Melbourne, 21 July 2025 – A new report released today examines online responses to two antisemitic arson attacks targeting synagogues in Melbourne. The most recent attack, earlier this month, saw the entrance to the East Melbourne Synagogue set on fire. The earlier attack in late 2024 saw the Addas Synagogue gutted by fire. The report highlights the widespread proliferation of conspiracy narratives, many blaming the Jewish community itself, others blaming either Israeli or Australian intelligence services for the fires. Other posts welcome the attacks, or seek to justify them, encouraging further incidents.
The report is available at: https://ohpi.org.au/synagogue-attacks/
Dr Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute which released the report explained, “These responses are part of a wider problem in which antisemitism has now become normalised in Australia. They deny and deflect from what has become an antisemitism crisis. By claiming the antisemitism isn’t real, and that serious and high-profile incidents are simply hoaxes, and many claim these are hoaxes perpetrated by the Jewish community itself, they seek to build a tolerance for antisemitism within Australian society. This creates space for the crisis to worsen.”
The report, which documents over 100 examples of harmful online content, highlights how social media posts condemning antisemitism by public figures, ranging from politicians to journalists, are targeted with comments spreading these conspiracies. These hate-filled comments then ride on the coattails of the viral posts, accelerating the spread of hate.
The report comes soon after the release of a Plan to Combat Antisemitism by Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism. The plan highlights how antisemitism has become embedded in Australian institutions, from the Arts to our Universities. It calls for action to educate the public and people in positions of authority throughout society so they can better recognise and respond to antisemitism. The Online Hate Prevention Institute’s new report documents some of the responses to the release of this plan, which include blatant antisemitic directly out of the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, along with a continuation of the denial seen in response to the synagogue attacks.
The report states: “Rather than acknowledging the antisemitism crisis in Australia, there have been efforts to deny there is a problem, blame the Jewish community for the antisemitic incidents that have occurred, and to attack the existence of the Special Envoy, her Plan to Combat Antisemitism, and the IHRA Working Definition to Combat Antisemitism, which is central to the plan. The arguments against the definition in particular are largely recycled from earlier campaigns, which successfully muddied the waters and prevented action on antisemitism. Without these efforts, antisemitism would not have reached its current point of crisis.”
The report provides eight recommendations to help address the antisemitism crisis it documents. It strongly supports the Special Envoy’s call for greater education on antisemitism and her efforts to create a handbook that explains the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism within the Australian context. It calls on the Government to take ownership of the handbook, as the Canadian Government did when their Special Envoy produced a similar handbook in 2024.
ENDS