No space for Jew hate
'The Jewish community will not stand idly by in the face of antisemitism. We are strong, we are united, and together we won't let the antisemites win'.
LAST Friday, The AJN received a report from the Community Security Group (CSG) revealing it had recorded 451 antisemitic incidents in Australia in 2019, a 24 per cent spike from the year before.
The night before, The AJN received a photograph of antisemitic mail sent to a kosher store in Sydney, which accused Jews of being “Dole bludgers”.
“All ‘Jews’ go to hell when they die!” the letter said. “‘Jews’ are inferior.”
The week before, we were made aware of relentless antisemitic abuse directed towards a prominent rabbi in the community via Facebook.
Among other things, the rabbi was labelled a “Jewish scumbag” and told, “Hitler should have gassed your family.”
The week before that, we received a screenshot of a conversation between a man and a Jewish woman on dating app Bumble, in which she’s told, “Sorry, I didn’t read through your profile before I swiped. You’re jewish [sic] … you’re not welcome here.”
The list goes on and on.
And all this against the backdrop of international sporting stars, rappers and religious leaders openly spewing their antisemitic hatred on social media for millions to see, while sites like Twitter are slammed for failing to take prompt action to remove them.
No wonder our kids are bullied for being Jewish, our streets daubed with swastikas, our community members attacked while walking home from shule.
No wonder our breakfast radio hosts think it’s okay to make fun of Jews … just like sanitising our hands has become the “new normal”, so has Jew-bashing.
Which is why The AJN this week, along with a number of other Australian Jewish organisations, joined an international 48-hour “walkout” of Twitter … to send a message that antisemitism, or any other form of hate or racism, is not okay. And we won’t stand for it.
Minutes after joining the boycott, The AJN was criticised. “What will that achieve?” people asked.
It will show the world that the Jewish community will not stand idly by in the face of antisemitism. We are strong, we are united, and together we won’t let the antisemites win.
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