There’s no denying antisemitism is on the rise globally and in Australia, reaching extremes previously unimaginable in this country. Cars have been set alight in Jewish neighbourhoods, synagogues firebombed, and homes and businesses have been routinely defaced, evidence of a disturbing surge in hate-driven violence. These incidents have rightly sparked a swift legislative response: both state and federal governments have introduced tougher penalties, with mandatory minimum sentences for hate crimes and terrorism-related offenses linked to antisemitism at the national level, and harsher punishments in New South Wales. What has become clear in recent years is that people who hold antisemitic views in Australia have felt emboldened to act out their hatred in increasingly overt ways, with the country scrambling to respond.
Yet the physical destruction of Jewish property and places of worship is only part of the story. More inconspicuous forms of antisemitism, often perpetuated by societal indifference, religious misunderstanding, and historic bias, warrant closer scrutiny. This becomes particularly evident in the Catholic Church’s response since October 7, 2023. While many bishops and Catholic bodies have rightly condemned blatant assaults on Jewish communities, deeper questions arise about the Church’s legacy of anti-Judaism and how remnants of that history continue to shape, or dilute, its reaction to modern antisemitic events.
It has been heartening in recent weeks to see Australian bishops and other Catholic bodies release statements of solidarity with the Jewish community, condemning the violence directed at Jewish property and synagogues. It is imperative to also recognise and call out the more inconspicuous forms of antisemitism, that quietly foster a general sense of permissiveness of this irrational hatred towards the Jews. This requires of the Australian Church that it reflects on its overall response since October 7, 2023, and where it has failed to respond, recognising where residual elements of historic Christian anti-Judaism may still be influential.
At a recent interfaith gathering facilitated by The Australian Council of Christians and Jews (ACCJ) in Melbourne, Jewish attendees shared with their Christian dialogue partners the challenges to dialogue that have arisen since October 7. They expressed deep distress over a perceived silence from Christian communities during the early days and weeks following the ruthless massacre of Israeli civilians, weaponized sexual violence, and the taking of hostages by Hamas militants, crimes that were endorsed in various quarters around the world. Speakers emphasized that, regardless of perspectives on the policies of the Israeli government, the Jewish community had expected Christian friends to understand and share in their profound grief and existential anxiety. Indeed, Teresa Pirola, a longtime practitioner of Catholic-Jewish relations in Australia, has identified only a handful of clear condemnations of Hamas’ atrocities and subsequent global responses by the Australian Church, while numerous other statements offered generalized calls for peace in the Holy Land. Since the Church’s teachings explicitly urge it to call out antisemitism in all its forms, what then explains this apparent silence in the Jewish people’s time of need?
One answer lies in a tension that runs through Catholic history, stretching back centuries and persisting in ways many believers do not consciously realise. This year marks sixty years since the Second Vatican Council’s publication of Nostra Aetate (1965), a landmark declaration that initiated a formal Catholic renunciation of antisemitic beliefs, including the ‘Christ-Killer’ trope. Such ideas fuelled pogroms and church-sanctioned violence for centuries, from the massacres of European Jewish communities by Crusaders traveling to the Holy Land, to the brutal trials of Jewish converts to Catholicism during the Spanish Inquisition.
Nostra Aetate encouraged fraternal dialogue with all faith traditions while recognising the deep spiritual bond between the Church and the Jewish people. It denounced all forms of hatred directed toward Jews, and laid the groundwork for a new era of fraternal respect. Australian bishops have likewise buttressed these corrective teachings with documents such as Australian Guidelines for Catholic-Jewish Relations (1992) and Walking Together: Catholics and Jews in the Australian Context (2023).
Yet despite these advancements, many Catholics remain unaware of the history and hallmarks of Christian anti-Judaism, allowing unintentional biases to persist. Phillip Cunningham, co-director of the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations of Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, likens this to ‘muscle memory’ that can surface in moments of heightened tension, particularly amid unfolding violence in the Middle East, when age-old biases can inadvertently colour commentary or language.
