“The overall number of antisemitic incidents continued at, and slightly exceeded, the unusually high number logged during 2018, which saw a 59 per cent increase over the previous year”, said Julie Nathan, the ECAJ’s Research Director on Antisemitism.
"Most disturbing were the reported incidents of antisemitic bullying of Jewish schoolchildren at two Victorian public schools, and the manifestly inadequate way in which the schools handled those incidents.”
In one case, a 12-year-old boy in Melbourne was forced to kiss the feet of a Muslim student.
“More subtle, but just as concerning, was the spread of calumnies about Jews beneath the cloak of political discourse about Israel,” Ms Nathan said.
“Examples included a university lecturer and the utterly false claim made by a professional teaching body in July that Israel persecutes Arabs because ‘they don’t follow the Jewish religion’”.
