Jewish organisations must adapt

Since October 7, many Jews around the world have experienced a painful realization: the hatred itself has not changed, only its social acceptability.
The chants, conspiracies, blood libels and glorification of violence are not new phenomena. Jews have seen them before throughout history. What is new is how normalized they have become in supposedly liberal democracies. Hatred that once lived on the fringes now marches openly through city streets, campuses and cultural institutions, often dressed in the language of “justice” and “resistance.”

And too many Jewish organizations were not prepared for this reality.
For decades, mainstream Jewish institutions in countries like Australia operated in an era defined by integration, relationship-building and optimism. Their work focused on education, interfaith dialogue, civic participation and preserving Holocaust memory. That work still matters, but the environment that shaped those priorities has changed dramatically.
Many Holocaust survivors who built Jewish life in Australia reminded younger generations how fortunate we were to grow up in a safe, democratic country. They believed Australia was different. They believed the lessons of history had been learned.

My late grandfather, in his Shoah Foundation testimony in the 1990s, described Australia as a place free from the antisemitism he experienced in Poland and encouraged future generations to remain proud Jews while treating others with kindness and dignity.

After October 7, many Jews are no longer certain Australia is as different or safe as earlier generations believed.

The antisemitism now confronting Jewish communities is not merely ignorance. It is ideological, organized and increasingly rewarded. People carry out antisemitic acts because they believe they are righteous. They seek approval and often receive it. Social media celebrates them. Activist movements excuse them. Academic and cultural institutions rationalize them. Political leaders hesitate to condemn them clearly. Their actions enable and embolden it.

This is not a marginal issue. It is a civilizational warning sign.
And yet many Jewish organizations still struggle to say difficult truths plainly.

Part of the problem is structural. Funding pressured, political relationships and institutional caution can create incentives for silence or ambiguity. Organizations fear losing access, partnerships or government goodwill. Some worry that speaking honestly about the ideological drivers of antisemitism will make them appear divisive or politically inconvenient.
But neutrality has a cost. And the Jewish community can no longer afford it.
Most Jewish organizations, despite their differences in tone and strategy, are fundamentally on the same side. They care deeply about protecting Jewish Australians, supporting Israel and preserving Jewish life.

The major exception is the Jewish Council of Australia, does not represent Jewish communal interests but instead seeks validation from movements and activists openly hostile to mainstream Jewish concerns and to Israel itself.

Seeking applause from those who excuse antisemitism while claiming to fight injustice is not courage. It is surrender masquerading as principle.
Why, for example, are some Jewish organizations still so determined to “play nice” with political parties and institutions that have enabled or tolerated anti-Jewish hatred?

At the Victorian Labor State Conference in Melbourne, delegates backed a motion demanding the release of Marwan Barghouti, a man serving five life for orchestrating terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada. The same conference reportedly voted down a motion condemning the Iranian regime, a regime that openly represses its own people and calls for the destruction of Israel.

What’s more repulsive is what has any of this got to do with state issues here youth crime, gang violence, CFMEU corruption, and cost of living crisis which should be their priority.

At what point does access politics become self-delusion?

The moral deterioration within sections of the Labor movement, at both state and federal levels, should not be met with performative gratitude or diplomatic niceties while Jewish Australians increasingly feel abandoned and unsafe.

Australian Jewry is at a serious crossroads.

If terms like “radical Islam” cannot be openly discussed because organizations fear jeopardizing funding, political relationships or institutional standing, then a profound conflict of interest exists. A community cannot meaningfully defend itself if its leadership feels constrained from identifying the ideological sources of threats directed against it.

Groups like the Australian Jewish Association (AJA) have often been dismissed as too outspoken or confrontational. Their first public event was a discussion around the threat of radical Islam. Yet many of the warnings they raised years ago and the failure to take antisemitism seriously when cloaked in progressive language have proven difficult to ignore after October 7.

Instead of engaging seriously with those concerns, parts of the organized community chose distance and exclusion. It was easier to remove uncomfortable voices from communal tables than confront uncomfortable realities.

That approach no longer works.

Since October 7, the emergence and impact of many Jewish and non-Jewish grassroot groups outside traditional communal structures are having impact. The rally outside the ABC in Melbourne on Tuesday, June 2nd is such an example of collaboration with ‘Allies for a Better Australia’, an initiative of never Against is Now (NAIN) to bring attention to the shocking bias by the national broadcaster.

This does not mean every organization must adopt the same tone, strategy or politics. Healthy communities require diversity of thought. But organizations entrusted with communal leadership must be willing to identify threats honestly and publicly. A community cannot protect itself from dangers it is too uncomfortable to name.

Israel understands this reality because it has lived it for decades. Israelis know threats are real, not theoretical. They understand that denial does not reduce danger. Wishful thinking is not security policy.

Diaspora Jewish communities now face their own reckoning.

Jewish education must also adapt. It is no longer enough to teach Jewish children only about the past. They must also be prepared for a world in which antisemitism can emerge simultaneously from the far right, the far left and Islamist extremism; a world where social media accelerates hatred and where Jewish identity increasingly requires resilience alongside pride.

Children must be taught how to use the past and how to fight for the future.
The ancient principle of Kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh — all Jews are responsible for one another, cannot remain a slogan from another era. It must become a living communal ethic again.

This moment also requires honesty about political leadership in Australia. The recently announced Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion may produce valuable recommendations. But recommendations alone are not enough. Governments must be willing to implement them seriously and confront the conditions that allowed antisemitism to flourish in the first place.

Many Jews increasingly believe political leaders have not merely failed to stop the problem, but have enabled and emboldened it through weakness, inconsistency and moral equivocation.

October 7 shattered assumptions about safety, acceptance and the stability of liberal norms. Jewish organizations now face a choice: continue operating according to the assumptions of a previous era, hoping normality returns or recognize that the environment has fundamentally changed and adapt accordingly. ‘Normal’ never returned to Poland, Hungary or Ukraine after World War 2.

Communities that fail to adapt to reality place themselves at risk.

The hatred has not changed. But now it is normalized.

That changes everything.

Melbourne-based Shane Shmuel in an Australian Jewish Association (AJA) committee member.