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<\/p>\nJewish author Michael Gawenda has lost friends and work opportunities because of “Jew hatred”.<\/p>\n
His experience will help examine the spread of antisemitism in Australia by the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which will hear members of the Jewish community in public sessions beginning in Sydney this week.<\/p>\n
It comes after Commissioner Virginia Bell on Thursday delivered her interim report on the inquiry, making 14 recommendations aimed at improving Australia’s counterterrorism capability.<\/p>\n
More than 5,700 people have already made submissions to the commission, which was announced the month after 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah event at Archer Park in Bondi on December 14.<\/p>\n
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Michael Gawenda says he has experienced “Jew hatred” in the community. (Supplied: Michael Gawenda)<\/p>\n
In his submission to the inquiry, former editor of The Age, Mr Gawenda, spoke of his experience with antisemitism in the aftermath of the attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023, in which more than 1,200 people were killed by Hamas.<\/a><\/p>\n He had been promoting his book My Life as a Jew in Melbourne at the time, and said many of his bookstore events were cancelled.<\/p>\n “Bookshops, it seemed, were keen to have me. But after October 7, these were cancelled, mostly on the basis that staff at the bookshops did not feel safe to have a Jewish book featured this way,” he wrote in his submission.<\/p>\n “What I experienced at first was not hatred but a sort of hostility towards Jews that I had never experienced before, certainly not in my professional life.<\/p>\n “I did not get invited to any of the major writers’ festivals, not Melbourne, not Sydney and not Adelaide.<\/p>\n “My book had won the major Jewish literary prize in Australia but apparently was not interesting enough or ‘appropriate’ for these festivals.”<\/p>\n ‘Friendships ended’ More than 3,500 submissions are already before the royal commission. (ABC News: Mary Lloyd)<\/p>\n Mr Gawenda said he also experienced antisemitism in his personal life.<\/p>\n “For me, friendships ended,” he said.<\/p>\n “People I mentored did not contact me, not even when the physical attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions were growing, when it was clear that Jew hatred was becoming more pronounced.<\/p>\n “I had lived my life in the public sphere, as an Australian journalist and editor and later as a journalism educator, but I was being reduced to a Zionist supporter of a genocidal Israel.”<\/p>\n Closed door hearings flagged Virginia Bell presents the governor-general with the interim report on the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. (ABC News: Stuart Carnegie)<\/p>\n Hearings will continue until May 15, with further sessions to be held over the next five months.<\/p>\n Commissioner Bell said some hearings may be held behind closed doors to discuss sensitive evidence on matters of intelligence and national security, and material which could prejudice ongoing criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/11521d73bc54160515f976b36e3ef8a1.jpeg\")
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