Antisemitism in Melbourne: it’s the epicenter

Melbourne has become ‘the epicenter of anti-Semitism’, with its Jewish population experiencing a ‘tsunami of hate’, a community leader says.

Children are bullied in schools for being Jewish, and Nazi sympathizers use the guise of empathy toward Palestine to spread hatred and vitriol.

Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, told Ny Breaking Australia that the current situation for Jewish residents in Melbourne was the worst he had ever seen following Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.

“In my decades of fighting anti-Jewish hatred, I have never experienced anything as frightening as this terrifying wave of vicious hostility, and this tsunami of hatred shows no signs of abating,” he said.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook with reports of Jewish scrolls ripped from doorposts, ‘kidnapped’ posters defaced, Israeli flags torn from cars and urinated on, and Jewish businesses humiliated.”

Dr. Abramovich said that what was once considered “unthinkable” a few years ago is now “happening before our eyes.”

A Jewish family from Melbourne told Ny Breaking Australia their teenage daughter was targeted by high school students.

Her mother, who asked to remain anonymous, said a series of anti-Semitic incidents had targeted her daughter since the beginning of this year, well before the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“She got swastikas online. One child repeatedly approached her and told her “Knock Knock” jokes in which the butt of the jokes were “dead Jews,” she said.

“Another student approached her and said, ‘I’m going to gas you and your entire family.’

The mother said that once the school found out, students hid behind “all kinds of excuses,” including “ignorance.”

“However, the fact that they singled out the Jewish child among them and were able to tell a joke in which the main character is a Nazi and the punch line is a Jew shows that they know exactly what they are saying and doing,” she said.

“Anti-Semitism is an ongoing, horrific plague and since speaking to a number of parents and teachers, I have become aware that there is a far-right influence seeping into the consciousness of high school students through social media.

“It’s a terrible feeling to be targeted like that.”

Dr. Abramovich recently detailed examples of anti-Semitism in schools, in which “Jewish college students who say so feel unwelcome and unsafe on campuses” and young people have admitted they are “afraid to tell people they are Jewish.”

“Extremist language, comparing Israelis and Jews to Nazis, expressing support for the terrorist group Hamas is becoming commonplace and getting out of hand,” he said.

Leonard Hain, executive director of the Australian Council of Jewish Schools, said at least one school has been ordered not to wear the uniform if they want to avoid being identified as Jewish on the way to and from the classroom.

“Victorian Police have increased patrols and are parking outside schools and at pick-up and drop-off,” he said.

“Each of our schools has increased security and deployed additional guards.”

Sarah Carter – mayor of Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s inner west – shared disturbing photos on Monday after the Star of David was graffitied on buildings and businesses in Footscray.

She said: “Let me condemn in the strongest possible terms the graffiti that has appeared in the center of Footscray today.

‘We are one of the most successful multicultural communities in Australia and we stand for inclusivity and against division.’

The graffiti was removed as soon as Ms. Carter’s office was notified.

But the vandalism draws comparisons to 1930s Nazi Germany, when the doors of Jewish businesses were marked to deter Germans.

There are fears that the conflict in Israel and Gaza will worsen the situation at home. Sydney has also had its fair share of violent and frightening incidents in the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel, effectively declaring war on the region.

Mike Burgess, the director of security at the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), told a Senate estimates hearing on October 23 that the likelihood of “spontaneous violence” increases the longer the conflict continues.

‘IIf its nature deteriorates, as bad as it is today, that is one of the factors that could change our security environment.”

Senator James Paterson was referring to Ny Breaking Australia’s disturbing revelation that a group of masked men and women performing banned Nazi salutes had stormed the popular Flinders Street train station in the early hours of October 14.

“There have also been deeply disturbing displays from neo-Nazi affiliated groups such as the National Socialist Network,” he said.

Mr Burgess revealed during the Senate estimates that ASIO at one point spent half its time investigating right-wing militant groups and neo-Nazism.

“We have gone through a trend over the last seven years where we had about 5 percent of our files on counter-terrorism investigations, to about 50 percent on par with our other main threat, which is Sunni violent extremism,” he said. said.

‘That has now dropped to about 70-30, so about 30 percent of our files are about neo-Nazis. This concerns approximately 70 percent religiously motivated violent extremism, especially Sunni extremism.

“The rest, 30 percent, is ideologically motivated, violent extremism and the bulk of that is nationalist and racially motivated violent extremism.”

The latest annual report on anti-Semitism in Australia, released by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, noted that 478 incidents had been reported between October 2021 and September 2022.

The data showed Victoria had the highest number of incidents involving graffiti, vandalism and posters, and equaled NSW for the highest number of physical attacks.

NSW had the highest reported incidents across the board, including verbal abuse and messages.

But data has yet to be released that would confirm the concerns of Jewish community leaders – that the recent conflict in the Middle East had translated into an increase in violence in Australia.