INVESTIGATION
— ECAJ seeks confidential AHRC survey responses
— The lobby group cites unspecified “concerns”
— AHRC rejects claims, says survey “meticulous”
— Muslims face hostility over 2.5 times worse
The nation’s “peak” Jewish lobby group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, has attacked a key government racism survey — and called for all Jewish participants to provide it with their confidential responses.
The ECAJ — whose immediate former president was Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal — says it has “serious concerns” about the “design” of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s survey on university racism.
The lobby group is refusing to what those concerns are.
The ECAJ publishes its own figures on Antisemitic incidents, which Segal has prominently cited in her push for speech laws to be overhauled and for funding to be cut from universities who “enable or fail to act” against “antisemitism”.
Those ECAJ antisemitism figures have also been repeatedly cited by the Federal Government as a reason for creating the Antisemitism Envoy position.
“The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has a message for Jewish respondents: please send them a copy of your answers too,” The Australian Jewish News reports.
“The organisation (ECAJ) wants anyone from the Jewish community who completes the survey to also send their responses to ECAJ, their local Community Security Group, or their state Jewish roof body – especially if they haven’t already reported any antisemitic incidents they’ve experienced.”
No information is provided as to the nature of the ECAJ’s “serious concerns”; why it is concerned that “Jewish experiences might get lost in the data”; or what the lobby group seeks to achieve by collecting the responses of Jewish respondents.
The ECAJ’s own antisemitism survey figures were the only data provided by Segal last month in her entire, 20-page report.
“From October 2023 to September 2024, antisemitic incidents surged by 316%, with over 2000 cases reported — threats, assaults vandalism and intimidation. In October and November 2023 alone, episodes increased over 700% compared to the previous year,” it states.
The figures are provided at the start of the document, under the headings “framing the challenge” and “a national crisis by the numbers”.
The only figures in Segal’s entire report – are from the ECAJ. Source: Antisemitism Envoy
Segal — who was ECAJ President from 2019 to 2023 — does not provide a source for the figures, yet searches show they are the figures published by the ECAJ on its website.
Segal’s Antisemitism Report contains no other figures or data — or even any links to any other figures or data — despite making numerous sweeping claims.
Providing no evidence, Segal officially claims that “antisemitism…has become engrained and normalised within academia and the cultural space”.
“Antisemitism…has become engrained and normalised within academia and the cultural space” – Jillian Segal
The ECAJ’s “serious concerns” about the Australian Human Rights Commission survey, and its push to obtain the responses submitted by all Jewish participants, was reported by The Australian Jewish News on August 21.
Yet there is no mention of it on ECAJ’s website.
The ECAJ repeatedly refused to respond when contacted by The Klaxon last week. High-profile ECAJ co-CEO Alex Ryvchin also refused to comment.
That’s despite it being a political lobby group that exists to sway public opinion, by lobbying government and media outlets.
The ECAJ and Ryvchin refused to respond when asked on what grounds the ECAJ was “concerned that Jewish experiences might get lost in the data”; whether the ECAJ had any evidence to “suggest Jewish experiences are more likely to get lost in the data than the experiences of other groups”; or whether the ECAJ was seeking to “increase the number of reports of racism reported by Jewish people”.
The lobby group states it is the “peak body of the Australian Jewish community, representing and advocating for the community to government, in the community, and around the world”.
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Alex Ryvchin and wife Vicky (left); Jillian Segal and husband John Roth (right). Source: Facebook
The AHRC rejected any suggestion of issues or problems with its survey, and warned participants that sharing responses would “compromise confidentiality”.
The survey was being conducted independently by a team of experts who were applying a “meticulous” and “rigorous” approach, which had gone though “two ethics approval processes” by “very reputable and credible ethics bodies”, a spokeswoman told The Klaxon.
“That speaks to the standard of, and quality of, the research,” she said.
“If participants share their responses, they will compromise that anonymity/confidentiality” — AHRC
“The survey has been through a number of ethics approval processes to ensure participant safety and wellbeing, and so their anonymity and confidentiality is preserved.
“If participants share their responses, they will compromise that anonymity/confidentiality,” the AHRC spokeswoman said.
“The organisation (ECAJ) wants anyone from the Jewish community who completes the survey to also send their responses to ECAJ, their local Community Security Group, or their state Jewish roof body” — The Australian Jewish News
Refusing to comment: Questions put to the ECAJ and Alex Ryvchin last week.
The AHRC’s “Racism at Uni” survey is being conducted by the Centre for Social Policy Research (POLIS) at the Australian National University.
“The Principal Researcher is Associate Professor Deirdre Howard-Wagner,” the AHRC states.
“Associate Researchers include Professor Matthew Gray, Associate Professor Bernie Baffour, Professor Ben Edwards, Professor Karima Laachir, Associate Professor Elfie Shiosake, Professor Lorana Bartel, Professor Rabee Tourky, Dr Francis Markham, Dr Rob Bray, Dr Mandy Yap, Perri Chapman and Kate Doery.”
The ECAJ states its annual antisemitism report is “researched, written and compiled” by the lobby group’s research director, Julie Nathan.
