‘How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.’ – Anne Frank
We failed you, Anne Frank. We failed to understand the message in your diary. We failed to understand that racism and hatred against Jews is happening on the shores of Australia. We failed to learn from century-old atrocities carried out against your people. And now, at least 15 innocent bodies with bullets lie on the ground in Bondi.
Last Sunday’s massacre on Jewish people peacefully celebrating Chanukah – including a Rabbi and a child – is a systemic failure of policy and culture regarding Australia’s Jewish community.
After the second world war, approximately 27,000-35,000 Holocaust survivors migrated to our golden shores, desperately seeking refuge and safety. On Sunday, December 14, 2025, one of those Holocaust survivors, Alex Kleytman, died on our shores defending his wife from a terrorist attack. To think that years ago, this man fled an evil so horrific, only to have his life taken by ignorance and evil darkness, is simply unthinkable.
Outside of Israel, Australia is home to around 117,000 Jewish people. Yet today, our treasured Jewish community trembles in fear – some are even contemplating fleeing Australia for their lives.
Our universities, institutions, politicians, and education system failed you, Anne Frank. They became petri dishes of hate, festering lies and distorting the truth, arguing you are a ‘coloniser’, an ‘oppressor’, and that you ‘invaded the Middle East in 1948’.
Slogans calling for your annihilation, ‘From the River to the Sea’, rung out in some Australian classrooms and some teachers encouraged young children to strike, protest, and repeat this chant in streets while calling for the destruction of Israel.
Jewish people felt unsafe. Cars in Melbourne with hoons drove around waving flags, asking strangers on the street to locate Jews.
At Saturday morning school sports, children from prominent Jewish schools were constantly mocked, teased, and ridiculed for being ‘Jewish’.
Over the last 12 months, there were 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents reported in Australia. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) estimates around 24 physical assaults, 33 acts of vandalism, arson, and/or desecration. The Adass Isreal Synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed. Jewish businesses and shops were attacked and vandalised.
This data represents an alarming trend of systemic racism that has moved from the fringes into mainstream society.
Our political leaders failed to stamp out antisemitism. Chants of ‘Gas the Jews’ and ‘Intifada’ were yelled on the steps of our beloved Sydney Opera House. Jewish people were told to ‘stay indoors’ because authorities could not guarantee their safety in the face of increasing hostility and aggression.
Social media influencers, adorned with watermelon stickers on their faces, used the hashtag, #fromtherivertothesea, to urge their followers to join in on calling for the displacement of Jewish people.
Marches were allowed where protesters held pictures of the Ayatollah, various incitements were screamed, and flags waved ferociously.
How did we get to this? How has the peaceful freedom-loving Australian way of life turned into a culture of activism and resentment? Of blaming, shaming, and finger-pointing at our Jewish community who want nothing but to live in peace, prosper, and feel safe here in their home country…
‘Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.’ – Anne Frank
Yes, Anne, we do have work to do. We need to redefine our values. We need to enliven our virtues and publicly – and privately – stand up and call out antisemitic sentiment, language, and behaviour. Every single one of us needs to read your diary again to remember what you endured in the face of pure evil. We must learn. We must do better. And we must act now before more shootings and violence against your people occur here again.
‘In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.’ – Anne Frank
