WHEN author Thomas Keneally spoke at the Holocaust Research Centre in Elsternwick he drew a crowd.

Keneally was there to talk about his new book, Searching for Schindler.

He did so and much more.

He drew attention to the insidious presence of anti-Semitism today.

Little did he know that while he was speaking, four Jewish teens were being assaulted in St Kilda.

Keneally might also have been unaware of the anti-Semitic remarks directed at Richard Pratt, the Jewish chairman of Visy, who confessed that his company had colluded with Amcor to fix the price of cardboard boxes between 2000 and 2004.

In transcripts allegedly recorded in 2002, Amcor's former director of Australasian operations, Peter Brown, and Jim Hodgson, Amcor's senior executive, referred to Jews and Hitler.

Brown is reported to have said: "Ah you know what the Jews are like. No wonder they own half the world."

Hodgson is alleged to have replied: "And you wonder why, ah, Hitler wanted to stitch them up too."

It is hard to think of a more offensive attack on an ethnic minority. In the meantime, Amcor, where Brown and Hodgson no longer work, has unreservedly apologised "for any distress they may have caused".

Part of Keneally's address focused on the gradual way anti-Semitism grew in the 1930s.

Initial indifference led to escalating violence. Fast-forward to 2007.

Following the St Kilda attacks this month, Manny Waks, chief executive officer of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, warned: "The more attacks happen, the more acceptable they become in the wider community."

As Keneally pointed out, the Holocaust affects us all.

And silence over anti-Semitism makes us complicit.

To this end, the delay in extraditing Charles Zentai to Hungary is troubling. Moreover, Australia does not have an enviable history in pursuing Nazi war criminals.

Mr Zentai has won a stay until February 2008 before his next extradition hearing.

He was arrested in Perth in July 2005 for his alleged role as a 23-year-old warrant officer in the Hungarian Army.

He is alleged to have been involved in the murder of Hungarian teenage Jew Peter Balazs, a charge Mr Zentai denies.

Earlier this year, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which is dedicated to tracking down Nazi war criminals, failed Australia in its worldwide report.

The Hungarian Government asked Australia to extradite Mr Zentai in 2005, but Mr Zantai's appeal against the authority of magistrates has caused the delay.

Many in the audience listening to Keneally were survivors of the death camps.

They had come to hear the bestselling author tell them about their suffering.

It is all the more remarkable that a non-Jew has done this. And this is entirely the point.

Speaking up against anti-Semitism, be it on the streets of St Kilda or Budapest, and the capture and extradition of Nazi war criminals, is not just an issue for Jews but for all people who value the rule of law and justice.

Inaction demeans us all.

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