After Hamas terrorists mounted a surprise attack that killed some 1,200 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Australia’s Jewish community, like others around the world, was deep in mourning. But its members were met with a startling display of antisemitism two days later: At an anti-Israel rally in Sydney, a group of protesters chanted, “Where’s the Jew?” 

That incident was not an anomaly, but rather the beginning of a rapid increase in antisemitism in this country whose small but proud Jewish community had previously taken pride in Australia’s welcoming, pluralistic nature. Now, Australian Jews are making sense of a recent election in which the center-left Labor Party that has governed throughout the aftermath of Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza was reelected, giving Prime Minister Anthony Albanese — whose ties to the Jewish community have come under strain — another term in office. 

“Some mistakes were made, and there were some oversights made, but we certainly think that there’s a willingness to make some improvements and to do what they can to improve the lives of Jewish people here in Australia,” said Naomi Levin, CEO of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, which includes Melbourne, of the Australian government. “We didn’t have the leadership that we needed to crack down on it. Now it’s very hard to go back. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it’s very hard to put it back in.” 

Albanese’s victory and the wholesale defeat of the Liberal-National Party — the conservative party known colloquially as “the Coalition” — came as something of a surprise, since the Coalition had led in the polls until late March. It also came as a disappointment to many Australian Jews unhappy with Albanese’s handling of antisemitism. 

Meanwhile in Canada, also an English-speaking commonwealth country with a sizable Jewish population and a record of growing antisemitism, another left-learning party recently notched an even more unexpected victory. Canada’s Liberal Party looked dead in the water until a fortuitous series of events in recent months resurrected the Liberals: the resignation of unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and, more importantly, President Donald Trump’s antagonism toward Canada, which riled up the country’s voters. 

“I’m sure just about any Canadian you talk to would say that if we were talking in January, this outcome would have been unthinkable,” said Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. “There was obviously an enormous shift in Canada, and I think a lot it had to do with several things, most notably concerns of what is viewed as a threat from Trump, really almost an existential threat to the country from tariffs and the ‘51st state rhetoric,’ and the Conservatives were slow to respond to that.”

Canada, like Australia, has been beset by a virulent streak of antisemitism that Jewish Canadians allege was not taken seriously by the country’s leaders after Oct. 7. Jewish institutions in heavily Jewish neighborhoods in both Canada and Australia have been targeted with vandalism, arson and even gunfire, while Jews have experienced exclusion and harassment at universities and on the streets as the grinding war in Gaza has now passed the 18-month mark. 

“It was apparent that there was a tremendous amount of frustration within the Jewish community in how its federal government was handling the crisis of antisemitism in the lead-up to the election,” said Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada. 

For Jewish community leaders in both countries, the recent elections — and the somewhat unexpected victories for the incumbent left-leaning parties — present an opportunity to rebuild ties that have frayed. But it won’t be easy, with wounds still raw and antisemitism still elevated. 

“I do believe that the government recognizes that the relationship with the Jewish community has been under very significant strain. And I do believe that they want and that we want to rebuild and reconnect,” said Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, an umbrella organization of Jewish groups. “I think for the Jewish community there’s still a lot of emotion in this.” 

The situations in both countries are not identical. In Canada, a new Liberal leader and prime minister with a background in international banking, not politics — Mark Carney — represents a fresh start for Canada’s Jews, even as he has to work to earn their trust. Trudeau had lost the goodwill of many Canadian Jews, even some who were politically aligned with him, before he resigned in January. 

“We look forward to working with the new Liberal government to combat antisemitism, but to be candid, more needs to be done,” Robertson said. “Our government needs to reaffirm its support for its ally Israel, and our government needs to recognize that any ambiguity in its support for Israel has a detrimental impact on the Jewish community in Canada.” 

The Trump threat was so pronounced in Canada that it became the defining issue for many voters, even those in the Jewish community who previously may have factored antisemitism into their vote more significantly. Jewish Conservative voters in Canada ranked antisemitism as their biggest concern in the election, while Jewish Liberal voters did not place antisemitism in their two top issues, according to research done by University of Toronto Professor Robert Brym. 

“I just had a conversation with somebody who said that he went in to vote, and he was really torn between what he felt would be best for Canada and what he felt would be best for the Jewish community,” said Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, rabbi emeritus at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto. “Most people that were within the Jewish community and small-c conservative were looking at [the election] specifically from a Jewish perspective. The people within the Jewish community who were voting Liberal were looking at it from a larger Canadian perspective.”

Polling in Australia does not evaluate voters’ choices by religion. But Jewish leaders say there was a clear preference for the Liberals within their community (which, in Australia, refers to the more conservative party).

“A lot of Australian Jews felt like, ‘I’m going to pitch my wagon with the Liberals this time,’ because they felt that the Liberals would be better for Israel, better to combat antisemitism, would probably limit some of the protests that have been happening on university campuses, and generally have more policies that would be seen to be favorable to the Jewish community,” said Ittay Flescher, an Australian native who lives in Israel.

Albanese, the Australian leader who was slow to respond to concerns about antisemitism and who is viewed by many as insufficiently pro-Israel, will remain in office, with an even stronger mandate. 

“The Coalition doubled down in its support of Israel and its support of the Jewish state, and the [Labor Party] has sought to shift to what I suppose they would see as perhaps a more balanced position, but we would see as sort of abandoning that longtime, long-term support for a Jewish state and support for Israel,” said Levin. 

One question that Jewish voters in both Australia and Canada faced is how the left-leaning parties in both countries changed in the year and a half since Oct. 7, and if they have sought to improve their standing with Jews. Anthony Housefather, a Liberal member of Parliament from Montreal, told Jewish Insider in early 2024 that he was so frustrated with his party’s handling of Israel and antisemitism that he was considering leaving it. Now, he insists they’ve made progress.

“Jews have lived through a very traumatic period … We want to feel that our politicians will defend us as ferociously as they can against that, and so what people in the Jewish community, what we’re asking is, where does the party stand? And will you stand with us?” Housefather told JI this month. “In all my conversations so far that I’ve had with him [Carney], I’ve been pleased.”

“There’s still a challenge and work to be done,” Housefather continued. “But I’m in a way better place about where I think we are now than I was a year ago.” 

Josh Burns, a Jewish member of Parliament in Australia from the Labor Party, told JI that he has seen Albanese call out antisemitism, pointing to a visit the president made to a Melbourne synagogue that was destroyed in an arson attack in December. (Albanese was heckled during his visit.) But Burns, who represents Melbourne, recognizes that many in the Jewish community don’t think Albanese has done enough to stand by them. 

“If you look at some of the results where there are a strong presence of Jewish community members, there were swings to the Liberal Party, which tells me that we’ve got trust to earn back,” said Burns. “I think now is a time for healing and a time for reconnecting and earning back the trust of the Jewish community, and that’s something I’m focused on.”