Politics With Michelle Grattan: For Mark Dreyfus, Antisemitism Is Very Personal

(MENAFN- The Conversation) The attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and another car torching in Sydney have dramatically heightened political tensions over antisemitism.

Amid criticism the government has been too slow to act in the past year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this week announced an Australian Federal Police taskforce to combat antisemitism, visited the Melbourne synagogue (though his critics said this was belated), and on Wednesday was at Sydney's Jewish Museum.

For Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, a member of Melbourne's Jewish community, antisemitism is personal. Dreyfus joins the podcast to talk about his family's story of fleeing Nazi Germany, his own and his community's experience with antisemitism, and his reaction to criticism of the government's performance.

Asked his father's reactions to recent events, Dreyfus says,

Of the antisemitism recently directed at him personally,

Asked if further federal laws are required to combat antisemitism Dreyfus sugggests the states could do more,

On the accusations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others that the government's stance on Israel in the United Nations has led indirectly to the local attacks, Dreyfus says,

Dreyfus criticises the politicisation of the antisemitism issue,

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