A National Night of Storytelling
THURSDAY 30 APRIL AT 7.45PM
Ten people in your home.
Hundreds of homes across Australia.
Connected in one Zoom.
On Thursday 30 April, we’ll come together to write our stories to the Royal Commission.
This is how we’ve always done it, gathering, sharing, making sense of our experiences together.
Each story stands on its own, but together they form the picture the Commission, and Australia, need to see.
How the night works.
Scattered across the country. Gathered in one Zoom.
Pick your people. Ten friends in your living room - family, neighbours, your Shabbat table regulars, the parents from school pickup. We've even got the WhatsApp invitation ready to go.
01
Open your home
At 7:45pm your friends arrive. At 8:00pm AEST sharp we all log into one national Zoom. Opening, speaker, call to action. Then forty-five minutes writing side-by-side with the friends around you.
02
Write together
By 9:05pm, ten submissions have gone directly to the Royal Commission - in your own voice, with the people you love around you. We close the night as a country with a song of hope.
03
Submit together
We are here to support you
We know that you might want additional support on the night to navigate the emotions that writing your experiences can bring up, ask legal questions, and anything in between.
See what resources are available on the night:
-
Recounting antisemitism means revisiting moments that may not have fully healed. Fear, grief, anger, and a sense of isolation are all normal parts of this process — not signs that something has gone wrong.
If someone in your home needs support we can organise a breakout session with a worker from Jewish House.
24/7 Crisis Line: 1300 544 357
-
We know that there are lots of legal questions. Some require a 1:1 with a lawyer others are just a question.
We will have lawyers available for breakout sessions from the Jewish Centre for Law and Justice and ABL to support you and your guests.
-
Your room might have general questions baout what sort of experiences you can write about.
If you want another set of ears to bounce things off a member of the ShareYourStory team can join your group in a breakout session.
What is going to happen on the night
7:45 PM AEST
Friends arrive
Kettle on. Laptops open. Fifteen minutes to settle in and say hello before the country joins.
8:00 PM AEST
One national Zoom begins
Every home logs in together. A short opening from our community, a guest speaker, and the real reason we are all here.
8:20 PM AEST
Forty-five minutes in your own room
Each home works together - laptops open, friends writing side-by-side. Volunteer leaders on a live Q& A throughout - anything a host needs, we’re there.
All you have to do is show up and write.
9:05 PM AEST
A song of home, and home
Every home rejoins the national Zoom. A single song. A short close.
And then the evening is yours again.
The Ask
The model is grassroots by design — community members bringing community members together. Hosting is simple. We provide everything a host needs, and our volunteer leaders are on a live Q&A throughout the evening.
One host moves ten people. That's the whole logic of the night. If you can gather ten friends in your home on Thursday 30 April, you've done the single most useful thing any of us can do before the Royal Commission closes at the end of May.
Your own voice. No formal language. No minimum length. Your experience is enough.
However you gather, nobody writes alone.
From Perth to Hobart, every home logs into the same room at 8:00pm AEST. We open together. Write together. Close together. The network is the message.
Register as a Host
Host the night in your home.
Takes two minutes. We'll send you the Zoom link, a short host guide, and a reminder the morning of. You don't need to prepare anything - we've written the evening for you.
Why this matters
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion is hearing submissions until the end of May 2026. Commissioner Bell has been explicit: she wants to hear not only from institutions, but from individual Jewish Australians — everyday people with first-hand experience of antisemitism in this country.
The community has set a collective goal of 12,500 individual submissions. We are organising toward that number — and we are behind where we need to be. 100 homes = 1100 stories, 500 homes = 5500 stories. Every story helps shape a trend, tell a story ect.
Most of us have a story. Something said at work, on a feed, at the school gate, at university, on public transport, just a feeling of discomfort, since October 7 or long before. A moment when the ground shifted. That story matters to the Commission.
The more of us who submit, the more weight the Commission's final report will carry — and the more seriously Australian institutions will be asked to respond. This is a moment the community will be asked about for a long time: whether we used it or whether we let it pass.
12,500 submissions
Community goal
31 May 2o26
Submissions close
90 minutes
To write and submit
1 paragraph
Is enough
A few things worth knowing
The real questions, answered
-
No name, no address, nothing identifying — if that's what you need. Your submission goes directly to the Royal Commission, not to a website and not to the media.
-
You write with the friends and family around you. Our volunteer leaders are on a live Q&A throughout the 45 minutes — anything a host needs, we're there.
-
The Commission isn't looking for a legal brief. They're looking for your experience, in your words. If you can describe what happened in three sentences, you've done what matters.
-
Submissions stay open until the end of May. You can return and add to yours at any point before the deadline. The night is a starting point, not a one-shot.
-
You can step back at any time. No one will push you. Volunteers from Jewish Care and Jewish House will be on hand through the evening if support is needed.
-
Nothing. We send a short host guide the week before — one page, eight minutes to read. You just need your home, a kettle, and ten people who'd come when you asked.
If you're on the fence, it's probably for one of these reasons. Here's where we land on each - and our team is on email if you want to talk it through.
Need support?
If you know someone who should be part of this —
forward this to them.
A friend. A parent. A neighbour. An adult child. The cousin who lives interstate. Numbers matter, and the community is built one home at a time.