The Jewish Council of Australia is a left-wingAustralian Jewish advocacy organisation, founded in February 2024. It was founded to represent non-Zionist Australian Jews, support Palestinian causes, and oppose antisemitism and racism. The Jewish Council, which does not claim to represent all Jews in Australia, is led by human rights lawyer Sarah Schwartz and historian Max Kaiser. Its views have been opposed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Background and people
Jewish Council of Australia was founded as an Australian Jewish advocacy organisation[1] in February 2024 by self-described progressive Jews.[2][3] It was founded to represent non-Zionist Australian Jews,[4] support Palestinian causes,[5] and oppose antisemitism and racism.[6][7][8]
The organisation was founded on the premise that the existing Jewish bodies insufficiently represented the diversity of Jewish viewpoints regarding criticism of the State of Israel and its positions vis-a-vis the Palestinians. Additionally, the Council's position is that it will combat far-right antisemitism and neo-Nazism.[8]
It has criticised what it classifies as conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism. In February 2024 it criticised speakers at a rally in support of Israel for "weaponising the Holocaust" and treating criticism of Israel as antisemitic, and in May 2024 stated that claims of antisemitism were "being used to crack down on legitimate political expression and peaceful protests on campuses" in relation to pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses.[11][12]
In July 2024, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) described the Jewish Council of Australia as "far-left" and "a micro-group which represents only a thin sliver of opinion on the far-left margins of the Australian Jewish community". This statement was made following the Jewish Council of Australia's labelling the ECAJ as a "right-wing Zionist group". The Jewish Council of Australia stated in response that the organisation does not claim to be representative of all Jews in Australia.[14]
In September 2024, the organisation gave evidence to a Senate inquiry on antisemitism at Australian universities, stating their opposition to the Coalition's proposed legislation relating to antisemitism on campuses.[15] In the written submission, the organisation opposed the bill as "to establish a Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism considering its potential to create a hierarchy of categories of racism, exacerbate division, and undermine collaborative, multicultural, multi-faith efforts to tackle racism".[16]
2025 QUT incident
In January 2025, the Jewish Council's executive officer, Sarah Schwartz, gave a presentation at an anti-racism symposium comedy event at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).[17] While media were barred from the event, footage of Schwartz's presentation was made public.[18][19] An issue arose out of a presentation slide titled "Dutton's Jew", which Schwartz said was intended to ridicule the "imaginary conception of Jewish people" held by Opposition leader Peter Dutton and the Coalition, who, Schwartz said, were using "Jews and the Jewish community as political footballs to push a rightwing political agenda".[20] The slide was received unfavourably by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which said it contained an "overtly antisemitic image".[21][22] The university was criticised the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, the representative body of Jews in New South Wales over the incident,[19] and Education Minister Jason Clare called on the university to enforce its code of conduct.[17] The incident led to criticism by the Anti-Defamation Commission, which questioned the Jewish Council's purported lending of expertise to media on issues relating to antisemitism.[23] In response, Schwartz said that the backlash to her presentation was the result of a smear campaign by the "the Murdoch press and pro-Israel lobby groups" who she said "will go to great lengths to silence any Jew who does not fit into their mould".[20]
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