A Sydney Jewish mother has told a royal commission hearing that Jewish children in Australia face antisemitic abuse at school, including swastikas etched on walls and classmates performing Nazi salutes, living with antisemitism "all day, every day."
Mother's Testimony Before Commission
The woman, identified only as Dina before the commission, said Australia had become a more hostile and dangerous place for Jews, most horrifically demonstrated by the Bondi massacre in December, in which 15 people were shot and killed. Dina told the commission she had overheard Jewish children saying they would be too scared to attend a Hanukah party, and that when her family went to Bondi, her eight-year-old child began crying, saying, "Now, when I come to Bondi, I think about dying."
Dina said the Australian Jewish community was "living a very different reality" compared to the non-Jewish community, and that the Bondi massacre was the violent manifestation of unchecked antisemitism across Australia. "The reality is, they came to kill us. We just weren't there. And it's living with that truth that makes it very hard to feel safe as a Jew in Australia," she said.
Second Day of Public Hearings
The second day of public hearings before commissioner Virginia Bell heard evidence from Jewish parents who fear for their children's safety, as they grow up facing a rising tide of antisemitic abuse, graffiti, and attacks. Natalie Levy, whose daughter is one of only two Jewish children at a government school in Sydney, said: "She sees swastikas etched all around the school, children saying 'Heil Hitler' and putting up their hand in a salute. She sees things that no 15-year-old should see." Levy added that her daughter is a proud Jewish young lady but is scared.
Levy told the commission that antisemitic rhetoric had become normalised in Australia. She said she had been called "kike," "dirty Jew," "dirty Jewish pig," "baby killer," "baby eater," and "genocidal" on social media. "I can't believe that in 2026, in this beautiful country, that antisemitism has become so normalised. It's heartbreaking. I truly grew up believing that this kind of rhetoric only existed in the past. That it has resurfaced so aggressively is a real shock," she said.
Victorian Mother's Account
Another Jewish mother, given the pseudonym AAP and giving evidence from Victoria, said her children had come home from school saying they did not want to be Jewish. She said her children were bombarded with antisemitic content on social media, including messages such as: "We owe Hitler an apology, the Nazis should have finished them off," "Jews are controlling the government," and "Israel has no history, only a criminal record." She also said slurs against Jews were commonplace at her children's school, and her children were frightened to attend a street food festival organised by a Jewish community group in Melbourne. "They didn't want to go. They said they might be shot. I said 'there's going to be police there, there's going to be security there.' They said, 'well, they don't stand a chance against a gunman.' They just had no confidence," she said.
Background of the Royal Commission
The royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion was established after December's Bondi massacre, in which two alleged Islamic State-inspired gunmen shot and killed 15 people and injured 40 others as they attended a beachside Hanukah event for the Jewish community. The first fortnightly block of hearings focuses on defining antisemitism, its historical and contemporary manifestations, and its current impact on Jewish Australians.
Academic's Perspective
Tali Pinsky, who moved from Israel last year to work at an Australian university, told the commission that Australians were generally "very welcoming," but there was often a conflation of the state of Israel with Jewish people, and Jews were criticised for Israel's actions in Gaza. "Jewish and Israeli people are personally targeted and blamed for the actions of the Israeli government in a way that citizens of other countries involved in conflicts are not," she said. She also felt that the victims of the Bondi massacre, because they were Jewish, were not considered truly Australian and were not mourned as Australians.
Former Jewish Board of Deputies CEO
Vic Alhadeff OAM, former chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, told the commission that antisemitism was once marginalised in Australia but had become normalised and emboldened with an "unashamed brazenness." Alhadeff, also formerly the chair of Multicultural NSW, agreed that Jewish Australians were unfairly being held responsible for the actions of the state of Israel. "This issue goes to one of the issues which is informing a lot of the antisemitism, which has been rocking this country … for the last two-and-a-half years: holding Jewish Australians accountable for what is taking place on the other side of the world. Jewish Australians have no agency in what the Israel Defense Force does, or indeed what the Israeli government does. And yet so much of the manifestation of antisemitic incidents and attacks is interlaced with, and references, what is taking place on the other side of the world. We are not responsible," he said.
On 7 October 2023, Hamas militants launched an attack from within Gaza on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. In response, Israel launched a war in Gaza which has killed an estimated 75,000 people, including 20,000 children.
