SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (VINnews) — Antisemitic incidents across Australia declined over the past year from the record highs recorded immediately after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, but still hover at levels described as “unprecedentedly high,” according to a new report released Monday by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The ECAJ documented 1,654 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025 — a drop from the 2,062 incidents recorded in the prior 12-month period but roughly three times the annual average of the decade preceding the October 7 attack.
Verbal abuse remained the most common form of harassment, accounting for 621 incidents, or 38% of the total. Physical assaults fell sharply by 63% compared with the previous year, while vandalism rose 14%, the report found.
Among the most serious cases over the past year were the firebombing of synagogues, Jewish schools and private homes; threats by two nurses to kill Jewish patients in a hospital; and the discovery of a trailer packed with explosives allegedly intended for a mass-casualty attack on a Sydney synagogue.
The report also highlighted a disturbing shift in anti-Jewish graffiti, with a marked increase in direct imperatives calling for Jews to be killed, rather than mere expressions of hatred.
Jewish communal leaders expressed growing alarm following Australia’s decision in September to vote in favor of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly, a move that triggered a sharp diplomatic exchange between the Albanese government and Israeli officials and deepened feelings of isolation among Australia’s approximately 120,000 Jews.
“While the slight reduction from last year’s record is welcome, the current level of antisemitism remains shockingly elevated and poses a clear and present danger to Jewish Australians,” ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said in a statement accompanying the report.