Security at a Melbourne Jewish school that was graffitied with the words \u201cJew die\u201d is costing $3000 per student, the principal has told the anti-Semitism royal commission.<\/p>\n
Mount Scopus Memorial College principal Dan Sztrajt fronted the Royal Commission on anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion on Tuesday, telling of the financial and emotional toll on families to feel safe.<\/p>\n
In May 2024, the Jewish kindergarten to year 12 school was graffitied with the words \u201cJew die\u201d. A student was filming a TikTok on the weekend as they drove past; that video alerted the community to the graffiti.<\/p>\n
Melbourne Jewish schools collectively decided in 2015 to arm their security guards following a fatal terrorist attack at a French school.<\/p>\n
However, Mount Scopus has recorded an escalating number of anti-Semitic incidents since October 2023 and continues to intensify its security arrangements.<\/p>\n
Mr Sztrajt told the commission the security levy parents paid had gone from $500 in 2022 to $1130 in 2025, but the true cost of all security operations and capital expenditure was running more than $3000 per student.<\/p>\n
The school had worked with security advisers for years, but now had a full-time on-campus security adviser with counter-terrorism experience, Mr Sztrajt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have a school where students can safely go on an excursion and not need know that someone else is worried about their security so that they can get on with being proud of who they are, wear their uniform with pride hold their head up. That is absolutely essential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The time spent on security instead of furthering the students and staff \u201cpains me tremendously\u201d, Mr Sztrajt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d have to say that at least 10 to 15 per cent of almost every one of my days as school principal is focused on security matters, not on education, not on student wellbeing, not on teacher professional development but on are we able to run this excursion? Can this happen?<\/p>\n
\u201cOr we might not want to go around these parts of Melbourne because they\u2019re possibly considered too dangerous for our students at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melbourne\u2019s Mount Scopus College has formally recorded 131 anti-Semitic incidents since January 1, 2022, though Mr Sztrajt says this figure would be much higher if parents felt the need to report everything.<\/p>\n
In response to the 2024 graffiti incident, the school hoisted an Australian flag, and a flag with a Hebrew message saying \u201cJewish people live\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew that every single one of our students coming into school that day would be looking for the graffiti that they\u2019d seen on social media,\u201d Mr Sztrajt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd what we wanted them confronted with was, no, you are proud Australians, and you should be proud that, you know, here you are living in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are no media reports of the May 2024 vandal being arrested or charged, and NewsWire has contacted Victoria Police.<\/p>\n
Israel safer than Australia<\/p>\n
Melbourne families are migrating to Israel over continual anti-Semitic abuse in Australia.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Klein, who sits on the board of Melbourne\u2019s Adass Israel Synagogue, which was firebombed in December 2024, told the inquiry \u201cgood Aussie people\u201d were leaving because of hatred.<\/p>\n
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Mr Klein said some Jewish Australian families see Israel as safer than Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s two people from my son\u2019s class who have picked themselves up and moved to Israel. Those stories never used to happen. We never heard of that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, people were proud to live in Melbourne. They were part of the Australian community. But now there\u2019s good Aussie people picking up themselves up and moving to Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s weird because if you think to yourself, Israel is not necessarily a safe place, there\u2019s lots going on there and there\u2019s these wars \u2026 it\u2019s quite a scary place, but they\u2019re still picking themselves up from Melbourne and moving to Israel,\u201d Mr Klein said.<\/p>\n
The ultra orthodox Jewish Australian community had seen a marked increase in anti-Semitic abuse since the end of 2023, he said.<\/p>\n
The Adass synagogue could well be the busiest in the southern hemisphere, Mr Klein told the commission, but many devotees still did not feel safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to think to yourself, why are people doing that (leaving for Israel)? Why are rational, successful accountants, lawyers, doctors picking themselves up and moving to Israel? \u201cAnd the answer is they just don\u2019t feel safe. They just don\u2019t feel self safe.\u201d Mr Klein said.<\/p>\n
The December 2024 firebombing is subject to an ongoing criminal court case, so details of the incident were not discussed at the royal commission.<\/p>\n
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has previously revealed Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ordered the firebombing.<\/p>\n
Anti-Jewish hate causes brain drain<\/p>\n
Central Synagogue Sydney Rabbi Levi Wolff said Australia was losing highly skilled citizens amid heightened anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n
Rabbi Wolff was asked if synagogue families had left Sydney recently. He said \u201cmany, many families\u201d had \u201cbrought properties and apartments in Israel\u201d. <\/p>\n
Counsel assisting the royal commission, Richard Lancaster SC, did not ask Rabbi Wolff to clarify his response.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m saddened that Australia is losing people who wanted nothing more than to build their life and to build and contribute to this beautiful country,\u201d Rabbi Wolff said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read an article a few weeks ago of a group of 100 doctors, 100 Jewish doctors, who came together to talk about plans of leaving this country.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia isn\u2019t just losing Jewish doctors. They\u2019re losing people who contribute to make this place what it is. We\u2019re looking for doctors in this country losing professionals and business owners, community builders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Central Synagogue has been doing surveys of members to gauge and collate anti-Semitic incidents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m quoting all this from their response; \u2018I declined to put my religion on my admission form at a time when I felt most vulnerable and at the mercy of others, I felt the need to shield myself by not openly identifying as a Jew\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another respondent felt unsafe putting a religious symbol above their front door.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Australia, no one should have to have courage to simply place a symbol of their faith on the doorpost of their very own home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The vilification of Jewish Australians, Rabbi Wolff said, was an insult to hundreds of years of history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we want Australians to stand with the Jewish community, they must first understand the Jewish community. Jews have been part of this country since the First Fleet in 1788. They have served in our armed forces and thousands have paid the ultimate price. <\/p>\n
