A new article in The Age discusses our new report on the Online Responses to the Melbourne Synagogue Attacks in 2024 and 2025. In November 2024, the Addas Synagogue in Melbourne was set alight whilst people were worshipping inside. In July 2025 the entrance to the East Melbourne Synagogue was set alight as members of the community were inside eating a Shabbat meal. These two attacks on places of worship are just part of the rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack in Israel and the subsequent war. Our new report focuses on online responses to these attacks.

The article in The Age discusses some of the key findings in the report, including the prevalence of online conspiracy theories that seek to downplay the reality of the attacks on the Jewish community and to excuse antisemitism. The article also discusses our report’s findings about the online reaction to the Special Envoy’s plan to combat antisemitism, which frequently appealed to traditional antisemitic tropes about Jews controlling our government. Our CEO Dr Andre Oboler explains: “We are seeing an overt effort to normalise antisemitism in society. That is what the Segal report is challenging and that is why they are threatened by it.”