Published: 31 January 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
DEBORAH STONE analyses the ECAJ’s latest report on antisemitic incidents in Australia and concludes we need not be too alarmed.
The Australian media reported this week on a 42% increase in antisemitism over the past two years.
The reported increase was accurate but odd. Annual reports normally report annual increases. In fact, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) annual report on antisemitism in Australia in 2022, released on Friday, shows a 7% increase in antisemitism in the past year. There was a 35% increase in the preceding year.
The ECAJ’s media release collapsed the two figures together in its lead finding, making the numbers look worse than they would on an annual accounting, though it broke them down to their constituent parts in the same sentence.
Interviewed on the ABC, ECAJ Co-CEO Peter Wertheim explained the breakdown and contextualised it in terms of a long-term trend of increasing incidents. We have indeed seen a disturbing growth in the raw numbers, as the graph below makes clear.
Not only Jews but anyone committed to a just and cohesive Australia should be concerned by this trend.
But we should refrain from using cheap tricks with statistics to create alarm: that is an unnecessary and dangerous practice which has the potential to backfire.
We also need to drill down into the nature of the incidents to understand properly what is going on and how worried we should be.