\u201cJews have built and advanced medicine and law, science, education and philanthropy. We are a tiny community, but one that has always sought to contribute far more than our size. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that is why I remain, commissioner, very optimistic. I\u2019m optimistic because I\u2019ve now lived here almost 30 years and I\u2019ve experienced extraordinary decency and fairness and generosity from normal great Aussies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabbi Wolff said since October 2023, many Jewish Australians felt the need to justify their right to live here.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine having to walk around and get abused in the street for just being a member of a faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Rabbi Wolff visits family back in New York, he says Jews in the US are shocked at the state of affairs in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last three and a half years, I cannot tell you, commissioner, how many comments people tell me as soon as I say I\u2019m from Australia, the first thing is \u2018what\u2019s going on in Australia, what\u2019s happened to Australia?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is such a shock for people in the States to hear of the level of anti-Semitism that exists in this country. It\u2019s a very sad reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Virginia Bell asked Rabbi Wolff whether \u201cpeople who are protesting, on behalf of Palestinians\u2019 right to self-determination, are not expressing a value that is inconsistent with Australian values?\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabbi Wolff said: \u201cI often hear people say, I\u2019m not anti-Jewish. I\u2019m simply anti-Zionist. And in the same breath, in the same breath, they deny the Jewish people\u2019s spiritual, historical and indigenous connection to their ancestral land.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it\u2019s almost like saying I\u2019m not racist against Aboriginal Australians; I absolutely love you, I just simply don\u2019t believe that you have any cultural or historical connection to this land.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rabbi Wolff also equated criticism of the Israeli regime with intimidation of Australian Jews.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen crowds march through the streets of Sydney and Melbourne and everywhere else in this beautiful country and chant, \u2018Death to Israel, death to the IDF\u2019, Jewish Australians do not hear a nuanced political debate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey hear threats directed to their families and to their communities, and hatred expressed in the streets rarely stays in the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cHatred spreads into classrooms, it spreads into universities, into workplaces where people in my community have to think twice about wearing a Star of David when they go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rabbi Wolff then drew a link between these attitudes and the Bondi Beach terror attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWords shape culture and culture shapes behaviour. And behaviour left unchecked becomes violent. And I saw that on the streets and on the beaches of Bondi. So if it\u2019s left unchecked, there are 15 beautiful souls that are unfortunately not here today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Sadly, that came true\u2019<\/p>\n
The son of Holocaust survivors and a leader in Sydney\u2019s Jewish community sees \u201cdisturbing parallels in the social atmosphere\u201d between Australian anti-Semitism and Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n
South Sydney Synagogue president George Foster made the comparison while giving evidence at the royal commission on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sometimes asked whether I believe that Australia is becoming another Germany in the 1930s. Now, my answer is no,\u201d Dr Foster said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia\u2019s democratic institutions, legal system and civilian, civil society are fundamentally different. However, as the son of survivors and president of the (Holocaust Survivors) association, and the synagogue, I can\u2019t ignore certain disturbing parallels in the social atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n
These parallels include \u201cthe exclusion of Jews from parts of public life, the normalisation of anti-Semitic language, dehumanising descriptions of Jews, conspiracy theories, the resurgence of anti-Semitic tropes, attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses, and fear about displaying Jewish identity publicly\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile these were policies of Nazi Germany and encouraged by the Nazis, they\u2019re not policies and never have been policies of the Australian government. They\u2019re not the Holocaust today, but they are warning signs that Holocaust survivors recognise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decades of relatively minor attacks, but also more physically damaging attacks, on the Southern Sydney Synagogue were aired at the royal commission on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Soon after the first Iraq war ended in early 1991, \u201cfour or five\u201d Sydney synagogues were attacked, Dr Foster said, including the Bankstown temple which ultimately led to the congregation being dissolved.<\/p>\n
In August 1993, the Southern Sydney Synagogue was attacked with petrol bombs, and in early 1995, the synagogue was graffitied with swastikas and bricks thrown through windows.<\/p>\n
In May 2001, there was an unsuccessful attempt to firebomb the synagogue. In April 2002, more graffiti was sprayed on the synagogue.<\/p>\n
In January 2025, the synagogue was graffitied with the words \u201cHitler on top Allah\u201d, \u201cF**k Jews\u201d and \u201cFree Palestine\u201d and swastikas. Two men have been arrested and charged.<\/p>\n
Dr Foster, a psychologist by trade, remembers telling the media in the wake of the January 2025 graffiti that the recurrence of anti-Semitic incidents would turn deadly. Later that year, 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I was very angered that such a thing could happen. I had never imagined that my own synagogue would be repeatedly targeted like this, and in particular with this sort of (Nazi) graffiti,\u201d he told the commission<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to add, though, that despite all of those things and the subsequent anxiety that it has resulted in, I felt at the time a clear determination not to be intimidated.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of my distress, I guess, and the atmosphere at the time in the country, I remember distinctly, answering one media question, saying that \u2018if something isn\u2019t done about the atmosphere, about the anti-Semitism at the time, then someone is going to die\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now this is back in January 2025. Sadly, that came true,\u201d Dr Foster said.<\/p>\n
More to come<\/p>\n