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Glen Eira City Council has become the first in Victoria and second in Australia to endorse a plan to curb rising antisemitism, responding to increased incidents in Australia's largest Jewish community since the October 7 attacks. The strategy includes councillor training and security upgrades, alongside community efforts by volunteer services like Hatzolah Melbourne.
A Melbourne council has become the first in the state to endorse a plan to curb growing rates of antisemitism. Glen Eira represents Australia's largest Jewish community and has seen a rise in incidents against the Jewish community since the October 7 attacks.
Under the plan, councillors are preparing to take part in antisemitism training, as well as work with high-risk areas for potential security upgrades. In the heart of Australia's largest Jewish community, people are gathering for a free first-aid training session inside a former church. The coloured light beams through the stained-glass windows and onto rows of CPR mannequins as the group find their seats. They come from all backgrounds.
The session is being run by Hatzolah Melbourne, a volunteer-based emergency medical first responder service based in Caulfield North in Melbourne's south-east. The suburb falls under Glen Eira City Council, which earlier this month became the first Victorian council, and the second in Australia, to endorse an antisemitism strategy.
Last year, 43 per cent of reported antisemitic incidents in Victoria took place in Glen Eira, according to a report from the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and the Community Security Group. Hatzolah Melbourne's general manager Josh Wonder said the first-aid course participants, and his service's volunteers, had a common purpose. Hatzolah was founded in New York in 1973 as a way of helping aging Holocaust survivors who were too afraid to call traditional uniformed emergency services.
Along with providing first-aid training, Hatzolah has taken on dozens of first responders and paramedics who volunteer their time attending to medical emergencies around Glen Eira.
"We're getting a significant number of mental health calls. I think since COVID, compounded by October 7, and then Bondi," he said.
" the typical, walking to the synagogue on a Saturday, people screaming out the window," he said. Mr Wonder said some incidents had been reminiscent of previous horrors on his family overseas, like the morning he received a distressed call from one of his members inside the "Hearing your grandparents' stories about the same things happening back in Poland and eastern Europe during the Holocaust … it really triggers a person," he said.
Under Glen Eira City Council's Victorian-first plan, councillors will receive annual antisemitism and trauma-informed training, share public information about how to report an incident, and work with high-risk sites to improve their security. The municipality also plans to look at better ways of responding to incidents in a timely manner, like the removal of graffiti. Mayor Simone Zmood said residents had been impacted by a growing number of threatening incidents since the October 7 attacks.
"I know quite a few families who have decided to leave Australia and move overseas because they don't feel safe here," Dr Zmood said. Hatzolah Melbourne was among 400 Jewish organisations and community members who helped shape the council's strategy. The group also received funding to provide its free first-aid training through the council's social cohesion grants program.
"We want people to understand what antisemitism is and to recognise it when they see it," Dr Zmood said. "When we look after one part of the community, we're actually doing things that look after everyone. "In the almost three years since the October 7 attacks, Victoria Police said it had carried out just under 19,000 visits "to places of cultural significance to help keep the Jewish community safe".
A police spokesperson said 84 per cent of those patrols had taken place across Melbourne's south-east as part of Operation Park. The spokesperson said Operation Park was established in October 2023 to monitor and coordinate the investigation of offences associated with the Middle East conflict. In that time, there have been 585 incidents of antisemitism and 73 reports of Islamophobia made to Victoria Police, with 316 arrests.
"Penalties have included unpaid community work, significant fines and even prison sentences," police said in a statement. Police regularly meet with Glen Eira councillors and community leaders to share information and advice. Some officers have also taken part in training to better respond to antisemitic incidents.
Hatzolah Melbourne's Josh Wonder said although he and his team had been more careful to stay out of harm's way in attending calls in recent times, he felt confident Glen Eira's plan could lead to positive change.
"This is really a step forward in social cohesion, which is a good lesson for all councils," he said.
Antisemitism Glen Eira Jewish Community Hatzolah Victoria
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