Tracing two centuries of Australian antisemitism

Australian Jewish Historical Society stalwarts Dr Hilary Rubinstein, Professor Paul Bartrop and Professor Philip Mendes recently discussed antisemitism in Australia from 1788 to the present day before a packed audience at the Lamm Jewish Library of Australia.

Rubinstein covered colonial times to the early 20th century, Bartrop the interwar years and Mendes the 1950s to the present.

Rubinstein cited The Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–06), which observed that Australia “has been a land of sunshine to the Jews”. However, a persistent vein of xenophobia and antisemitism ran through 19th-century popular culture.

The “Ikey Mo(ses)” stereotype depicted Jews as flashy, smarmy cheats and usurers. In the 1860s, the satirical magazine Melbourne Punch described Jews as “bloodsuckers”, while journalist Marcus Clarke alleged Jewish greed in The Argus in 1868.

The 1890s depression fuelled antisemitism. The Bulletin wrote in 1891 that, given a choice between Chinese and Jews, “the one with the tail [pigtail] is preferable to the one with the Talmud”. Henry Lawson’s 1905 Boer War poem cast Jews as “the God of Greed”, while Norman Lindsay’s cartoons portrayed Jews as greedy plutocrats manipulating world events.