October 7 is one of those days that is seared in the minds of all who were alive for it.

The sheer barbarity felt like it was from a different century.

Idealistic youngsters attending a music festival, raped and murdered. Mothers kidnapped while desperately clutching their babies. Crowds of Gazans tearing apart a young woman’s body, kicking it, and spitting on it.

The trauma of the day was compounded by local developments for the Australian Jewish community.

As news of the massacre broke, hundreds of members of the Muslim community gathered in Southwest Sydney to light fireworks and celebrate. Before the blood had dried, an antisemitic mob had gathered at Sydney’s Opera House.

The last two years have been a learning experience for Australia’s Jews about who our friends are.

Relations with the Muslim community were the first to collapse.

Decades of commitments and enormous resources invested by naïve sections of the Jewish community all proved a waste. Two years on, and not one Muslim leader in Australia has unequivocally condemned the October 7 atrocities.

Next came the Australian Greens, who exposed themselves by making what many hold to be antisemitic comments.

Progressive Jews have been hounded out of the arts and universities, even made to feel unwelcome at the Sydney Mardi Gras. Human rights groups refused to speak out for the human rights of Jews. Feminists were silent as Israeli women were raped.

All the above was emboldened by a weak federal government.

Immediately following the massacre, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called on Israel to exercise ‘restraint’. Wong refused to visit sites connected to October 7 and unlike other Western leaders, Prime Minister Albanese didn’t travel to the region to express support. Despite warnings that its actions were inflaming the situation, the Albanese government enacted one anti-Israel policy after another, culminating in the recognition of a non-existent ‘State of Palestine’, the ultimate reward for Hamas’s barbarity.

To be fair, none of this came as much of a surprise to the Australian Jewish Association (AJA). AJA had never placed much faith in interfaith efforts with the Muslim community. We had always called the Greens out for their comments and refused to deal with them, while other Jewish organisations tried to court them. Before the 2022 election, we were accused of fear-mongering when we warned that a Labor victory would endanger Australia’s relationship with Israel. Sadly, our predictions came true.

October 7 unleashed a torrent of antisemitism. Synagogues were firebombed, Jews doxxed, and vile threats were made by nurses, of all people.

Jews arrived in Australia with the First Fleet. Despite being so few, we have contributed mightily to this nation, giving it its greatest military leader, Sir John Monash, two governors-general, Supreme Court justices, scientists, businessmen, winners of the Nobel Prize and Olympic gold and so many of our philanthropists.

Many Australian Jews are now contemplating leaving or at least questioning their place here. Ironically, Israel which has endured two years of war is seen as a safer bet. I regularly get asked for advice on this issue and it’s hard to dismiss people’s safety concerns.

I counsel people that Australia is worth fighting for.

It’s true that October 7 exposed the antisemites in Australian society, and there are many, but it also showed us who our friends are. It’s been heartening to see support from so many ordinary Australians, mostly from the centre and right and often identifying as Christian.

Every other day our office gets a call from the Western Australia wheatbelt or an email from someone in far north Queensland to express support for the Jewish community and outrage at what the government has done.

The Jewish community discovered friends in the conservative media, in politics, from One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson to the entire Coalition. Again, none of this was a particular surprise to my organisation, as these were the people we had already worked with.

October 7 was also a wake-up call for many ordinary Australians. The attacks on Israel were an attack on the West. Anti-Israel actions here often explicitly targeted Australia. The battle against radical Islam and the Woke, is a fight we must all take up, or our country will be next.

Across the West, in countries like Britain and France, millions of patriotic people want to take their countries back. They are crowding the streets and the voting booths.

It’s been heartening to see ordinary Australians take up this battle for our future, with a rapidly growing movement of patriots.

It’s true that there is a loud but small group of neo-Nazis attempting to subvert the movement. Several current and former politicians on the right have also turned on the Jews, thinking that it will give them popularity. The sensible centre must disavow these extremists or risk losing credibility.

October 7 showed Jews who our friends are. It showed us who our enemies are. It showed all Australians what we must fight for if we want to save our country.