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.

The Australian chapter of the report, written by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), identifies the community’s central concern as the risk of further harm to Jews after the Bondi attack, and calls for governments and police to do more to ensure physical safety, including the timely sharing of security information with the Jewish community. It also names Islamist and left-wing extremism as threats that need to be prioritised and dealt with effectively.

The report describes a community under strain. “Australian Jews are feeling vulnerable, under attack (assault, abuse, arson), under siege, unsure of their place in Australian society, feeling betrayed by government and civil society leaders, feeling abandoned and ostracised, feeling unprotected from physical harm, wondering whether they have a future in Australia, and wondering where all this will end,” it states. At the same time, ECAJ writes, “Jews are not being cowed into submission but instead are increasingly embracing their Jewish identity with much gusto.”

The report notes that in early 2026 Australia launched the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which grew out of an inquiry into the security failures that preceded the Bondi shootings and is due to finish in December 2026. It also documents new police operations including the Australian Federal Police’s Operation Avalite and NSW Police’s Operation Shelter, along with federal and state legislation and increased security funding for synagogues, schools and other Jewish venues.

Citing research commissioned by Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, the report says antisemitic attitudes are highest among younger Australians, with 18 to 35-year-olds expressing the most negative views of the Jewish community of any age group, and students recording the highest antisemitism scores of any group in the population.

A survey by the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A) found that three-quarters of Jewish students had heard antisemitic comments on campus, with the alliance concluding that “antisemitic behaviour has become normalised across university campuses”.

On the year ahead, the report strikes a grim note. “It is unknown whether Jews will be murdered in 2026, as they were in 2025, but this remains a key concern,” it states, though it adds that “the massacre at Bondi has apparently woken up governments, police, and others to the high levels of, and violent, antisemitism occurring within Australia”.

In a joint statement, the J7 taskforce said antisemitism across the seven countries was “no longer a surge; it is our new normal” and called on governments to act before Jews are attacked, “with real security funding, stronger laws and social media platforms that enforce their own rules”.

ADL CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt said no country could fight antisemitism alone. “Antisemitism transcends borders, and our response must do so too,” he said.