A reflection on Australian Jewry after October 7

For more than 200 years, Jews in Australia have felt a strong sense of safety and belonging. From the earliest Jewish convicts on the First Fleet to the free settlers who followed, successive generations cultivated a small but thriving community.

The arrival of pre-war refugees and Holocaust survivors, along with later waves of Jewish migrants fleeing persecution, further cemented this feeling of a paradise, a land of opportunities denied in their homelands.

The story of Australian Jewry has largely been one of courage, optimism and hope. Jews in the country prospered, contributing across every field of national life and becoming an integral part of its multicultural fabric. This long history of trust became a shared “DNA”, passed down as an unspoken assurance: Australia was home, and home was safe.

This perception was fundamentally shattered on October 7, 2023.

The horror unleashed in Israel by Hamas reverberated across the Jewish world, but for many Australian Jews, the shock was compounded by what followed in their own backyard: a wave of hostility and vitriol that surfaced within hours of the attacks. Protests filled the streets, not in solidarity with Israeli victims, but in support of the perpetrators.