Betsy Berns Korn and William Daroff
Our trip to Australia earlier this month was sobering and also clarifying. We traveled as representatives of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to join colleagues from the seven largest Jewish communities outside Israel. This gathering was part of J7, the larger Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, an international coalition formed in July 2023 to confront the escalating threat of antisemitism by sharing best practices and coordinating global responses.
This coalition offers a practical way for Jewish leaders on several continents to work together and confront a rising tide of hatred that shows no sign of slowing.
In Sydney and Melbourne, we saw the depth of the pressure facing Australian Jewry. We also saw something else: how closely the patterns in Australia track with what we see in the United States and across Europe. The actors and slogans may differ, but the underlying forces remain remarkably similar. Antisemitism today moves across borders with almost no friction, and our responses must match that reality.
That reality became devastatingly personal shortly after our visit. While in Sydney, our delegation walked along Bondi Beach — a place of sunlight, families and everyday life. Just days later, that same shore was the scene of a horrific antisemitic massacre that claimed 15 lives and left three times that many wounded. To witness how quickly normalcy gave way to terror in a place where we had just stood together was profoundly jarring. It made painfully clear how swiftly Jew hatred can move from rhetoric to violence, even in spaces built for joy, community and peace.
Australia’s Antisemitism Co-Lab set the tone for our first day. The Co-Lab brings together researchers, community leaders and policy thinkers who aim to turn accurate data into strategy. They study what unfolds in schools, unions, the media and on university campuses, and they work to shape plans that reflect real conditions rather than assumptions. Their approach is serious and systematic, and it recognizes a truth we see everywhere: The hatred we confront no longer lives at ideological extremes. It mutates quickly, moves easily and reaches audiences that once seemed out of reach.
The analysis prepared us, but nothing matched what we witnessed in Melbourne. We stood inside the burnt remains of the Adass Israel Synagogue, still unrepaired nearly one year after a firebombing. Delegates from seven countries stood in silence among the charred beams and broken ceiling tiles. The damage told one story. The fact that such an attack occurred in a country widely regarded as a model of tolerance told another.
Local leaders shared the numbers. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry reported 1,654 antisemitic incidents in the past year. Victoria recorded 738. Those figures dwarf anything the community experienced in recent decades. ECAJ president Daniel Aghion described Melbourne as the most unsafe place in Australia to be a Jew. His words reached national audiences and captured the shock that Australian Jews now confront.
Even so, the response we saw was not fear. It was determination. Australian Jews strengthened their internal networks. They organized. They pushed forward. The national government committed more than 30 million Australian dollars to rebuild the synagogue and restore the damaged Torah scrolls, a clear statement that protecting Jewish life stands as a national responsibility.
What Australian Jews endure now echoes the challenges American Jews face every day. The ADL counted some 9,000 antisemitic incidents in 2024, the highest total ever recorded. Nearly 60% were tied directly to Israel or Zionism. Rhetoric that once lived on the margins now enters mainstream debate with alarming ease. Influencers, entertainers and elected officials promote claims that would have shocked the country a decade ago.
The scale of this threat requires a coordinated response. We co-convened the March on Washington, which brought 300,000 people to the National Mall. We launched coordinated fly-ins to Congress. We completed hundreds of meetings with lawmakers. We pressed for stronger federal security funding and tighter oversight. Each effort reflected a simple belief. Jewish unity is not sentimental language. It is strategic power.
Our experience in Australia reinforced why these partnerships matter. Every Jewish community faces its own political culture and its own institutional challenges, but the forces that drive antisemitism ignore borders. Slogans that appear on one campus appear on another. Online radicalization reaches audiences everywhere. Campaigns to demonize Israel cross continents in minutes. Extremists in one country watch for cues from others.
No national strategy stands alone against a threat that crosses borders with ease. We strengthen our defenses when we learn from one another, compare strategies and recognize emerging patterns that cross borders with speed and impact. International cooperation deepens our understanding of the threats we face and sharpens the tools we bring to this shared fight.
Wherever we traveled, we met Jews who felt shaken yet determined, worried yet unbroken. To each of them, we delivered the same message: You are not alone. The Jewish people rise together, grieve together and fight back together. No firebombed synagogue, no campus mob and no online campaign can break that bond.
Our unity is our shield, our future and our promise to every Jew from Melbourne to Miami. We stand with you, and we do not walk away.
Betsy Berns Korn is chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. William C. Daroff is CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.