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The undeniable reality is there has been a dangerous increase in antisemitism, but the real question is why there is antisemitism at all. Why do some people think it is OK to hate Jews?
This will be the fundamental question for the federal royal commissioner Virginia Bell, a former High Court judge, following December’s Bondi massacre, in which 15 people were murdered because of their religion.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dithered for weeks as prominent Jews, independent legal figures and sporting identities signed petitions urging a judicial inquiry.
If only he had an experienced attorney-general who intimately understood the issues. But wait, he had one, in the extremely competent Mark Dreyfus, a Jew. Three of his great-grandparents died in the Holocaust.
Dreyfus lost his position in a factional arm wrestle. In politics, numbers beat knowledge every time.
The government introduced beefed-up hate crime laws that some fear could impact on free speech. Perhaps if existing and powerful incitement-to-commit crime laws had been used earlier, we would not now be trying to bandage a septic wound.
I have been asked why I am writing a column on such a complex issue. But it is not complex. It is a hatred based on nothing – no science, no facts, just lies. And it is only when those not involved get involved will there be the slightest chance of any meaningful change.
While Australian Jews are a minority, they are a powerful minority with a strong voice in politics, the law, the arts, the media and the economy.
Usually, the latest group of migrants is the victim of discrimination, but the Jews are old school with deep Australian heritage. The first wave from Eastern Europe arrived in the 1930s.
The prejudice can’t be based on population numbers or a fear they will overwhelm the status quo.
The 2021 census recorded 116,967 people who identified as Jewish in 49,040 households, which is 0.46 per cent of the national population (155,000 with Jewish heritage).
Pound for pound, people from a Jewish background have done more to drive progress in modern Australia than any other minority. And haven’t they been punished for it.
Let us look at the foundations of antisemitism built on the shifting sands of hate. As always, it is driven by the inadequate who need someone to blame for their miserable lives.
Adolf Hitler built a regime on the theory the Jews were to blame for everything – eliminate them, and you eliminate Germany’s problems.
No one is born a bigot, and it took Hitler years to cultivate the seeds of hate. The internet has become a toxic greenhouse to accelerate the process.
You can be critical of the actions of Israel without being antisemitic, for an accountant in Caulfield is not responsible for war crimes in Gaza. To vandalise a Melbourne synagogue because of policies hatched in Tel Aviv makes as much sense as attacking an American doughnut van at the MCG because you don’t like Donald Trump.
Demonstrations opposing the visit of Israeli President Isaac Herzog show how legitimate protest and illegitimate prejudice can exist in the one crowd.
Antisemitism is nothing new. William Shakespeare pandered to it with the character Shylock, a vicious and scheming Jewish money lender in the Merchant of Venice.
Jews have been blamed for everything from the black plague to worldwide economic depression. Even the COVID vaccine was said to be a Jewish conspiracy.
In the spirit of Monty Python’s famous skit “What have the Romans Ever Done for us?” we ask: what have the Jews ever done for us?
Myth: They have loyalty to their faith, not their country.
Fact: Australia’s greatest soldier was Sir John Monash, a Jew. In the Great War he was one of the few generals to regard his troops as more than cannon fodder, and saw the futility of charges against machinegun nests.
A civil engineer, he was not bogged down by outdated military strategy and became loved by his troops and respected by fellow generals.
He would become head of the State Electricity Commission, which trained thousands of technicians, and was a driving force in the building of the Shrine of Remembrance.
One of the soldiers at Gallipoli along with Monash was Leonard Keysor, a Jew with a big heart and a strong arm.
During the Battle of Lone Pine when the Turks threw grenades at the Australians, he picked them up and threw them back. He was awarded a Victoria Cross.
Australia has 102 VC winners. One was Ben Roberts-Smith, who a judge has found is a war criminal and murderer. He was exposed by two journalists, Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters.
McKenzie is, by a considerable distance, Australia’s greatest peacetime journalist. In his book on the Roberts-Smith case, Crossing the Line, he wonders in print if his intensity is partially driven from his family background as the son of a Polish Jew, “whose resting state was one of constant worry”.
