Public Hearing Block 6

Evidence from a range of witnesses set out a troubling picture in schools: antisemitic conduct is widespread and often treated as routine misbehaviour rather than targeted hate.

John Hamey, NSW Board of Jewish Education (BJE) CEO and former Principal of Moriah College, told the Commission that students at one Sydney public school had created a points‑scoring game called “Trip a Jew”, in which Jewish classmates were deliberately tripped and the highest scorer crowned “king of the Jews”. He recalled this alongside a pattern he had seen across years in Jewish education: coins thrown in front of Jewish students at interschool events, swastikas on desks and lockers, kippot flicked off heads, and a visiting school leaving swastikas across Moriah’s gym lockers.

Hamey raised concerns not only with the incidents themselves but how they were handled. Some principals engaged immediately to repair relations; others did not return his calls or pushed responsibility back onto Jewish students, including a suggestion that boys would not be targeted if they did not arrive wearing kippot. He told the Commission that this amounted to an expectation that Jewish children “conceal their identity in order to exist and be present in that space” – echoing themes the Commission has uncovered in Hearing Block 1, Block 3, and Block 4 – and that schools with only a few Jewish students often lacked cultural knowledge and “the language of antisemitism”. He noted that those schools often defaulted to generic bullying frameworks because the subject was seen as politically contentious.

Witness ‘ACZ’ (under a pseudonym) described her son enduring 12 antisemitic incidents over two years, including Nazi salutes, praise for Hitler, and a student shouting “f**k the Jews” at him during recess. While she acknowledged serious responses by the school in many instances, her son came to feel that dealing with each episode “on a spot fire sort of basis” was insufficient, and he wrote to leadership seeking a school‑wide presentation on antisemitism.

A representative of the Jewish Community Council of South Australia, giving evidence under the pseudonym “Paul”, told the Commission that antisemitism in Adelaide has “become markedly worse” since 2022, with primary school children now subjected to “quite elaborate bullying” simply for being Jewish, including being called “dirty Jews”. Paul said the shift pre‑dated the October 2023 Hamas attacks in Israel and described a rise in antisemitic sentiment “from the left wing of society”, where previously it had been “almost the province of the far right”. 

Similar patterns emerged before the Commission in healthcare and government sectors, where broad anti-racism or conduct frameworks do not always name antisemitism clearly, and therefore do not always reassure Jewish staff, students or patients that what they are experiencing is seen and understood. The message from witnesses was that where antisemitism is treated as too politically sensitive or too hard to define, institutions often default to vagueness.

Multiple witnesses gave evidence about how many of the systems meant to protect people still struggle to recognise antisemitism in the ways it now presents, with Jewish identity often missing from diversity frameworks and antisemitic conduct too easily overlooked.

Former departmental secretary Natalie James told the Commission that the Australian Public Service’s (APS) CALD strategy, which relies primarily on first language spoken at home, effectively renders Jewish employees invisible unless they were born in Israel. She contrasted the APS’ extensive work supporting First Nations staff during the Voice referendum with the “climate of silence” after October 7, saying no equivalent outreach was made to Jewish public servants and many became reluctant to disclose their identity or seek cultural leave for major festivals. James summarised the core issue: “If you don’t understand Jewish identity, you don’t understand things that are targeting Jewish identity,” urging the public service “to lean in, not out”.

Witness ‘ACZ’ argued that teachers bringing overt political symbols such as large “Free Palestine” badges with a fist of resistance into classrooms create environments Jewish students experience as hostile, even where the teacher does not regard themselves as antisemitic.

Evidence to the Commission shows Jewish Australians are quietly pulling back their visibility in schools, workplaces, universities and public spaces in order to feel safer in mainstream life. Instead of being able to live openly as Jews, many are choosing to conceal symbols of identity, downplay community ties or stay away from certain settings altogether. Jewish doctors reported colleagues hiding Star of David necklaces or leaving them at home entirely, and avoiding any mention of being Jewish at work because “people are afraid” of confrontation over conflict and identity.

