It looks like the default build of TF Core does have something of “MKL” in it, just not enabled by default:
  
      

      Medium – 14 May 21
  

  
    

Leverage Intel Deep Learning Optimizations in TensorFlow 13

  Set a Single Environment Variable to Get up to 3x Performance Boost

  
    Reading time: 4 min read
  

  

  
    
    
  

  


Setting TF_ENABLE_ONEDNN_OPTS=1 with default builds of TF Java might just do the same as Python.