After World War II, it was decided to add a memorial at the Shrine for the fallen. In a competition to design the memorial forecourt, the co-winner was Jewish architect Ernest Milston, who served in World War I.
Another Jewish soldier/architect was Gordon Keesing. After serving on the Western Front, he was assigned as principal architect for war graves and was a major contributor to the memorials at Gallipoli, which has become Australia’s Jerusalem.
Nahum Barnet was a prodigious Melbourne architect who designed Her Majesty’s Theatre, and it was said: “There was not a street in the Melbourne central business district where a Barnet building could not be found.”
Myth: Jews make money for Jews.
The Myer family founded Australia’s greatest retail institution. Its CBD store pulled millions into the city and its suburban outlets helped establish shopping hubs such as Chadstone and Northland.
It provided thousands of jobs, including casual ones for students.
In high school, I worked at Northland in the record bar and had a short stint in small electronics. It was at this time I discovered the art of forgery.
When a disgruntled customer returned with a dodgy electric fan I offered him a refund, and as the returns office was closed, I wrote a note as proof and asked him to come back to me the next day.
Sadly, he went directly to the refund office with the note, which read: “IOU $29.95, signed Ken Myer.” I was called into the boss’s office and told: “I think you have a great future, but it won’t be in retail.”
At Christmas, there are two great Melbourne traditions: the Myer window display and Carols by Candlelight – at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. The Myer family has for 100 years been leaders in philanthropy. When Sidney died in 1934, 100,000 people attended his funeral.
Myth: Jews are criminals.
Fact: Jews are underrepresented in the prison population, and I have yet to read a report of Hebrew youths committing home invasions. You don’t need a machete bin outside a synagogue.
Myth: Jewish people exaggerate antisemitism in Australia.
Fact: Throughout history, Jewish communities have tried to hunker down and survive periods of hate until it is too late, and they have been herded to their deaths. It is called the oldest hatred.
Neo-Nazi Hugo Lennon has declared himself responsible for putting up “Aussie” posters in Melbourne of one of the Bondi gunmen. You, sir, are a peanut, and we will see if you are heroic when you are charged, and hopefully incarcerated.
These homegrown Nazis are inadequate individuals using cheap outrage for attention. They call themselves patriots, failing to understand that generations of true Australian patriots fought wars against racists like them.
There is imported hatred, a symptom of flawed immigration policies that allowed a stubborn minority to cling to the old, fail to assimilate, and snipe at their new country (while embracing its welfare system).
Between 1947 and 1952, Australia accepted 170,000 displaced persons (refugees) from Europe. They were given a character test and had to undertake to work for two years in a job assigned by the government.
In Australia’s greatest engineering achievement, the Snowy Mountain Scheme, migrants outnumbered those born in Australia – and the locals gained massively from exposure to foreign cultures. Former enemies worked together – English was the accepted language – and they were judged on what they did, not where they came from. They became known as Snowy People. For them, “From the river to the sea” is a tale of achievement, not bigotry.
Myth: I am not antisemitic, so it isn’t my problem.
Fact: Yes, it is.
Oswald Mosley was privileged and charismatic, and considered a potential British prime minister. Instead, he modelled himself on Hitler, establishing the British Union of Fascists.
On October 4, 1936, 3000 of Mosley’s Blackshirts planned to march through London’s Jewish quarter. They were blocked by 50,000 people: Jews, Irish dock workers, sailors and the politically aware.
The fascists were defeated.
The day after the Bondi massacre, I went to the local synagogue with a bunch of flowers. I needed Google Maps to find it.
Next door was a kindergarten. Those kids have yet to learn they will spend their lives looking over their shoulders. I pressed the intercom button. A lady and a man came to the door, and I handed over the flowers. I didn’t mention Bondi. I didn’t need to.
Their thanks were sincere, their smiles were broad and their eyes moist. Sometimes it is the little things.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.
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