while 0.4% of the population is Jewish.

Many Jewish Australians believe these efforts are not enough. Earlier this month, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) sent an open letter to Albanese, which it shared with Fox News Digital. The ECAJ explained that "the very character of this country as a free, democratic and multicultural society is in peril," citing the "fear and anxiety" experienced by Jewish Australians who question whether it is safe to display signs of their Judaism or publicly celebrate their faith and heritage.

Albanese's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment about criticisms of the prime minister's reaction to the Melbourne firebombing, his response to the ECAJ's letter, and whether the country's shift regarding a Palestinian state might have an impact on the state of antisemitic hate in Australia. 

As it has worldwide, antisemitism has risen dramatically in Australia since Oct. 7, according to an ECAJ report from November 2024. Reporting entities counted 2,062 antisemitic incidents in Australia between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, compared with 495 incidents tallied during the prior 12 months. This represents a 316% increase in expressions of anti-Jewish hate, which began as early as Oct. 8, when the ECAJ reported that Sheikh Ibrahim Daoud told an audience in western Sydney that he was "elated," explaining, "it's a day of pride, it's a day of victory."

The ECAJ sent Fox News Digital a trove of photographs showing acts of hate directed against Jewish Australians. These included an incident from November 2023, when unknown individuals sprayed "Kill Jews" and "Jew lives here" on a residential unit in southeast Melbourne, and wrote "Jew-free zone" in a Brunswick window, as reported by the Jewish Independent.

Seven months later, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced a proposed sentence of up to six years in prison for those who release individuals' private details in order to cause harm. The punishment would increase to seven years if a victim was targeted because of their race, religion or sexual orientation, among other factors.

In recognition of the rising intolerance in Australia, on Dec. 9, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory warning Jews to "exercise extreme caution" if visiting the country. As Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's director of global social action, explained, authorities there have failed "to stand up against persistent demonization, harassment and violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in Australia."