Global taskforce ranks Australia’s antisemitism worst in decade

Australia recorded the sharpest rise in antisemitic incidents of any of the world’s seven largest diaspora Jewish communities over the past five years, according to a global report released today that also lists the Bondi Beach massacre among the deadliest antisemitic attacks anywhere in more than three decades.

The J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, which tracks incidents across Argentina, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, found antisemitic incidents in Australia rose 270 per cent between 2021 and 2025 — ahead of Germany on 215 per cent and the United States on 131 per cent.

The second annual J7 Report on Antisemitism documented more than 23,000 incidents across the seven countries in 2025, comprising over 90 per cent of the Jewish diaspora. It records that 20 people were murdered in antisemitic attacks last year — 15 of them at the Chanukah by the Sea event at Bondi Beach in Sydney — making 2025 the deadliest year for antisemitic violence in the diaspora since the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.

Two people were killed at Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, two at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington and one in Boulder, Colorado.

Australia recorded 1654 antisemitic incidents in 2025, down from 2062 in 2024 but still dramatically above the 495 recorded in 2023, before the October 7 attack in Israel. Measured per capita, Australia’s rate of 14.14 incidents per 1000 Jewish residents was the second highest of the seven countries, behind Germany and ahead of the United Kingdom.