Be counted

The national census will take place next Tuesday, August 11. One of the questions asks a person’s religion.

There are some in our community who may be hesitant to write Jewish in the response field. And we can understand that position. After all, the past almost three years have not been the best time to be a Jew in Australia.

A J7 report released last week found that Australia recorded the sharpest rise in antisemitic incidents of any of the world’s seven largest Diaspora Jewish communities over the past five years.

Years of rising antisemitism culminated on December 14 last year, when 15 people were gunned down at the Chanukah by the Sea celebration.

Despite this, nearly nine in 10 respondents who answered an AJN social media poll earlier this week indicated that they will indeed write Jewish in their form, with 64 per cent saying they will do so without hesitation.

Holocaust memory is a factor with some who are hesitant to do so, and understandably so given the complicity of European governments in rounding up their Jews for the Nazi murder machine.

But, Australia in 2026 is not Europe in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Despite the problems over the last few years, the federal government’s belated seriousness in dealing with them and our disagreements with Labor over foreign policy, Canberra is not going to turn on Australian Jews.

We are citizens of this great, troubled country and we are part of its future. And that is exactly why we must declare our Judaism in the census. Census data is used to plan for that future – for infrastructure, education and other essential services.

Our own Jewish community planners themselves rely on census data to see how the community has changed and what resources are needed in the years to come.

For those still unsure, view it as defiance. The late, great Rabbi Eli Schlanger declared that the answer to antisemitism was to “be more Jewish”. The ultimate answer to the hatred that took his life is to heed his words – in this case, by boldly declaring yourself a member of the tribe.

So next Tuesday, let us stand up and be counted. Write Jewish – proudly, and without fear.