Rabbi Mendel Kastel, CEO of Jewish House and a chaplain to NSW Health for more than three decades, described in his evidence fear among Jewish patients and staff after October 7, the Bondi Beach attack, and the Bankstown nurses incident. He told the Commission that patients at St Vincent’s Hospital asked for their religion to be removed from records, some were afraid to indicate they were Jewish on admission forms, and one patient with an Israeli accent was afraid to speak to a nurse in case it was noticed.

JewishCare CEO, Lawson Broad, and President, Ben Bolot, described clients giving false addresses to ride‑share drivers before attending Jewish events, aged‑care clients worrying that JewishCare‑branded cab charge cards identified them as Jewish, and staff removing JewishCare branding from lanyards, tote bags and LinkedIn profiles to reduce visibility. Broad said the organisation had never previously needed a permanent security presence at its building in more than 20 years across the sector, but now does.

Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal told the Commission that Jewish patients are hiding their identity in hospitals and delaying medical care, while doxed Jewish artists remain excluded from the creative sector. In the arts and creative sector, Segal drew a distinction between publicly and privately funded organisations, arguing public money carried additional responsibility. She recommended publicly funded arts organisations be required to maintain antisemitism policies and codes of conduct, that Creative Australia conduct regular data collection on antisemitism in the sector, and that all grants panel members undertake antisemitism training.

This has become a recurring theme throughout the Commission’s public hearing blocks, previously appearing in Hearing Block 1, Block 3, and Block 4.

Across healthcare and the public sector, witnesses described systems that still do not consistently capture antisemitism, mandate relevant training, or apply shared standards to complaints.

In healthcare, Dr Zhaoli Dai characterised antisemitism as a “structural blind spot” that is not routinely measured in patient experience or quality‑of‑care frameworks, thereby limiting the ability of health services to identify risk, track change and target interventions. Her review found evidence of harm to Jewish patients and professionals across several countries, but highlighted the lack of data and the need to embed antisemitism as a topic within broader anti‑bias training and culturally safe environments.

CEO of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), Justin Untersteiner, reported that, in the 12 months to June 2026, the regulator received 191 racism and discrimination complaints from around 13,000 notifications. Of those complaints, 40 related to antisemitism and 19 to Islamophobia, with Untersteiner noting that 85% of antisemitism and Islamophobia complaints involved social media. 

He cautioned that complaint numbers do not reflect the full picture, citing under‑reporting driven by fear of identification and distrust of large institutions. AHPRA has now adopted the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, but evidence from Dr Jack Green and Dr Adam Gordon showed that national boards are not required to apply it, creating what they described as a “revolving door” in which AHPRA finds a case to answer, boards clear practitioners, and complaints recur.

Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal told the Commission a new national centre has been established to deliver antisemitism training across government, business and law enforcement. Segal said the standalone National Centre for Education Against Antisemitism had been incorporated with an independent board, stating “how do we capture the hearts and minds of good people to understand what antisemitism is and that there should be an independent organisation that does that”.

The Commission heard antisemitism is being experienced not only as discrimination, but as a distinct trauma environment, with psychological effects that build over time and across generations.

JewishCare’s President Ben Bolot told the Commission that before October 7, JewishCare supported around 1,200 people on an ongoing basis, including 283 Holocaust survivors. After the Bondi attack, the organisation received more than 1,000 calls to its emergency triage line in six weeks and arranged close to 200 psychological first aid sessions, continuing to support 39 family members of victims or who were present. 

CEO of JewishCare, Lawson Broad, reported over 650 individual counselling sessions since the attack, many for people who had never previously sought mental health support. He told the Commission “antisemitism is a distinct trauma context … Victims of antisemitism should not be required to educate the systems they turn to for support,” and he called for antisemitism to be recognised as a separate trauma category, with a single point of recognition so victims of events such as Bondi are not repeatedly forced to retell their story.

Dr Zhaoli Dai emphasised that Holocaust survivors and their descendants carry historical trauma that can be compounded by recent events, including October 7 and Bondi, making them particularly vulnerable when seeking care. Rabbi Mendel Kastel recounted survivors coming to him in tears, saying “this is happening again” and asking what they should tell children and grandchildren as they see familiar patterns in public discourse and behaviour.