What we know about the rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia and around the world

0:00Months after the Hamas-led assault on Israel, on October 7, 2023, one of Australia's oldest Jewish schools was vandalized. The words Jew die were spray painted on an exterior fence of the Melbourne school. Five months later, October 2024, a Jewish owned bakery in Sydney was defaced with offensive graffiti. Then a week later, a kosher deli was set on fire. Two months after that, a synagogue was firebombed. One person was injured. This was a shocking incident. It should be unequivocally condemned. There's no place in Australia for an outrage such as this. That is Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaking to reporters a day after the fire.

0:50Albanese echoed that message on Sunday after two gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah celebration at the famous Bandai Beach, killing or wounding dozens of people. My message to Jewish Australians is that your fellow Australians stand with you tonight. in condemning this act of terror, in condemning this outrage. There is no place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. In the two years since October 7th, Australia has seen a sharp rise in anti-Jewish incidents, more than 3 ,700. That's according to an advocacy group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. And the pace of incidents during that period was five times what it was in the decade before Hamas attacked Israel.

1:40Here's the Prime Minister speaking with Australian Broadcasting Corporation Sarah Ferguson on Monday. Had you imagined an event like this taking place in Australia? I certainly had not. You know, I'd like to say I was surprised, but really I wasn't. Jamie Himes, Director of Public Affairs for the Australia, Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. Himes, like many other members of the Jewish community in Australia, knew an event like this could happen. The Jewish community here has been warning our government and our authorities for two years now that something like this was almost likely to happen because of the upsurge in anti-Semitism and violent anti-Semitism that we've seen ever since the October 7 attacks in 2023.

2:26Consider this. The attack at Australia's famous Bondi Beach comes amid a surge in anti-Semitic violence in the country and globally. What do we know about this trend, and what does it mean for the Jewish community around the world?

2:46From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

2:57It's Consider This from NPR. Deborah Lipschstadt spent nearly three years as the Biden administration's special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. She joined me to talk about the events in Australia over the weekend and the rise of anti-Semitism globally. This awful attack on Sunday, it's one of several that have taken place since October 7th, since the war, since Israel's war with Hamas began. Dan, can you just walk us through the types of threats the Jewish community faces in Australia? It's one of several in Australia, but it's a phenomenon worldwide. Since October 7th, there have been burnings of synagogues, arson of synagogues on five different continents, including in Australia and Melbourne.

3:45There have been persistent attacks on Jews eating in kosher or Jewish style or Israeli restaurants. There have been attacks on Jews walking on the streets, including in Manhattan and in parts of other parts of New York City. There is something going on that's not happenstance. I don't want to suggest to your listeners that there's some sort of giant conspiracy. But there is an effort which was exemplified by two events, one in Australia and one on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The one in Australia was on October 9th, 2023, two days after the Hamas attack on Israel, where in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House, protesters marched chanting, you know, globalize the Intifada, which most Jews interpret as harm Jews everywhere, from the river to the sea.

4:43Some say they chanted, gas the Jews. That's up for debate. But the thing that struck me most is their chant, where are the Jews? Where are the Jews? And I was reminded of that last month when I watched the clips outside of Parkey Synagogue in New York, where, again, they chanted the chants that we've gotten used to, which are horrific. But then they also said, make them afraid. Make them afraid. It's interesting you're talking about parallels you see between what has just happened in Australia, what has been happening in Australia, and what you see happening in the US. Just to put a number on this, the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, has tracked what they say is a five-fold increase in anti-Semitic attacks since October 7th in Australia.

5:35understanding that an acceptable number of anti-Semitic attacks would be zero. Has Australia's experience been radically different from the U.S.'s in these intervening two years? I don't think so. There is – I mean it used to be that if you were going to Europe, if an American Jew was going to Europe and they wanted to go to a synagogue, they'd be told by friends, by people there, by informants who live there, whatever, Call ahead and let the synagogue know you're coming for services. Be sure to bring ID and a passport, at least a passport. And if you have trouble finding the place, follow the men who are walking on the street in suits and baseball caps.

