Antisemitism Report 2009 - World Jewish Congress

The Federal Government also recognised the reality of physical threats to Jewish Australians
with the allocation, commencing in April 2009, of security assistance to Jewish day-schools,
as part of a multi-million dollar package to bolster security to ―schools with identified
security issues‖
7.3 Moral Leadership
The good cooperation between different religious communities has been evident in recent
years, with a number of joint statements condemning racism and intolerance, as well as
supportive statements by one or another of the Australian religious denominations. AIJAC
has facilitated ―Conversations‖ for prominent religious figures, to discuss mutual action
against prejudice. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the National Council of
Churches in Australia and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils have made a
number of joint calls for tolerance. A number of Christian groups and the Baha'i faith have
condemned antisemitic attacks and Jewish groups joined others in condemning racism
against Australian Arabs and vilification of Muslims. This is in addition to the statements
issued by groups from one or other religion/faith condemning racism and/or antisemitism.
Churches were also important proponents of diversity and tolerance, often in concert with
the Jewish community. The Uniting Church in Australia is continuing the process of
exploring ways of taking joint action with the Jewish community to combat prejudice. The
Catholic Church promoted inter-religious and multi-faith understanding as a particular focus
in the lead up to the Year 2000 and continues to promote tolerance and understanding in the
lead up to Australia‘s hosting of World Youth Day in 2008. There have also been signs of
movement in the direction of better relations between the Anglican Church and the Jewish
community, with the establishment of the formal Anglican Jewish Australian Dialogue.
One of the important ways in which Church and service organisations assert moral
leadership against antisemitism is by refusing to allow racist and anti-Jewish groups to hire
their premises and having policies advising representatives to refuse to share platforms with
known extremists. It is pleasing to report that extremist anti-Jewish groups are experiencing
increasing difficulty in finding premises in which to meet and in convincing respectable
Australians to participate in their activities.
In November, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney sent an e-mail to all students
to condemn the ―totally reprehensible‖ antisemitism which had been a feature of the student
elections during September (14/11/08).
7.4 Education
One of the most encouraging recent developments in responding to antisemitism and racism
is a broad spectrum of educational initiatives, coming from government, community
organisations, the business sector and individuals.
The Federal Government, through the Anti-Racism Education campaign and the on-going
public awareness programmes conducted by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity
Commission, has been pro-active in its efforts to place objective information before the
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