Racial epithets that were previously whispered are now being uttered brazenly. Huge pink banners were painted outside a Melbourne apartment building reading “Kill the Jews” and “The Jew lives here.” A Ute was spotted on the Anzac Bridge with registration 88SIEG, “sieg” being a German word meaning “victory”, while H is the eighth letter of the alphabet; So 88 is a symbol of highness, meaning “Heil Hitler”.
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NSW Greens MP Jenny Leung objects to the “Jewish lobby” for “infiltrating… ethnic community groups”. It conjured up grotesque images (she later issued what she said was an apology).
And the kill lists: the ominous publication of hundreds of names and details of Jewish artists, academics and others so that they can be hounded, their reputations smeared, their works boycotted, their children’s details published, and even targeted with death threats.
All this, horrifyingly, in a country that was home to thousands of Holocaust survivors, and a society that saw six million Jews murdered, with their names listed, a key aspect of how the Nazis identified, rounded up and arrested them. Then they shot or gassed them.
It is also a country that celebrates multiculturalism, and has been home to Jews since the First Fleet, which has seen Jews serve as head of the Australian Defense Force, as governor-general and on the front benches of government.
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The Australia of 2024 is not the Germany of 1933. However, for Jews born after the Holocaust, the tsunami of anti-Jewish hatred sweeping our nation is the most widespread and terrifying in our lifetimes and, indeed, in the history of our country. And it continues to escalate. Social cohesion is cracking. This alleged success of multiculturalism is being tested as never before.
As evidenced by the series of unsavory incidents described above, there is an urgent need for leadership at the highest levels. now. Throughout public life. From leaders in government, industry, faith communities, business, the arts, and every aspect of civil society. Without this, the disintegration that endangers the social fabric of this country can only worsen. Our nation depends on it.
Vic Alhadeff is the former CEO of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.