6:19Why them? Because they're covering up their kippot. They don't want to show their kippot. And if that doesn't work, just stand on the street where the synagogue is and look up and down for the gendarmes and the carabiners, their guns, their rifles. That's the synagogue. That used to be the instructions for Europe. That used to be the instructions for Argentina and in certain places in Australia as well. Now it's the instructions everywhere. There was no public celebration, except in Israel, of Hanukkah last night on any continent that did not have police protection. And it probably had more because of Australia, but it would have had it anyway.

7:03The instructions you're describing, bring your passport, call ahead. This is because the Jewish community, the synagogue, is worried about security risks. They want to make sure you're who you say you are. Right, right, right. You know, I was in the Berkshires, I think last summer, maybe the summer before. I was driving through Lenox early on a Sunday morning, 10 a.m., and I passed one of these, old revolutionary era church, maybe a little later, but certainly old churches, White Clapper Church. And I did a double take. Something looked strange to me. And then I realized what it was. The double doors in the entry to the church were thrown wide open and there were members of the congregation standing there smiling and handing out the service order of the service of the day to anybody who walked up the steps.

7:52You'd never see that in any synagogue, in any place in the world, again, except in Israel. So let me turn us to Australia and the questions that are emerging after this massacre. I think that's the accurate word. Questions being raised, Jews in Australia were aware that they were being targeted. Has the government of Australia done enough to protect the community? When I was in office, and I've been out of office now since January, but when I was in office, I heard complaints. They're not doing enough. They're not taking it seriously. They say the right things, but the actions aren't happening.

8:33What should they do? Well— What can they do? What can they do? First of all, good security, but even more, good investigations. One of the murderers, the son, was on their list for his association apparently with foreign groups. The details are just emerging. I don't have them all. But take this seriously. That's the whole thing. Take it seriously when people chant, gas the juice. Look, you can't, there is freedom of speech, and I'm a tremendous advocate of freedom of speech. But when you hear these, where are the Jews, when you see demonstrations, when people attack restaurants, don't make light of it.

9:16Say this is something bigger. So just to be specific and understanding that you are an expert on anti-Semitism, not on security for events. That's right. But it sounds like what you're saying is for an event like this where we knew that there were going to be a lot of Jews gathered for a Hanukkah event, there should have been security or there should have been more security than there was. Much better security. But the thing to do is to prevent it ahead of time. And, you know, there's an atmosphere created. I'll go back to the phrase globalize the Intifada. I know intifada has a meaning in Muslim theology of a certain kind, but the intifada references the attack on Jews, the first intifada and second intifada in Israel, in which thousands of Jews were murdered, some non-Jews but primarily Jews were murdered.

10:08When they talk about globalizing the intifada, don't discourage it. Don't say, oh, I can't condemn it, but I wouldn't use that term as some elected officials have said. That's giving you the green light. Condemn it outright. I do want to note Australia's prime minister, Prime Minister Albanese, has called what happened on Bondi Beach an act of pure evil, in his words. He's also talked about things his government has done to try to fight anti-Semitism. He noted, for example, setting up a federal police task force to investigate reports and incidents. Are those steps in the right direction? They are the steps in the right direction, you know, maybe a little late, but certainly in the right direction.

10:52And look, the main effort, of course, has to be taken by government because this is a government issue. This is a criminal issue. This is murder and attacks, you know, criminal attacks. But it's got to be a whole of society approach too. I mean, the only heartening thing to come out of this horrific, horrific attack was the fact that one of the shooters was brought down by a resident of Bandai Beach who happens to be a Muslim. And he did it, when you look at the video, he did it at the risk of his life. It didn't, like, he struggled with the man and had the struggle gone a little bit differently, he might have been one of the victims.

11:33That's Deborah Lipschdott. She's a professor of Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University. She served as the Biden administration's special envoy for monitoring anti-Semitism. Ambassador, thank you. Thank you very much, Miral Louise. Take care. And you. This episode was produced by Michael Levitt and Karen Zamora with audio engineering by Ted Meebane. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

12:08It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.