ECAJ workload unprecedented in 80-year history

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry is facing a workload unlike anything in its 80-years of existence, President Daniel Aghion told the organisation’s general meeting on Sunday.

Addressing delegates at Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre in Melbourne, Aghion said the ECAJ had almost tripled its staff to 15 in two years and now has offices in four states.

“ECAJ has a public profile like never before,” he said.

“Our continuous workload has increased to a level that the ECAJ is unlikely to have experienced at any time in its history.”

Aghion said ECAJ now administers a $57 million federal security scheme running until March 2026 and is “quietly confident” of securing funding for the next three years.

He said the organisation will host the J7 in Sydney and Melbourne this week.

The grouping comprises senior professional staff from the seven largest diaspora communities, and Aghion said at Australia’s urging it had evolved beyond its original anti-defamation focus.

“It has become an opportunity for the fulsome exchange of practical information at the highest levels of national community leadership around the world,” he said.

The government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal told the AGM that Professor Greg Craven had been appointed as independent university reviewer and would begin assessing campus responses to antisemitism next week.

Segal said the ceasefire in Gaza provided an opportunity to step up efforts against antisemitism.

“The agitation is still continuing here, but particularly in Canada, where things have not slowed down at all, it [is] very clear that that sentiment is not for Palestinians, for Gaza, but really anti-Jew,” she said.

She cited research showing graduates and university students recorded the highest levels of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, while only 13 per cent of Australians understood Jews comprise less than one per cent of the population.

Segal called on community organisations to align activities with her 13-point national plan.

“We are a very small group of people with a very large challenge, and the only way we can maximise our impact is to be coordinated,” she said.

She urged the community to invite non-Jews to cultural events, noting many Australians had never met a Jewish person.

“I think we need to reach them, because government in a democracy will always respond to indications from community as to where they sit.”