Last Tuesday, in the same week the Bell Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion held its first block of Melbourne hearings, the founding president of the Australian Jewish Association, David Adler, announced that he had emigrated to Israel.
He had made the move, he told the Jerusalem Post, because of “a general deterioration in Australia for a long time”. He went on: “National identity is being lost. Education standards are down. There is a crazy socialist activism, left-wing activism”.
The Gaza terrorist assaults on October 7, 2023, said Adler, had “unleashed a level of antisemitism and anti-Israel extremism that I didn’t think could occur in Australia.” He spoke of “leaders of the Muslim community and some Muslim groups in Australia celebrating on the streets” and “riots in front of the Opera House” immediately afterwards.
On stepping down as president in May last year, Adler expressed pride in his association’s role in stopping Australian government money going to the Palestinian Authority “and reducing Australian aid to UNRWA” (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees) – decisions since reversed by the Albanese government.
But now, “the tipping point has been reached and passed”, he said. Despite the Royal Commission, he wasn’t confident there would be an “efficient” response. Arriving in Israel he instantly felt national pride, optimistic feelings, flags everywhere: “I think we will see an exit of certain parts of the Jewish community from Australia.”
Those first impressions don’t fit well with the 78-year history of Israel, peppered with hostility and conflict. Having been born in Australia, Adler has lived all his life in what to most of us is a relatively peaceful land, and it’s sad he has chosen to leave. But perception is everything. If he feels threatened in Australia and better off in Israel, so be it.
The 7 October 2023 assault was shocking and truly brutal. At least 1195 people died and 251 were abducted, a significant proportion of whom also died. But like so much else that’s been written about that event, Adler’s analysis of antisemitism and “anti-Israel extremism” in Australia amplifies small things like those Opera House “riots” while ignoring the cataclysm that has played out ever since.
The initial terrorist assault lasted one day. Over 1000-odd days since, the Israeli counter-assault has reduced Gaza to rubble, displaced two million people, disrupted medical and food aid, and killed at least 75,000 including more than 28,000 children. A lot of Australians, Muslim and otherwise, are understandably troubled by this. Yet Adler’s comments on “anti-Israel extremism” ignored it.
Founded in 2017, the AJA is at the conservative end of the spectrum of Australian Jewish groups. Older, less political bodies include the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the Zionist Federation of Australia, the Australia and Israel Jewish Affairs Council, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Jewish Community Council of Victoria.
There’s another politically motivated group, the Jewish Council of Australia. Formed early in 2024, it seeks “to fill a void in Australia of an independent expert Jewish body … which acknowledges the diversity of views within the Jewish community in regard to the State of Israel.”
The JCA recognises that Jews across the country hold differing political views, and declares itself opposed to “the idea that all Jewish people, and the Jewish community, fully support the military actions of the State of Israel”.
The JCA clearly does not. It has sponsored an open letter with nearly 1000 signatures “condemning Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for a ceasefire,” and says that “more and more Jews are participating in activities in support of Palestine and local Palestinian communities.”
“The Council recognises the long history of Jews who have been critical of the State of Israel and its policies,” it declares. “Antisemitism is the hatred of Jewish people as Jews. It is not antisemitic to criticise Israel’s military actions or support Palestinian freedom and human rights.”
Melbourne publisher and writer Louise Adler – no relation to her AJA namesake – sees the JCA as representing next-generation Australian Jews who resist pressure from the Jewish “establishment” to defend Israel and its occupation of Palestinian land.
That stance is not without personal cost, as JCA director Sarah Schwartz explained to the Royal Commission last week.
She reported online abuse from both neo-Nazis and fellow-Jews which had led her to take time off work over concerns for her safety. Images were posted showing her wearing a yellow star, the badge that Hitler’s Nazis forced Jews to wear. Texts questioned her Jewishness and called her a “traitor”.
Schwartz said that the “foundational lesson” she had taken from the Nazi Holocaust was that “never again” meant “never again for anyone.” And who could disagree? Genocide can happen anywhere, in any era, to any people.