IN THE MEDIA
Tragic shift on antisemitism should terrify us all
July 7, 2025 | Paul Rubenstein
Australian Financial Review – 6 July 2025
When a synagogue is set on fire in East Melbourne, when diners at an Israeli-owned restaurant are violently assaulted by antisemitic thugs, the response should be national outrage. These are the kinds of attacks that ought to shake a country to its core.
But they don’t. Not any more.
Because these attacks are no longer treated as aberrations. They are increasingly seen as part of the landscape – tragic, yes, but somehow expected. And that shift should terrify us all.
Since October 7, 2023, Australia’s Jewish community has felt the ground shift beneath it. What once felt solid – our place in a tolerant, multicultural democracy – has been profoundly undermined. We hear the standard declarations that antisemitism has “no place” in Australia. But in practice, it has found one. It is growing stronger, louder, and more brazen by the day.
This is no longer just a campaign of intimidation against Jews. It is part of a broader assault on tolerance itself. The public space has become fertile ground for dangerous and false narratives: that Israel is colonialist, racist and genocidal. These are not simply criticisms of a nation-state – they form a grand, dehumanising accusation: that Israel, and by extension Jews, are inherently evil.
This rhetoric is not abstract. When protesters chant “Globalise the intifada”, they are not calling for peaceful reform – they are calling for violent revolution.
When crowds shout “Death to the IDF”, they are not voicing foreign policy concerns. They are issuing a threat: that Jews have no right to self-defence and should face mass slaughter at the hands of those who proudly call for it.
This is not free speech. It is incitement. And it is being tolerated.
By failing to grasp the seriousness of what is unfolding, Australia’s political and civic leaders have left the Jewish community standing alone. This abdication of responsibility has sown deep moral confusion. It has set us on a perilous path – one that history warns us never ends well.
The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. It began with lies. With distortions. With the portrayal of Jews as uniquely evil. That same dynamic is playing out now.
The collective “Jew”, now equated with Israel, has become a scapegoat for all the world’s ills. The thing that stands between those ills and utopia. And that idea has taken hold here – in our streets, our institutions, even our schools.
This kind of hatred never stays contained. The history is clear: every society that has allowed itself to follow this path has ended up ashamed of where it arrived and inevitably in abject failure.
So we must ask, urgently and clearly: is this really the road we want Australia to go down?
This is not a fringe issue. It is not a moment that can be smoothed over with vague condemnations of “all hate”. It requires leadership. It requires moral clarity. And it requires action now.
Because if we cannot defend the safety and dignity of Jews in Australia today, we will not be able to defend the idea of a tolerant, inclusive, multicultural Australia tomorrow.
Paul Rubenstein is NSW Chairman of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
Tags: Antisemitism, Australia
