Anti-Jewish incidents in Australia – 2023 ECAJ report

Each year, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the peak national body representing Australia’s Jewish community, produces a Report on Antisemitism in Australia. I have authored these reports since 2013.

The ECAJ records anti-Jewish racism (antisemitism) in two broad categories: incidents and discourse. A major section of the report is dedicated to anti-Jewish incidents. These include six categories comprised of physical assault, vandalism, direct abuse, abusive messages, graffiti, and posters/stickers.

During the twelve-month period, from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023, there were 495 anti-Jewish incidents logged by the ECAJ. This was an increase of 3.5% in the overall number of reported anti-Jewish incidents compared to the previous twelve-month period.

It should be noted that the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel occurred on 7 October 2023, which is outside the time frame of this report. Therefore, anti-Jewish incidents in Australia related directly or indirectly to the atrocities and ensuing war between Israel and Hamas are not dealt with in this report.

Overall, during the reporting period from 2022 to 2023, there were substantial increases in the number of reported incidents in three categories: assault (up 120% from 5 to 11), vandalism (up 100% from 11 to 22) and verbal abuse (up 36% from 138 to 188). There were significant decreases in two categories: messages (down 17% from 76 to 63) and posters (down 30% from 123 to 86). Graffiti remained the same at 125. Of note, most of the incidents of assault were generally mild, people throwing objects at Jews, slapping and pushing Jews rather than assault causing serious physical harm.

Of the three major groupings of incidents:

• 51% of incidents were direct non-physical attacks on Jews: verbal abuse, gestures, or directly-addressed messages via email, phone, letters.
• 42% of incidents were in the form of anti-Jewish propaganda: graffiti, posters, leaflets, stickers and the like.
• 7% of incidents involved some form of violence, either against Jewish individuals or against property.

 

Incidents

To understand what anti-Jewish racism looks and feels like, we need to go beyond the numbers and statistics. The following is a compilation of some of the anti-Jewish incidents that occurred in the 12 months to 30 September 2023 in Australia.

Incidents of physical assault occurred, as in the following examples.

• A male, after verbally abusing two identifiably Jewish individuals with “You fucking people think you can walk over everyone”, slapped one of the Jews, before punching both of them repeatedly, Melbourne (26 Nov. 2022).

• A vehicle with four occupants stopped next to three Jews, one of the occupants asked “Hey, do you support Israel?”, when one of the Jews responded “Yes”, another occupant then threw an empty drink can at them, striking one of the Jews in the head, the occupants then shouted “Fuck Israel” at them and left, Melbourne (10 Dec. 2022).

• The passenger of a passing vehicle threw a full water bottle towards people outside a synagogue, the bottle hit a parked car nearby, Sydney (18 March 2023).

Vandalism has often consisted of etching Nazi swastikas onto buildings and property. Other forms of vandalism include the following examples.

• Chanukah (Jewish festival) menorah (large candelabra) displayed at the foreshore was ripped down, along with its sign, and thrown off the pier into the water, Elwood Beach, Melbourne (21 Dec. 2022).

• Vandalism of ten headstones of Jewish graves which were spray-painted with Nazi swastikas, using stencils and splashed with paint, in the Jewish section of the cemetery, Maitland, regional NSW (31 Jan. 2023).

• Two mezuzot (Jewish religious objects placed on the doorframe) were forcibly removed from the front door frames of two residences, on the same level, and later found on the floor of the lift in the retirement village, Sydney (20 April 2023).

Abuse, harassment and intimidation of Jews is the category which usually has the highest number of incidents each year. There were 188 incidents in this category recorded in the 2023 reporting period, comprising 38% of all incidents. The most common verbal expressions were: “Fucking Jews”; “Fuck the Jews”; “Fuck off Jew!”; “Filthy Jew”; “Jewish dogs”; “Allahu Akbar’’; and “Heil Hitler”. Also common were three hand gestures: simulating the discharge of a firearm towards people, sometimes with the exclamation “Bang!”; the Nazi salute; and raising the middle finger in a fist, as an act of contempt.

Verbal threats of violence directed towards Jews included: “Kill Jews”; “I’m going to kill you”; “Are you Jewish, mate?… I will kill ya!”; I’m going to blow this place [synagogue] up”; “I’m gonna burn this place [Jewish school] to the ground”; “Let’s go kill those Jews”; “I’m going to do a Hitler to you”; “Hitler should’ve finished you Jews … Jews are filthy”; and “We are going to take off where the Nazis should have gone. We’re going to come get the Jews. We are going to kill all the Jews”.

