Beefed-up police units patrolled Australia’s largest Jewish population centers over the weekend, alert for neo-Nazi activity on Yom Hashoah, the memorial day for Holocaust victims.
Australia, which is virtually the size of the continental United States but with a population of only 16 million, is home to a proportionally high percentage of Holocaust survivors.
It also has a reputation as a land free of anti-Semitism and discrimination.
That is why a spate of anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi incidents in recent months has seriously disturbed the Jewish community, although no one has been injured and property damage has been minimal.
The incidents, mainly vandalism and verbal abuse, have been attributed to neo-Nazi teenagers and Skinheads, shaven-headed youths who wear Nazi-like regalia and harass minorities.
The incidents occurred in the three main Jewish population centers: Melbourne, Victoria, in southeastern Australia; Sydney, in the neighboring state of New South Wales; and Perth, across the continent in Western Australia.
The most serious occurrences were in Melbourne, which has a Jewish population of 40,000.
Three gasoline-bomb attacks on synagogues occurred in the past month, without casualties or serious damage.
In Perth, with a Jewish population of 5,000, the president of the Council of Western Australian Jewry, Doron Ur. was given a police escort after he was threatened at a public forum on “Race, the Press and Free Speech.”
A spokesman for the Australian League of Rights, the country’s largest racist, anti-Semitic organization, used the forum to deny the Holocaust occurred.
He drew a vigorous response from the Romanian-born Ur, a Holocaust survivor who was heckled and threatened by Skinheads in the audience.
In Sydney, where the Jewish community numbers more than 30,000, vandals have defaced Hebrew schools, synagogues, mikvehs (ritual baths) and communal offices during the past year.
Bomb threats interrupted the two largest Jewish day school classes. Graffiti has greeted worshippers arriving at synagogues, and Jewish youth groups have found equipment vandalized, despite security patrols.
Community spokesmen admit they are disturbed by the increasing incidence of what they call “petty anti-Semitism” and the lack of progress so far in identifying the perpetrators.
The government’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission is preparing a report on an inquiry into racial violence in Australia.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