At the ACCJ gathering, Christian attendees also lamented that Nostra Aetate and its call to interfaith dialogue remained a fringe teaching of the Church. While those who attended were firmly committed to dialogue, participants noted the risk of creating an echo chamber, where only the ‘usual suspects’ engage in this essential ministry.
'Jewish attendees expressed concerns that the ongoing use of historical Christian anti-Jewish tropes in commentary that encourages a perception of Jewish people as the epitome of all modern evils.'
The consequence of Nostra Aeatate’s marginal position in the mission of the Church has now become tragically evident. In my own Australian circles of worship, work and study, I have observed a lack of awareness of the gravity of October 7, and its violent acts of antisemitic terrorism. A strong dialogical relationship would have made the Church more attuned to the significance of this event for the Australian Jewish community, enabling it to respond swiftly and with conviction. Instead, many seemed to misinterpret it as merely another escalation in a protracted conflict, rather than the largest collective murder of Jews at any time since the Holocaust – the worst in Israel’s history – and one that has created deep, ongoing trauma. Subtle echoes of old Christian anti-Jewish tropes have also appeared in the Church’s assessments of Israel’s war in Gaza. While no government or state is beyond critique, and many Catholics have well-intentioned concerns for Palestinian suffering, reliance on classic antisemitic themes skews understandings of the conflict and fuels broader prejudice against Jewish people. Often unconsciously employed, these patterns of anti-Judaism within Australian Church commentary must be recognised, and their impact on the Jewish community understood.
Over the past 16 months, I have observed numerous homilies, statements and articles that have used biblical texts to reprimand Jews over Israel’s perceived wartime conduct, subtlety reinforcing a historic claim of Christianity’s moral superiority over Judaism. Jesus’ gospel message of an inclusive and loving God has been used to critique the alleged exclusivity and intolerance of Zionism, the State of Israel and Judaism. The so-called ‘vengeance’ of the Jews is set against the ‘mercy’ of the Church. Also troubling has been the use of a recognised problematic Gospel passage (Jn 8:39-45), that has repeatedly been misused over the centuries to charge the Jewish people with Christ’s rejection and death – ‘those who become murderers like the father of lies who was a murderer from the beginning.’ This passage has recently appeared in two documents related to the current state of global conflict: The Australian Catholic Bishops’ 2024-25 Social Justice Statement, Truth and Peace: A Gospel World in A Violent World, and Pope Francis’ October 2024 Letter to the Catholics of the Middle East, and both times used without any historical contextualisation or cautioning against polemical usage. Other commentators have more explicitly drawn parallels between the crucified Christ and the suffering Palestinians, also conjuring the ‘Christ-Killers’ trope. This creates a strict binary framing in which the Jews are cast as the oppressors of the Palestinians, the latter with whom God stands in solidarity.
And while these inferences may seem minor, their persistent nature in Church language perpetuates a way of thinking about the Jews that not only goes against Church teaching but can also lead to dangerous outcomes. At the ACCJ gathering, some Jewish attendees expressed concerns that the ongoing use of historical Christian anti-Jewish tropes in commentary on contemporary events encourages a perception of Jewish people as the epitome of all modern evils.
Such depictions are not only grossly false but also morally confusing, weakening society’s resistance to the world’s ‘oldest hatred’ and breeding complacent attitudes, even outright justification, regarding October 7 and other instances of global antisemitism.
Similarly, an unconscious bias among well-meaning Catholics can pave the way for easy acceptance of more secular antisemitic themes. All Catholics, then, must urgently revisit Nostra Aetate as its anniversary approaches on October 28, and address lingering anti-Jewish biases while heeding its call to dialogue. Only by doing so can we fully decry, as the declaration puts it, ‘hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone’.
Emma Carolan is an Australian writer who holds degrees in theology, Jewish studies, philosophy, and human rights. Her research explores Catholic-Jewish relations, focusing on Australian Church responses to Pope John Paul II’s actions regarding Israel.