I had, still have, quite a good memory. So remembering various verses from various bits of the New Testament was no challenge really. Good memory, fiercely competitive.

The top student would receive a tiny box of scrolls, which had those same New Testament verses written on them in teensy-tiny writing. And when you opened the box, what you saw was the end of the scrolls, so it was teensy-tiny circles facing upwards. There is no commandment to say you shouldn't covet scrolls if they are up for grabs.

But it turns out those scrolls were not up for grabs by anybody. Although I came top – did I mention that I came top by quite a distance? – I didn't receive the scrolls. That prize was given to the best Christian, although that particular criterion was not in writing and, perhaps even in those days, someone was self-aware enough to recognise the intellectual poverty of that decision.

Regular readers may know I'm Jewish. Or what people who have no idea call "culturally" Jewish. That's meant to make my Jewishness less significant, as if regular sex with a lapsed Catholic should somehow wipe away all my family history; or disconnect me from it. Following all the rules doesn't make you more or less of something, except more or less observant. I'm less observant but I am Jewish. I even say so on my census form despite my fear of surveillance.

Shanah Tovah, by the way. It's Jewish New Year and Shanah Tovah is the regular greeting for this time of year. Yom Kippur is around the corner and – public service announcement – don't wish people a happy Yom Kippur. It's the Jewish Day of Atonement and so we're busy atoning. In my case, extremely busy. At the same time, it's the Islamic New Year.

Now, I bring you news about Jews and Muslims because I know it will make some of you very uncomfortable. Research published by Matteo Vergani, a research fellow at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, using recent data from the Australian Survey of Social Attitudes, showed that nearly two-thirds of Australians felt concern – to varying degrees, from 21 per cent who were very concerned to 15 per cent slightly concerned – about a Muslim marrying into their family. One-third would also have reservations about a Jew marrying into their family, where 5 per cent would be very concerned to 16 per cent slightly concerned.

So much concern. Vergani doesn't have more data on why Australians are so ignorant – except to explain that's exactly what some of you are. Ignorant. His research shows that the more you know about a religion the less likely you are to be a bigot. Accurate knowledge breeds tolerance, as opposed to those who "think" they know what Muslims believe (and Matteo assessed accuracy of knowledge by using a quiz). What he does know about Australians is this: about 40 per cent believe practising Muslims pose a threat to Australian society and 36 per cent believe Muslims should be searched more thoroughly than others in airports and stations.

What exactly does a "threat to Australian society" mean?

Mort Weinfeld, a professor of sociology at Canada's McGill University, is in Australia this month talking about divided loyalties. Does it matter if you barrack for the team of your birthplace instead of the team of the place you live? As Weinfeld points out, divided loyalties – divided identities – aren't a problem until someone makes them a problem, either real or perceived. He doesn't mention Pauline Hanson but I will.

"And when that happens, you have to have a process of law to protect vulnerable minorities and a process of negotiation on the part of the minority to confirm their good standing," he says.

So the law has to protect them, and then members of vulnerable groups must also protect themselves. We need to negotiate, to prove ourselves, as loyal as anyone else. That means the rest of us need to get in there, shoulder-to-shoulder, and defend the objects of the hatred: Muslims, Asians, Jews, Indigenous Australians. Don't allow yourself to be persuaded by identity warriors who say only those groups should speak for themselves. I say this every time: if only my grandparents had lived alongside Christians who stood up for Jews. Had lived.

So, how well does Australia do at protecting vulnerable minorities? Every year there are attacks on Jews and on Muslims. If you look at the reports of the Online Hate Prevention Institute you'll see bigots still ply their trade. Muslims are terrorists. The Holocaust never happened. Muslims are oft beset by those who can't distinguish between Islam and Islamic State; and I get similar correspondence because, in the same way the ignorant imagine that all Muslims are terrorists, they also conjure up all Jews as Zionists, murderers of Palestinian babies.

I get into heated debates about racism and bigotry constantly. The responses are ludicrous. "Some of my best friends are Muslims/Jews/Aborigines." Or: "I live next door to Asians." Or: "I don't believe this kind of racism/bigotry/hostility exists any more. I've never seen it." A young woman recently told me she didn't believe that the hatred of Asians had ever been as bad as the current hatred of Muslims. If I'd told her anti-Semitism still existed, I'm sure she would have laughed at me. We now have a third of Australians saying they'd be anxious if a Jew married into their family.

What's the solution? Let me say this. I promise you that if you educate yourselves on what it means to be someone else, you will get those tiny scrolls.

Or, at the very least, be a decent Australian.

Jenna Price is a columnist for The Canberra Times and Daily Life, and a senior lecturer in journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney. Facebook: JennaPriceJournalist. Twitter: @jennaprice