Words referencing a death-wish and/or the Holocaust included: “Hitler didn’t finish his job!”; “the Jews were doing bad things and deserved the Holocaust”; “Hitler was right. He should have killed all the Jews”; “Heil Hitler! Dirty Jews!”; “go back to the gas chambers”; and “You all belong in the oven, Hitler should have finished the job”.

Other words of abuse, harassment and intimidation directed at Jews included: “Fucking kike!”; “Move on you fucking Jew!”; “Jewboy”; “Children-killing Jews!”; “You dirty Jews!”; “Fucking Jewish cunt!”; “Fucking Jew boy!”; “Jews are cunts”; “Fucking Jew cunt”; “Fuck you Jewish faggot”; “satanic Jew”; and “Kanye (West) was right about the Jews”.

Messages of hate occurred via emails, letterbox, and telephone. There were 63 incidents of hate messages recorded in the 2023 reporting period, comprising 13% of all incidents. Emails can provide more detailed information on how others view Jews. Hate emails are not general circulars but rather are sent to Jewish individuals, Jewish organisations and Jewish community media. References to Nazism in emails were common.

Text within emails included: “100,000 too many kikes”; “eatshit you fucking cunt”; “Move back to Israel where you and your rodent kind belong”; “The world will be free from all zionists, by the will of Allah”; “Fuck israel, and fuck all inbred scumbag kikes and their racist anti white agenda. Eat shit and die faggot niggers”; and “You jews will pay, in the name of allah i will commit arson and assault on dirty jews and on places of work and jewish congregation … Mark my words allah is the greatest you dogs”.

Email text which referenced the Holocaust included: “You Yiddish niggers deserve nothing more than to be in chains or ditches. You will be driven into the sea and the world will see peace. I will personally shove a zyclon b tablet down every heeb I come across. Heil Hitler” sent to a synagogue; “you damn, worthless jew. You are other jews are milking this so called holocaust for ever and ever, just making more $$$ out of it. Your 6 million jews propaganda is just balloon number you sneaky jews came up with … You fuckers have no shame. You are dirty, eating shit are cunny, sneaky so no wonder the rest of the world hates your guts … Fuck you and Israel too. Too bad that Adolf run out of time. I hope you all burn in hell !!!…”; and “Adolf should have finished the job you fucking scum. Filth. Subhuman Trash. Lying Cunts. Get into the shower you Dog Cunts. Nobody on the Planet has Any Time for Judan Trash.”

Postal mail, delivered to, or placed in the letterboxes of, homes, organisations and businesses of Jews was another means to express hatred and to intimidate Jews. Two examples included mail with the messages of: “It is a pity that Hitler did not finish with you Jewish rats” sent to eight synagogues; and “Youre a dead man, u fucking Jew dog. … I will hunt u down and make sure you suffer you scum Jew and make sure every time you start that Audi car of yours, it doesn’t blow up and burns you alive just like your relatives burnt under Hitler you scum. … I will coime after you till I I see yopu 6 feet under you fucking Jew pedophile … you fucking dirty Jew just like all your Jew acomplices … watch your back just like all Jews do in the world you dirty scum Jew animal. I know where you live too you scum Jew like all your type … I am a proud Muslim and I hate Jews like yourself and will hunt you down”.

Telephone calls are another means to convey threats against Jews, usually to Jewish community organisations and facilities. Phone calls included: threats to “gas the synagogue like Hitler gassed the Jews”; and “I will fucking kill you! You are going to fucking die! I will get the Jews! … Jews don’t deserve to live. They are godless. …” to a synagogue. Other phone calls included: “You fucking kike!”; “Get the fuck out of our country you stupid Jew filth”; “It’s a pity that Hitler didn’t finish all Jews”; and “You filthy fucking Jew scum why didn’t you fucking get out of the country when you’re meant to cunt, starting up your filthy little [venue] cunt, you filthy fucking capitalist pigs. Go and suck the blood out of your fucking young when you cut the foreskin off it to fucking purify your fucking blood and your genetics you filthy fucking piece of shit race of humans. I hope your fucking [venue] burns and fucking blows up cunt. Just like you should have rotted in hell when you fucking deserved to fucking 2000 years ago for putting our savior on our fucking cross you piece of shit”.

Graffiti often occurs at or near Jewish communal facilities or in areas where a large proportion of residents are Jews. Other graffiti is in public places where very few Jews live. There were 125 incidents of graffiti recorded in the 2023 reporting period, comprising 25% of all incidents. A large number of graffiti incidents consisted of Nazi swastikas, often alongside overtly anti-Jewish text, as well as multiple graffiti of “Fuck Jews” and multiple graffiti of “Kill the Jews”, and several “Gas the Jews”.

