Public Hearing Block 1

A former Tasmanian teacher — not Jewish herself — gave evidence about twelve years of witnessing antisemitism in classrooms while teaching Holocaust history. Students graffitied swastikas, shouted 'Heil Hitler', performed Nazi salutes and repeated antisemitic tropes about Jewish wealth, while school leadership consistently brushed off her concerns. She described the situation worsening markedly after October 7, with a shift from casual antisemitism to 'Jew hatred' coming more from the left than the right. A local Holocaust survivor who visited the school annually was made to feel unwelcome in 2024, with students blaming him for events in Gaza. She called for explicit, mandatory professional development for all teachers on how to identify and address antisemitism.

Witness AAE, who survived multiple near-miss terrorist attacks while living in Jerusalem during the Intifada, described heartbreak at having returned to Australia to give her children a better life — only to find them less safe as Jews here than they would be in an active war zone. She described recognising warning signs outside Avner's café in Bondi well before the December 2025 attack, telling the owner she had 'seen this movie before' and would 'rather be seen as paranoid than be dead.' She noted that if any other minority were being treated as Jewish students are, action would immediately follow.

Witness AAF described the profound contrast between a recent trip to Israel — where she could wear her Magen David openly, speak freely on public transport, and simply be herself — and everyday life in Australia, where she stopped wearing her necklace years ago and self-censors in public spaces. At university, antisemitism is worse than at school: "In high school you could kind of dodge it if you didn't tell people you were Jewish. At uni it's a lot more in your face." She described leaving the library each day to find a table directly in front of the exit occupied by an anti-Israel group with signs and chanting.

A teenager at a public high school described being subjected to bullying, taunting, antisemitic slurs and Heil Hitler salutes simply because she is proud to be Jewish. She said very few students stand up for Jewish peers, because many prefer not to let others know they are Jewish 'for safety reasons.' School leadership had told her to just ignore it. She told the Commission what she actually wanted was for teachers to address antisemitism directly and by name: "I want the teachers to focus on addressing antisemitism and specifically saying the word antisemitism — and to educate people that what Jewish people have gone through is not a joke."

Blake Shaw was present at the Melbourne Museum in July 2025 when Grade 5 Jewish students were harassed with 'Free Palestine' and 'Free Hezbollah' chants by older students from another school. When he asked the supervising teacher to intervene, the teacher shrugged and replied 'that's just their beliefs.' He was also present in March 2026 in Canberra when the same year group on excursion was subjected to 'Heil Hitler' chants from students of another school. At university himself, he said antisemitism had become 'normalised' on campus.

The mother of a Grade 5 Jewish student described her son being confronted during a Melbourne excursion in 2025 by older students calling him a 'dirty Jew' and yelling 'Free Gaza' and 'Free Hezbollah.' The supervising teacher from the other school refused to intervene. After months of follow-up with the Department of Education, she received a letter claiming the school had engaged Courage to Care for educative services — only to be told directly by Courage to Care's CEO that the organisation had never been engaged by that school. She concluded that both statutory bodies had 'failed the Jewish community and the Australian public.'

Dean Cherny, a 56-year-old father, described feeling the need to be able to physically protect his family after the hatred that erupted in Australia after October 7, leading him to take up martial arts. He joined the Community Security Group, guarding Jewish schools — calling his wife and children before every shift to say he loves them. He does not get to sit with his 85-year-old father at synagogue on the High Holidays because he is out protecting other synagogues. He described a heartbreaking moment when his then-10-year-old daughter asked: "Dad, if Israel is not safe and we're not safe in Australia, where are we going to go?" He had no answer.

Joshua Kirsh ran as an independent candidate for the NSW Legislative Council to ensure Jewish Australians felt heard by the political system. His social media campaign — none of which referenced Israel — was deluged with antisemitic comments, conspiracy theories and threats. He warned that talented Jewish Australians are declining to enter public life for fear of such treatment — a 'slippery slope' dangerous to Australian democracy. Despite everything, he closed: "I would rather die an Australian if the climate got that bad than be something else, because this is my country."

Witness AAT's son, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, began wearing a Star of David in early 2025 after a family trip to Israel, and within weeks was called a 'dirty Jew', subjected to Nazi salutes, and told 'Hitler didn't finish the job.' The bullying escalated to physical abuse including being squeezed until he could not breathe and thrown in a garbage bin. By term four the boy's anxiety made school impossible. The vice principal's investigation response entirely ignored all references to racism, addressing only the physical bullying. Having relocated to regional NSW, Witness AAT learned the day before giving evidence that antisemitic bullying had already begun at his son's new school.

Using the pseudonym Witness AAS, a UK-born Jewish resident of Perth told the Royal Commission about living through the First Intifada in Israel and how those experiences shaped her reaction to contemporary protest slogans such as “globalise the intifada,” which she said evoked memories of bombings, fear and violence against civilians. She also described feeling shocked and unwelcome after discovering antisemitic content linked to a café operating on a Perth university campus, criticising what she saw as an inadequate institutional response.

Witness AAS argued that universities and businesses operating on campuses should be held accountable for discriminatory conduct and said Jewish people should not feel unsafe or excluded in public educational spaces. She also raised concerns about campus protest environments, saying universities should ensure all students, staff and visitors feel equally protected and welcome.

AAD, a non-Jewish university student who has extensively studied Jewish history, described a law lecturer throwing a microphone at a student who raised a dissenting view about the Middle East conflict. She observed that students who do not believe Israel is committing genocide 'cannot be heard and are forced to conform with the opinions of teachers.' She was removed from a university society group chat within five minutes of posting Instagram sympathy for the release of Israeli hostages. She argued that Holocaust education in NSW schools is inadequate — failing to contextualise antisemitic tropes that continue circulating today.

While on a lunch break in a Melbourne park at 30 weeks pregnant, ABF overheard a group of strangers praising the October 7 attacks, joking that more murders should have taken place, and repeating conspiracy theories about Jewish control of media and banks. She instinctively hid her Magen David necklace and returned to work shaken, locking herself in a toilet cubicle where she suffered her first ever panic attack. The experience has since changed how she presents in public — she no longer wears Jewish symbols, avoids speaking Hebrew with her children in public, and has reconsidered her daughter's schooling due to safety concerns.

Gayle Smith described how her organisation is the only aged care provider in Australia with security guards stationed at its facilities — at a cost of $1.8 million per year that cannot be recovered from residents under Commonwealth regulations. The organisation, which cares for approximately 370 Holocaust survivor clients, began recording antisemitic incidents as a discrete category in late October 2023 and immediately observed a sharp increase. Threats have included a bomb threat targeting a residential facility. Multiple government funding applications for security costs were rejected. Smith described the profound distress of Holocaust survivor residents having to walk past armed guards.

ZFA President Jeremy Leibler sat before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion and described the country he grew up in, and the country his children are growing up in.

He spoke as a father, as President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, and as a partner at Arnold Bloch Leibler. He spoke about family history, Jewish identity, the aftermath of 7 October, and what has changed for Jewish Australians.

At the centre of his evidence was a moment with one of his thirteen-year-old sons, walking past a school, who asked why the fences were so low and where the guards were. Jeremy Leibler said that moment was the most important thing he could tell the Commission.