My great-uncle Lloyd Pearlman didn’t like Ballarat, the old gold-mining town he was born in. When I interviewed him for my PhD thesis eight years ago, Lloyd, a Jew, often commented on the antisemitism in the town. He would shake his head recalling his first year at Ballarat High School in 1931.
‘I couldn’t handle high school because of the antisemitism,’ he said. ‘It was awful. The kids called me names; they’d point you out all the time. There was a teacher who would bang me across the ears and say, ‘Now look here you little Jew get out of here. You little Jew, you’re not wanted here.’ It was horrible.’
‘Where did you go Uncle Lloyd?’ I’d ask.
‘Outside a teacher’s office. I’d get six cuts. The teacher would ask, ‘Why were you sent here?’ I didn’t know. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t like it.’
As soon as he could, Lloyd, who died in 2018 aged ninety-nine, moved to St Kilda, which at the time housed a significant Jewish population. He’d tell me that he felt safer living in Melbourne, and particularly in St Kilda surrounded by other Jews. I wonder what Lloyd would be thinking now. Since the start of the Israeli-Palestinian war last October there has been a spike in antisemitic incidents. People are targeting Jews for being Jewish, just like my great-uncle Lloyd.
Take my friend Jenne Perlstein, who is Jewish and a social worker. She is representing Labor in the current council elections in an inner-north ward in Merri-Bek in Melbourne. A poster attached to one of her supporter’s front fences was brutally defaced. A Hitler moustache was drawn on her face; a sticker of a Star of David, a symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism, with the word ‘boycott’ emblazoned across it. Other stickers told passers-by that Jenne is a ‘baby killer’ and doesn’t support human rights.
At first Jenne thought it was an anti-Labor attack until she realised she had been the only Labor candidate singled out. Jenne told me that it must have been her Jewish sounding name that prompted the vitriol. She hasn’t spoken about the Israel-Palestine war. All Jenne wants to do is improve services and campaign for better public transport in her council area. She describes herself as a ‘progressive Jew’.
One student said, ‘At a rally, a man came up to us saying we should all die, and “F*ck the Jews” and “Heil Hitler”.’ Another said, ‘I was approached by four pro-Palestinian students who called me names such as a “Pig”, a “Genocide Supporter”, and a “Nazi”. They tried to intimidate and harass me whilst I was waiting to attend a class.’
Jewish businesses have also been attacked. This is particularly frightening when viewed in the historical context of Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, when Jewish-owned businesses, homes and synagogues were vandalised and destroyed in Germany in November 1938.
A recently reported incident of a Melbourne Jewish-owned business being attacked made news in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Twice in two months, Tim Cohen found an inverted red triangle on the wall of his wine shop in East Brunswick. The first time the symbol was accompanied by a message bullying people not to frequent the shop. Cohen told the mastheads that he is ‘no Netanyahu cheerleader’. The only reason he could think of why he was targeted was because of his Jewish heritage.
The red triangle, which is outlawed in Germany, is a military symbol of Hamas. As the Jewish Independent has pointed out, the symbol is not a free-Palestine message but ‘aligns its users with those who want to murder Jews. It signals support for a violent organisation committed to the annihilation of Israel.’ On October 7, Hamas entered Israel and murdered 1200 Israelis and foreigners and adducted 251. Ninety-seven people are still being held in Gaza. Following the surprise attack, Israel retaliated with thousands killed in Gaza. The attacks on Gaza continue.
No Jew I know has a problem with people criticising the Israeli government and its policies. Jews do that themselves, too, just like Australians pull up their own government on foreign affairs and other policies. But telling people you do not support Netanyahu or have no interest in politics makes little difference to Jews being targeted. This is particularly the case on campuses where antisemitism is becoming increasingly normalised.
Almost all of the 624 submissions to the Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill, which would allow for the setting of an inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities, tell the story of antisemitism on campuses. Students are confronted with menacing messages telling them that ‘Zionists are not welcome’ and with obsessive chants calling for ‘global intifada’. Swastikas are scratched onto the back of toilet doors at one university.
Of the submissions I’ve read so far, some cite surveys about the level of antisemitism on campuses. The Australian Jews in the Shadow of War survey, conducted in November last year, garnered the views of 7611 respondents. Sixty per cent of university students said antisemitism was ‘very much a problem’.
Another survey commissioned by the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism, which has 290 members across 29 universities and of which I’m member, was conducted in April-July this year. Three hundred and ninety students completed the survey and 200 university staff. Preliminary analysis shows that of those surveyed, a majority say they do not feel safe on campus.
One student said, ‘At a rally, a man came up to us saying we should all die, and “F*ck the Jews” and “Heil Hitler”.’ Another said, ‘I was approached by four pro-Palestinian students who called me names such as a “Pig”, a “Genocide Supporter”, and a “Nazi”. They tried to intimidate and harass me whilst I was waiting to attend a class.’
In the submissions, many students also say they had been made to feel isolated, distressed and scared by tutors and unit coordinators who spoke about their anti-Zionism and anti-Israel views in class.
The Australasian Union of Jewish students outlines multiple examples of Jewish student being harassed on campuses. As a result of this, the organisation’s submission says some Jewish students have decided not to come to campus and to instead study online. Others are concealing their Jewish identity to avoid antisemitism.
On the second day of the Senate inquiry University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott admitted that he and the university failed to keep Jewish students safe. ‘I’ve read the complaints that have been made to the university and all those shared in submissions to this inquiry and to the special envoy, and the testimonials are heartbreaking and unacceptable,’ he said. ‘For that I am sorry. No one should feel at risk, unsafe or unwelcome at any place of learning, and no one should feel the need to hide their identity or stay away from classrooms or campuses.’
Not all antisemitism is aggressive. I have experienced a quiet antisemitism in the most innocuous of situations. I have always written nonfiction and thought I’d have a go at fiction and recently signed up for a writing class at my local neighbourhood house. After the first class, a woman in her seventies suggested we have coffee together at some stage. This never happened. During the next class we read small memoir pieces about family, in which I mentioned my Jewish background. Another woman, who is also Jewish, read her story, too.
It dawned on me why the woman in her seventies didn’t want to meet up. She wore watermelon (a symbol of solidarity with Palestinians) and free Palestine buttons on her coat and scarf and attended pro-Palestine marches in the CBD. These actions aren’t antisemitic. But she wouldn’t look at or speak to me or the other Jewish woman in our class of eight. In the final class, I caught her eye. All I saw was hate. The other Jewish woman and I did not wear political symbols or had spoken about the Israel-Palestine war. We had thought the writing class was our safe space.
This episode echoes the experience of university students. In the Union for Progressive Judaism submission, a student was shunned during a university project by a group member who refused to speak with or look at the Jewish student after discovering she was Jewish. In other submissions there are instances of non-Jews refusing to get in elevators with Jews, and of Jews been told to leave their share houses. Some Jewish students have been forced to leave university clubs according to the UPJ submission. ‘Several students recounted being pushed out of university clubs or losing non-Jewish friends on campus over their connection, or presumed connection, with Israel. For example, one Jewish student was told, “We don’t want your Zionist scum here,” and subsequently kicked out of their university’s socialist club.’
My great-uncle Lloyd Pearlman wanted to study medicine, but finished his education early, despite being dux of his Humffray Street Primary School in Ballarat. The antisemitic scorn he received in his hometown ended his dream. I just hope that it’s not going to end other Jewish people’s dreams in today’s Australia.
Dr Erica Cervini is a freelance journalist and sessional academic.