“Anti-Jewish incidents” are “logged by volunteer Community Security Groups (CSGs), official Jewish state roof bodies, and the ECAJ”, its November 2024 report states.
More from The Klaxon:
Aug 18: Segal and husband have “shared values” – Celebrated by G-G
Aug 8: EXCLUSIVE: Segal’s “husband” donation claims crumble
July 29: Segal seeking to put unis “under control of a political lobby”
July 20: Jillian Segal’s husband is…an anti-racism advocate
July 16: Government must explain over Segal: Peak Muslim bodies
July 14: “Segal must resign” – Top Muslim body
July 13: Jillian Segal “won’t dictate” to husband over $50,000 to “Advance”
July 12: Jillian Segal and husband funding far-right group “Advance”
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that at the time of the last census, 99,956 people identified as Jewish, about 0.4 of one per cent of the population.
A report into social cohesion by the Scanlon Foundation in December last year found that Muslims were over two-and-a-half times more likely to be viewed negatively than Jewish people.
“The proportion of adults with a negative attitude towards Jewish people is coming off a reasonably low base, and in 2024, is in line with the share of people with a negative attitude towards Hindus and Sikhs, while greater proportions have a negative attitude towards Muslims and Christians,” it found.
“Greater proportions have a negative attitude towards Muslims and Christians (than Jewish people)” — Scanlon Foundation
Segal released her 20-page Antisemitism Plan on July 10.
The ECAJ immediately announced that it “strongly endorsed” Segal’s plan, which “fully aligned with the ECAJ’s thinking”.
“Speaking immediately following the launch of the document, ECAJ President Daniel Aghion KC said: ‘This is a very well considered plan and fully aligned with the ECAJ’s thinking and our community’s expectations’,” said an ECAJ statement.
“This is a very well considered plan and fully aligned with the ECAJ’s thinking” — ECAJ
People identifying as Jewish comprise under half of one per cent of Australia’s population. Source: ABS
Searches show the creation of the role of Antisemitism Envoy — and that it would be filled by Segal — was announced in the weeks after it was announced the AHRC would undertake a university racism survey.
The Federal Government announced an AHRC study “into antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and the experience of First Nation’s people in the university sector”, on May 15 last year.
On July 9 last last year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the creation of the position of Antisemitism Envoy, to “preserve social cohesion”.
Albanese stood beside Segal last month when she publicly released her 20-page Antisemitism Report, and lavished praise on the “extraordinary work she has done”.
(“In the space of just one year, reported incidents increased over 300 per cent,” said Segal, without referencing the source.)
Tony Bourke, Jillian Segal and Anthony Albanese, launching Segal’s 20-page report on July 10. Source: AAP Image/ Dan Himbrechts
Two days later, on July 12, Segal was thrust into national scandal, following an expose by The Klaxon detailing how her family trust was one of the biggest funders of far-right political lobby group “Advance”.
The far-right group aggressively spreads hateful propaganda, racist tropes and bigoted imagery — including attacks on Palestinians — to its hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
Despite national sparking national outrage, Segal has refused to comment, besides issuing a vague, two- sentence statement on July 13 that suggests — though doesn’t directly state — that her husband, John Roth, is responsible.
Segal has made no public comments or appearances in the seven weeks since.
She has repeatedly refused to respond when asked whether she knew of the Advance donation, whether she approved of the Advance donation, or whether she approves of Advance and its activities.
Anatomy of a scandal:
July 10: Segal calls for sweeping new speech laws and media “monitoring” powers
July 12: The Klaxon’s expose: Segal’s family trust second biggest “Advance” funder
July 13: Segal breaks 48-hour media silence, points to “husband”
July 14: Bourke doubles-down on Segal’s vague “husband” statement
July 16: Shadow Attorney General Julian Lesser echoes Segal’s “husband” statement
Albanese, who was in China when the scandal broke, is yet to address the matter, and has repeatedly refused to comment when contacted by The Klaxon over the past seven weeks.
On September 30 last year, almost three months after announcing the Antisemitism Envoy, Albanese announced he had appointed Aftab Malik as Anti-Islamophobia Envoy.
A protester outside the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne on July 13, the day after The Klaxon’s expose on Segal and Advance. Picture: AAP Image/Scott Barbour
A criticism of the envoy roles is that Australia already has a Race Discrimination Commissioner, the AHRC’s Giridharan Sivaraman.
It is the Jewish responses to Sivaraman’s AHRC confidential survey that the ECAJ is seeking to obtain.
Sivaraman has raised human rights concerns over Segal’s Antisemitism Report, including regarding free speech and the independence of institutions.
He has called for a “coordinated” national response, that deals with all forms of racism, including antisemitism.
In November last year the AHRC launched the National Anti-Racism Framework, the nation’s first “comprehensive national plan to tackle racism”, setting out a “ten-year roadmap”, including 63 recommendations.
Sivaraman said the AHRC survey was an “historic study” into “racism in the tertiary sector”.
It is due to report its findings in December.
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Thank you,
Anthony Klan
Editor, The Klaxon
