Public Hearing Block 5

Key Jewish community bodies told the Commission that, since October 2023, security and antisemitism concerns now dominate much of their work, significantly reducing the time and resources they can devote to other aspects of Jewish life and community building.

When opening Hearing Block 5, Counsel Assisting Richard Lancaster SC said “no other religious or cultural community in Australia” bears a comparable security burden simply to attend school, worship or gather.

He noted that every Jewish school and synagogue in Melbourne has now hardened its buildings with guards outside places of worship, schools and communal organisations. He also noted how synagogues described cancelling Friday‑night services and long‑standing neighbourhood barbecues because they could no longer afford guards or manage the risk. 

Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) CEO Naomi Levin said that before October 2023, roughly 20% of JCCV’s time was spent on antisemitism and safety, but that this has flipped to roughly 80% in the current environment. Her evidence illustrated the lived impact of this burden: fences, guards and lockdowns have changed the basic experience of entering communal centres, with visitors to Beth Weizmann met by gates and security while nearby cathedrals stand open.

Levin reported 564 antisemitic incidents to CSG Victoria in 2025 – the highest number recorded in a single year in the state – and stressed that while the upward trend predated October 7, it had been significantly exacerbated by the events.

Witnesses and CSG leaders repeatedly described security funding as reactive, short‑term and misaligned with risk, and warned that the current model is not sustainable. JCCV CEO Naomi Levin told the Commission that government grants have often followed major incidents, with funding required to be spent quickly, leaving organisations uncertain about support the following year and sometimes forcing trained guards into redundancy and infrastructure into disrepair. She welcomed a three‑year federal grant after the Bondi Chanukah attack as the first ongoing commitment to protective security for the Jewish community, but criticised earlier matched‑funding models that excluded small synagogues lacking fundraising capacity, even when they sat on busy main roads and faced high risk.

CSG Victoria leadership (Witness ‘ACO’) said CSG’s budget has “pretty much tripled” since October 7, driven by increased staffing, casual security and technology, but that the organisation still relies primarily on community donations and levies. 

‘ACO’ told the Commission that volunteer hours across CSG nationally had risen from about 62,700 in 2023 to 86,000 in 2024 and 113,700 in 2025, with those hours worth over $9 million at commercial guard rates, and warned that this is “unsustainable” as a way to fund critical protective security. He stressed that government grants, while significant, have not been sufficient to secure all Jewish sites CSG monitors and argued that the community “should not have to carry this burden” or face “a financial burden” on being Jewish today.

Multiple senior Victoria Police witnesses told the Commission that the deployments linked to the safety of the Jewish community have escalated sharply since October 2023 and after the Bondi attack, but acknowledged serious gaps in their ability to reliably track antisemitic incidents or threats. 

Assistant Commissioner Christopher Gilbert said Operation Park - the overarching deployment framework for antisemitic and islamophobic incidents - had ramped up both in intensity and frequency. He reported that Victoria Police are now “deploying more than [they] ever had before” to protect the Jewish community, with almost 18,000 discrete tasks at sites of interest over the last two and a half years - 15,000 of those were located in Melbourne’s inner south. He emphasised the importance of relationships with Jewish organisations and CSG Victoria as “feedback loop and listening post” avenues alongside formal data.

Acting Commander Kelvin Gale explained that current systems record offences, but not all incidents, and rely on free‑text entries and discretionary prejudice motivated flags, making it difficult to extract accurate antisemitism data. He accepted that the existing arrangements are “problematic” and that better data connectivity and naming conventions are needed, though he resisted describing the situation as leaving police “unable” to form an overall picture. 

CSG witnesses reinforced this with Witness ‘ACS’ saying only about one in five antisemitic incidents are reported to police due to victim concerns about safety and exposure. Naomi Levin, CEO of JCCV, told the Commission that despite more than 100 engagements with Victoria Police since October 2023, many community members do not feel safer, in part because they rarely see visible police presence or understand the substance of the work being done behind the scenes.

This mirrors themes uncovered in Public Hearing Block 2 across gaps in intelligence systems and misalignment between community and police.

Evidence from youth and CSG witnesses showed how the security environment is reshaping Jewish education and youth work by placing heavy burdens on volunteers and young leaders. Youth movement leader Witness ‘ACV’ told the Commission that her Sydney‑based progressive Zionist movement could not operate without security in the current climate, and that planning and liaison responsibilities are largely carried by volunteer leaders aged 18-22. She described camps proceeding after the Bondi attack only with intensive reassurance for parents, constant updates, and strict rules enforced such as removing merchandise with Hebrew or Jewish symbols before travelling and turning off phone location services to protect sites.

A senior CSG volunteer in his 20s (Witness ‘ACS’) said he had become desensitised to antisemitic incidents after years of frontline work. He noted that pre‑October 7 Victoria was already recording antisemitic incidents roughly every three days and that the situation deteriorated rapidly as overseas events resonated locally. ‘ACS’ has contributed around 8,400 hours to CSG since 2021 - the equivalent of a full‑time role alongside full‑time study or work - and warned the workload is “not sustainable” for volunteers, calling for embedded psychological support. 

Long‑serving volunteer Witness ‘ACR’ described a “second life” in which CSG duties begin early and run late, keeping him constantly on call and pulling him away from synagogue and family occasions. He said that if protective security ceased to be treated as a first‑order priority, “it keeps [him] up at night” to contemplate the consequences. 

Witness ‘ACV’ and other CSG witnesses linked these pressures directly to children’s experiences, describing camp participants terrified that someone might “come and murder them in their sleep” and the erosion of informal communal moments that previously built social ties.

The Commission heard powerful testimony about antisemitic targeting of Jewish leaders and politicians and its effects on their safety, willingness to serve, and sense of belonging.

Previous NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president Lesli Berger described discovering a swastika and antisemitic wording on the back fence of his home, linking the symbol directly to his grandparents’ survival of concentration camps and the murder of much of his father’s family. He said the incident led him to close social media accounts, remove his address from public records, and spend tens of thousands of dollars on home security. He told the Commission that his children did not feel safe in their family home after the Bondi attack and warned that constant threats against prominent Jewish community members are becoming “a huge impediment” to communal leadership.

Former attorney‑general and current MP Mark Dreyfus gave evidence as a Jewish Australian and long‑serving parliamentarian. During his hearing, he described being abused in public as a “genocidal Zionist”, vandalism of his electorate office with dual‑loyalty slurs, and a stream of online attacks using Holocaust language such as “Nazi” and “kapo”. He said that throughout 17 years in parliament, he had never previously been abused because he was Jewish, which was particularly painful when cabinet confidentiality prevented him from responding publicly. 

Dreyfus emphasised the distinction between legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and antisemitism directed at Jewish Australians simply for being Jews or being held responsible for Israel’s actions, and urged that this line be clearly understood. Drawing on his experience as Attorney‑General, Dreyfus asked the Commission to consider stronger legal and policy responses to hate speech and protest around Jewish institutions. He outlined the 2024 Commonwealth offence of incitement‑based hate speech he introduced, recent state laws on serious vilification, and new federal powers (used to proscribe Hizb ut‑Tahrir and a neo‑Nazi group) to designate hate organisations, arguing such laws have value even when prosecutions are rare.