Australia sees continued surge in antisemitic attacks as Jewish leaders warn of global threat

This fraught environment has only worsened following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

By Ailin Vilches Arguello, The Algemeiner

Antisemitic incidents in Australia remained at “unprecedentedly high levels” over the past year, as the country’s Jewish community faced a relentless wave of hostility and targeted attacks, according to a new report released on Tuesday

The report, published by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), said the country recorded 1,654 antisemitic incidents during the 12-month period from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025.

Even though this figure marked a 20-percent drop from the previous year, it still represented about five times the annual average recorded in the decade before the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Across the country, Jews and Israelis have reported a surge of anti-Jewish hatred and antisemitic incidents — from defaced murals and vandalized businesses to physical assaults and death threats.

Community leaders have warned that the wave of attacks has shown no signs of abating, fueled by rising tensions over the war in Gaza and what they described as the Australian government’s mounting hostility toward Israel.

Over the past year, the local Jewish community has suffered firebombings of synagogues, schools, and homes; threats from two nurses who allegedly planned to kill Jewish patients; and the discovery of a trailer packed with explosives, reportedly intended for a mass-casualty attack on a Sydney synagogue.

This fraught environment has only worsened following Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, further straining relations with the country’s Jewish community.

In one of the most recent controversies, the Stonnington City Council in Melbourne’s southeast delayed approval for a public menorah on Thursday, just days before Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, prompting outrage from Jewish leaders and local residents.

During a heated council debate, members voted to defer a motion to install a large public menorah — meaning it will not be set up in time for the Jewish holiday, which begins on Dec. 14 — sparking accusations of antisemitism and claims that the delay was a “ploy to shut it down.”

Following ECAJ’s newly released report, members of the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism decried the surge in antisemitic incidents, saying it reflects a global pattern that threatens Jewish communities worldwide.

The task force, which brings together major Jewish organizations from Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, coordinates responses to rising anti‑Jewish hate.

For the first time ever, Jewish leaders from the world’s seven largest diaspora communities traveled to Sydney on Wednesday for the J7 Task Force Summit in Australia, coming together to address the rising tide of antisemitism in the country.

“What is happening in Australia is not an exception; it should be a wake-up call to communities worldwide,” Marina Rosenberg, senior vice president for International Affairs at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said in a statement.

“Across North America, Europe and Latin America, Jewish communities are reporting the same pattern of unprecedented harassment, threats and incitement,” she continued.

“When synagogues can be firebombed in Melbourne and Jews threatened and attacked in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Toronto, this is a threat not only to Jewish safety but to democratic stability itself.”

Among all J7 countries, Australia saw the sharpest rise in antisemitic incidents between 2021 and 2024, with the most serious attacks — including arson targeting synagogues, preschools, and other Jewish institutions — reaching record levels.

ECAJ’s report also warned of a dangerous convergence of ideological extremes, noting an “increasing ideological alignment” between neo-Nazis, the anti-Israel left, and Islamists in their “shared hatred of Jews and Zionists.”

According to the report, these groups are “more active, more emboldened” than ever in seeking to obstruct any initiative that challenges their antisemitism.

“We are now at a stage where anti-Jewish racism has left the fringes of society, where it is normalized and allowed to fester and spread, gaining ground at universities, in arts and culture spaces, in the health sector, in the workplace and elsewhere,” ECAJ President Daniel Aghion said in a statement.