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.

Despite prejudice in 19th-century Australia, in the 20th century Jews held high political office and relations with non-Jews were generally cordial. Sir Isaac Isaacs, Sir John Monash and Sir Zelman Cowen rose to prominence. Bartrop said that despite their integration and loyalty Jews always feared being seen as “foreign” because of accents, dress, and customs. In the 1920s, Jewish immigration was restricted for non-British Jews because of “poor physique” and lack of farming and trade skills.

In 1933, after the Nazi seizure of power, the United Australia Party government adopted a policy of “no undue influx of Jews”, which held until 1945. In 1938 it rejected 90 per cent of Jewish entry applications. Refugees were vilified as “enemy aliens” and the Dunera Boys were barred from military combat roles during World War II.

Bartrop concluded, “Antisemitism in Australia does not compare with antisemitism in other countries. In the 20th century Australia was not an antisemitic society although antisemites existed and expressed their views openly, and the federal government discriminated against Jewish refugees at critical times.”

Mendes analysed modern antisemitism in the vandalisation of Jewish buildings during the swastika epidemic of the early 1960s, growing antisemitism from the left and on university campuses in the 1970s and 1980s, and the fallout from the Hamas massacre in southern Israel in October 2023.

In a final statement, Mendes posed the question, “Is the surge in antisemitism a portent of things to come?” He concluded, “Time will tell. But for Jews, Australia is no longer ‘the land of sunshine’.”