Australia - Increased in Anti-Semitism
Australia - Anti-Semitic incidents have increased in Australia.
A study cited 442 anti-Semitic incidents from October 2005 to September 2006, an increase of 110 incidents over the same period a year earlier.
A study cited 442 anti-Semitic incidents from October 2005 to September 2006, an increase of 110 incidents over the same period a year earlier.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 11/28/2006 06:38:00 PM
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Rise in attacks on Jews tests forgiveness
Jill Rowbotham and Dorothy Illing
29nov06
KNOWING first-hand how it feels to be the subject of an anti-Semitic attack, Menachem Vorchheimer still adopts a forgiving attitude, or as he says, is "polite about it".
The softly spoken Melbourne businessman, an orthodox Jew, was walking along a street in his East St Kilda neighbourhood one Saturday in October with two of his young children when drunken football fans in a minibus first verbally abused him. One then punched him in the face.
Attacks such as the one on Mr Vorchheimer reached a record high of 156 in the year to the end of September, according to a new report to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
The category of "attacks" includes abuse such as arson and vandalism, while "threats" include threats via telephone, leaflets, posters or email.
The combined total was 442, including the vandalising of synagogues, a Jewish university student being spat on and worshippers leaving a synagogue being pelted with eggs.
Former council president Jeremy Jones, who has been compiling the figures since 1989 from community reports, said a rise in reports generally occurred when perpetrators believed they could get away with them.
Weeks after the attack on Mr Vorchheimer, with no charges laid, it came to light that the driver of the bus was an off-duty policeman, and last Friday, the day before the Victorian state election, Mr Vorchheimer handed Premier Steve Bracks a copy of his police statement and urged him to take action.
"I have a scar under my eye, I'm still very emotional," Mr Vorchheimer said.
"I would say anti-Semitism is something of the old 'age' and not necessarily in touch with the new world we live in."
Anti-Semitic attacks are also rising on the nation's university campuses, with Jewish students complaining of assaults and being spat at.
A delegation from the peak Executive Council of Australian Jewry met 38 university vice-chancellors in Sydney this month to discuss the issue.
Council president Grahame Leonard told the university chiefs that students and academics often used the university as a platform for espousing hateful rhetoric.
"It's not confined to students on students," Mr Leonard, a Melbourne lawyer, said yesterday. "We also have concerns about academics." Mr Leonard said July had the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents on and off campus for any month in the past 60 years, a factor attributed to the Israel-Lebanon conflict.
Mr Jones agreed that one trigger for increased attacks on Jews this year may have been heightened tensions in the Middle East.
"During the intense period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon people were making aggressive comments in newspapers, and that was a message to extremists," Mr Jones said.
While half the incidents had occurred in NSW, followed by Victoria, with negligible activity in the rest of the country, there was no geographic pattern.
"What's continuing to be disturbing is that there are attacks on synagogues and the perpetrators are never found, because you never know where it's coming from - whether it is religiously inspired, or neo-Nazis or something related to the Middle East," Mr Jones said.
Another concern was the rise in anti-Semitic rhetoric in parts of the Muslim community, but this should be placed in the broader context of some excellent inter-faith relationships.
Mr Jones said contact between Jews and Muslims in Australian inter-faith organisations was regarded as among the best in the world.
After this month's meeting with the council, the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee issued a statement condemning as "reprehensible and totally unacceptable" any form of racial vilification or discrimination on campus
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