Other incidents of graffiti included the words: “I HATE JEW DOGS”; “Jew loverz burn in the hellfire”; “The Goyim know. Oy vey!!!”; “Kill the Jews Fag”; “1488 kill Jews”; “6MNE” (“6 Million Not Enough” – in reference to the Holocaust); “FUCK THE JEW WORLD ORDER ITS ALL EVIL AGENDA”; “FUCK THE JEW … WITH POISON VACCINES”; “VAX THE JEWS”; “JEWS DID COVID”; “JEWS DID WW1 + WW11”; “JEWS DID IT”; “COVID IS JEW”; and “SATANIC Jews”.

Posters/stickers is the sixth, and final, category of incidents. This category is composed of propaganda material and includes: banners, clothing, flags, flyers, leaflets, placards, posters, and stickers. There were 86 incidents in this category recorded in the 2023 reporting period, comprising 17% of all incidents.

A banner composed of a Nazi swastika, hammer and sickle, Star of David and the words “You want to ban this: [Nazi swastika] but not this [hammer and sickle] Oh, because it offends (((them))) [Star of David]. … Hitler was right” was hung from a highway overpass. A poster was composed of the same wording.

Two males wore clothing, red t-shirts, with the text “6 million? That’s a bit much mate” (in reference to the Holocaust, denying or minimising the genocide) and performed the Nazi salute, outside the State Library, Melbourne (4 June 2023).

Leaflets titled “Calling all White Australians”, produced in three versions, by the European Australian Movement (EAM), and its twin the National Socialist Network (NSN), both neo-Nazi groups, were letterboxed throughout dozens of suburbs in cities across Australia over a 12-month period. A fourth leaflet, by NSN, was also letterboxed. It is likely that tens of thousands of such leaflets were letterboxed during the period in review.

Text in the leaflets included: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children … Be prepared to train … Blood and Honour” by EAM; “There is no political solution to this Jewish tyranny! The masters of mankind want you poisoned, sterilised, isolated, and living in a box eating bug! We have a different vision for the future… First Germany, this time the world. Blood and Honour! Resist the Great Reset” by EAM; and “We know there is no political solution to this Satanic Zionist-occupied political system. White Revolution is the Only Solution!” by NSN.

Other leaflets included: “Every Single Aspect of Abortion is Jewish”; “Every single aspect of the media is Jewish”; and“Censorship in Australia” with names and photos of 12 prominent Australian Jews, each with a Jewish Star of David next to their photos.

Stickers included text of: “Reject the Jew”; “The Holocaust is a Jew Lie”; “The Jew Controls The Media – Don’t Believe Their Lies”; “The Jew Has Been Expelled From 109 Countries – Make It 110”; “The Jew Profits From The Vaccine”; “Kanye (Ye) West Is Right About Jews”; “Kanye [West] Is Right About The Jews”; “Fck Jws”; “Fuck The Jews. Get Educate”; and “Jewish Scums murdered 73 million Europeans and are striving to rid the world of Europeans.”

Vehicles were also used to promote hatred of Jews and support for Nazism. A digital sign of “JEWS DID 9 11” was on a traffic control vehicle being driven on a main road. There were two vehicle registration plates, both in Sydney: “FUHR3R” (“Fuhrer” – the title of Adolf Hitler), on a BMW, and “88.SIEG” (88 is neo-Nazi code for ‘Heil Hitler’ (88=HH) and ‘sieg’ is German for ‘victory’, notoriously used by Nazis in the ‘Sieg Heil’ salute) on a Ford Ranger.

Conclusion

The high number of anti-Jewish incidents is of great concern. However, the numbers only tell one part of the story. While many express contempt and disdain for Jews, many others express murderous and genocidal views. They express regret that Hitler did not murder all Jews and express the wish that Jews should and will be murdered en masse in the near future. The intensity of the violent and murderous expressions in anti-Jewish incidents can act as a precursor to more serious attacks on Jews leading to physical assault and murder.

To counter antisemitism, Australian political and civil leaders and other people of influence need to be aware of the high level of anti-Jewish incidents occurring across Australia, to understand what anti-Jewish racism is and how it manifests, and to take effective action to condemn and outlaw not just vilification but any advocacy of violence based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, and other attributes.

The 2023 Report is available at ECAJ Report on Antisemitism in Australia 2023

Julie Nathan is the Research Director at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) and has authored the annual ECAJ Report on Antisemitism in Australia since 2013.