America’s special envoy for combating anti-Semitism is visiting Australia.
Dr. Gregg Rickman has been speaking to Jewish community leaders and Australian lawmakers in an effort to understand the scope of the problem in Australia.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia has risen over the past few years, averaging about 500 logged by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. But Jewish community leaders maintain that Australia is a generally tolerant society and that the rise in anti-Semitism, while a cause for concern, is not a cause for alarm.
“We don’t want to pick on Australia per se,†Rickman told the Australian Jewish News. “Our goal is just to seek out ways to mitigate the problem.â€
Rickman, who was appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2006, met with Malcolm Turnbull, the opposition shadow treasurer, whose Sydney electorate contains the largest Jewish population in the country.
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