Turning the tide on antisemitism

One of the most difficult things to do during a crisis is to step back and zoom out as daily challenges pile up.

In 2024, objectively the worst year in recorded history for antisemitism here in Victoria, it seemed that week after week we were hearing terrible news.

Violent counter-protesters at a rally organised to stamp out antisemitism, anti-Israel protests so vile Jewish students felt unsafe attending university, murderous graffiti on the wall of a Jewish school, terrorist symbols drawn on shops owned by Jews, flags of terrorist groups proudly waved in the Melbourne CBD, Jewish boys assaulted at a train station and then, if that wasn’t enough, a synagogue burnt to the ground.

Immersed in this confronting situation, it was nearly impossible to zoom out from the day-to-day distress in order to identify patterns and work out just what was going on.

But with the launch of the 2024 Victorian Antisemitism Report, the JCCV and CSG have done just this. Zak Moss, the report’s author, has taken reports of antisemitism that were carefully collected and verified by CSG, and picked them apart to identify trends that might help us to plot a way forward.