American rabbis express solidarity with Australian Jewish community

The largest orthodox rabbinic organisation in North America has written to Australian religious Jewish leaders expressing “profound solidarity” amid what it describes as a wave of antisemitic sentiment fuelled by government rhetoric and actions.

In a letter to Rabbinical Association of Australasia president Rabbi Nochum Schapiro, Rabbinical Council of America president Rabbi Etan Tokayer condemned recent government decisions as creating “an unacceptable climate of insecurity and pain for the community”.

The letter specifically criticised the Australian government’s decision to ban Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman from entering Australia, describing it as “deeply offensive to many in the Jewish community” and reinforcing “the antisemitic climate brewing in your country”.

Tokayer also condemned the government’s intention to recognise Palestinian statehood, arguing it rewards Hamas for its “barbaric behaviour” and emboldens the group’s “commitment to the death of Israel”.

“As Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas leader, stated, ‘the initiative by several countries to recognise a Palestinian state is one of the fruits of October 7’,” the letter stated. “This has also left many Australian Jews feeling abandoned and exposed.”