Protecting Jews while preserving free speech

On a recent Monday morning in Melbourne, Australia, Menachem Vorchheimer climbed out of an Uber car before it reached his workplace. He planned to take a different route the next day and arrive at a different time.

It’s part of Vorchheimer’s deliberate non-routine. His long beard and black yarmulke make him visibly Jewish. That’s a potential hazard these days in Australia, where incidents against Jews have jumped 316% since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Last month, police intercepted a motorhome filled with an explosive typically used in mining that could have created a 40-yard blast zone. Inside, a note listed the home addresses of Jews and a synagogue.

Jewish businesses now operate behind reinforced walls designed to minimize bomb blasts, and Jewish families have installed more home cameras.

But Australian leaders have had a tepid response to the increased violence. Last week, the state legislators of Victoria heard additional debate on a bill that it says would mitigate the issue, but critics say it could make matters worse.

Legislators first introduced the Anti-Vilification and Social Cohesion Bill in the Victorian Parliament in November. It mimics the state law in nearby Queensland that landed Christian educator Dave Pellowe in front of a tribunal last year for allegedly vilifying indigenous people. The Victorian bill was introduced by former adult performer and founder of the Australian Sex Party, Fiona Patten. It would expand existing nondiscrimination protections to include gender identity and sexual orientation. It also repeals the 2001 Racial and Religious Tolerance Act, which proponents say encompasses those protections.

The bill’s supporters point to the latest anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne to justify passing it. The measure contains a clause that allows “vilifying speech” if it has a genuine political purpose. In theory, that would allow freedom in public debate.

“You could drive a truck through the bill,” said Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. A protester could chant “kill the Jews” and call it a political statement against Zionism, rendering the law ineffective.

Margaret Chambers, a research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs in Melbourne, said the law would weaponize LGBTQ activists to silence their opponents. If more Victorians knew that the bill would limit their freedom to speak openly about gender, race, or religion while also allowing anti-Semitic speech for allegedly political purposes, she said, they would reject it like they rejected a misinformation censorship bill last year. But she expects the bill to pass.

“People see images of burning synagogues, and no one wants that,” Chambers said. “And they see the government putting this forward as a solution.”

Victorian Member of Parliament Anthony Carbines, minister for crime prevention, supports the bill but admits that it may “inadvertently limit the right to demonstrate religion and belief in the context of a religious sermon or proselytising.” In an open letter to the government, 256 church leaders from evangelical and Pentecostal denominations, the Roman Catholic Church, and Eastern Orthodox churches expressed concern over the bill’s lack of religious freedom safeguards concerning topics like marriage and sex.

“Are we being told that we can only live out our beliefs privately at home?” wrote Jasmine Yuen, Victoria state director for Australian Christian Lobby, in a news release.

Vorchheimer said he has no faith in the new law. When he was walking home from synagogue with two of his young children in 2006, a group of Australian football players punched him in the eye and stole his hat and yarmulke. At the time, Victoria already had sufficient laws on the books to prosecute and convict the attackers, but Vorchheimer had to fight for two years until the men were convicted. “The laws don’t need to be reformed—they need to be enforced,” he said.

When Australian police learned of plans by pro-Palestinians to hold an unauthorized protest two days after Hamas’ attack on Israel, they told Jews to stay home. Demonstrators outside the Sydney Opera House chanted anti-Jewish slogans while the building’s iconic sails were lit blue and white to mourn the victims of the attacks. Vorchheimer said if the police had employed the theory of broken windows then—policing minor crimes to create an environment of lawfulness—there wouldn’t be so many anti-Semitic attacks in Australia today.

To Vorchheimer, it’s a simple math problem. Australia has the largest per capita Holocaust survivor population outside Israel. As of 2021, 84% of Australia’s roughly 115,000 Jews lived in Sydney and Melbourne. Those metropolitan cities’ voting precincts are home to most of the 813,000 Muslim people in Australia. Curtailing pro-Palestinian protests and anti-Semitism might mean angering a large population of voters more likely to vote for the Labor Party, which is currently in power.

Vorchheimer’s grandparents left Germany for Australia in 1938, soon after Kristallnacht, a night of anti-Semitic violence coordinated by the Nazis in Germany and Austria. Vorchheimer said current dehumanizing language used in Australia has striking similarities to what preceded the Holocaust. People have sprayed “Jews not welcome,” “Jews kill kids,” and “[obscenity] Jews” on walls and signs across Australia. Stickers with a red crossed circle across the Israeli flag or a star of David have cropped up on poles and garage doors.

Vorchheimer has made sure his family’s passports are current and he has cash reserves. “God forbid, if something happens, it’s just one less thing to worry about if we have to leave,” he said. “We only say that because we’ve learned from history.”

Wertheim of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said his and other organizations have been inundated by support from non-Jews. When they ask how they can help, he says they can make sure the silent majority stops being silent. They can let their Jewish friends know that they support them.

“A lot of these people that have reached out have identified themselves as being practicing Christians,” Wertheim said. “That’s been incredibly heartening.”