A high-profile witness has told a royal commission that antisemitism is a “virus” which has evolved over time, with aggressors on the far right and far left side of politics.
Dozens of people appeared this week at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in Sydney to share their experiences of antisemitism in schools, workplaces and the community.
The inquiry was called after 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi on December 14, 2025.
Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia, Jillian Segal AO, on Thursday said the fastest growing form of antisemitism in Australia was the conflation of criticism of the Israeli regime with the Jewish community.
Ms Segal said some appeared to believe it was “fashionable” to adopt such views, saying education was needed to address the issue.
“We have to move the thinking and the culture of the country,”
she said.
Ms Segal said she had noticed a shift since the Bondi attack, and there appeared to be greater recognition of concerns which had been raised by the Jewish community since October 2023.
“What the Jewish community was experiencing and complaining about … wasn’t a collection of isolated incidents,” she said.
“It was very real and very dangerous to the country.”
Health worker feared surgery
AAV told the royal commission of incidents she experienced as a NSW Health staff member and patient. (Supplied)
A Jewish NSW Health worker said she considered cancelling her knee surgery after becoming “paralysed” with fear in the wake of two nurses making threats against Israeli patients.
The NSW Health midwife and nurse manager, known as AAV, was one of several to give evidence to the commission using pseudonyms to protect their identity.
She said she was subject to “under the breath” insults and offensive comments from colleagues in the wake of October 7, 2023, when 1,200 people were killed during a Hamas attack in Israel.
She said the hostage situation for Jewish people was “very personal”, with one of her own cousins captured in Gaza in October 2023 before his body was returned to Israel earlier this year.
She told the royal commission her manager asked her to remove posters she had placed on her desk calling for the freeing of Israeli hostages, due to the “likelihood of [the images] upsetting or offending other people in the workplace”.
People would pass her in the corridor of the clinic and say “shame on you” and “you must be really ashamed to belong to a group of child killers”, she told the inquiry.
She said she experienced “the worst 24 hours of [her life]” after two NSW nurses were accused of making a video threatening Israeli patients in February 2025.
The woman was due to have knee surgery she had been waiting 15 months for and said she seriously considered cancelling the operation after imagining “all the ways [she] may be killed” while in hospital.
“I was paralysed with fear,”
she said.
The woman said she requested precautions to make her feel safe, including the presence of a family member while she was under anaesthesia, the removal of her religion from her health record and the presence of a Jewish doctor during surgery.
She said her sons brought her kosher meals instead of requesting some from the hospital, in an effort to disguise her religion.
‘Devastating’ loss of Jewish cafe
A grandmother has told the royal commission on antisemitism that the loss of her business to an alleged attack was “devastating”. (ABC News)
A Jewish cafe owner earlier told the royal commission on antisemitism of the “devastating” loss of her business to a fire in an alleged attack.
Grandmother Judith Lewis established Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in 1970 alongside her husband, with the Bondi cafe offering a kosher takeaway food option to the Jewish community.
Judith and Karyn Lewis told the royal commission about the impact of the family deli’s closure. (Supplied)
The deli was destroyed in a fire in October 2024, with a man charged with damage property by fire/explosion in relation to the incident.
Ms Lewis said it was one of few kosher delis in the city, meaning it became a “communal centre” for people to meet and its closure had been felt by the Jewish community.
“It really has restricted the flexibility for people to eat like normal, un-Jewish people,” she said.
“For us it’s devastating because we’re not seeing all our friends. The customers very much became friends.”
Australia’s national security agency ASIO later said it was believed the Iranian regime was behind the incident.
The commission moved behind closed doors for part of Ms Lewis’s evidence, with the material unable to be reported.
Firefighters responding to a cafe on fire in Bondi on October 20. (ABC News)
The commission also heard why a Melbourne Jewish junior football club decided to run de-escalation training for players and parents to prepare for antisemitic incidents on the field post-October 7, 2023.
Australian Jewish Amateur Association Football Club (AJAX) president Daniel Onas said the “unprecedented” number of incidents since then had taken a toll on club.
Examples included instances of opposition players refusing to shake hands at the end of a game, another player removing an AJAX team member’s kippah on the field, and players being subject to antisemitic slurs.
“It’s a very difficult thing for young kids to endure,”
Mr Onas said.
“Do I want to play? Am I comfortable? Am I safe? These are all things our players have to consider.”
Mr Onas said the South Metro Junior Football League had implemented a “more robust” anti-vilification policy, which had been welcomed.
‘I feel cancelled’
Sydney woman Stephanie Cunio has worked in the trade union and climate justice sector for more than three decades.
Stephanie Cunio says she hasn’t always felt supported by friends and colleagues. (ABC News: Max Tillman)
She said she received hundreds of messages of support from friends and colleagues in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, but not after the deaths in Israel on October 7, 2023.
“It was a double-edged sword. [The support after the Bondi shooting] was welcome, but where was it before and where was it for the people that died [in Israel]?”
Ms Cunio said she had shared her colleagues’ fears about how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might retaliate to the Hamas attack, but felt she would be “cancelled” unless she denounced her ties to the country of Israel.
“The word Israel is used as a demonised word,” she told the inquiry.
“They’re talking about the regime but when I see the Israeli flag cancelled, I feel cancelled.
“When I think about Israel, I think about the beauty of the country … all the good people.”
Michael Gawenda says it is “important that these stories are being told”. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)
Former newspaper editor of The Age Michael Gawenda said he was concerned about how media outlets reported on antisemitism in Australia.
He questioned why “the ABC and other outlets” did not adequately cover the impact of antisemitism on Jewish communities.
“The excuse can’t be they didn’t have the staff to do it,” he told the inquiry.
“That’s why it’s so important that these stories are being told at the commission.”
Man wears swastika shirt outside antisemitism royal commission
While the hearings had largely proceeded without incident, a man was moved on from outside the tribunal yesterday after police said he was wearing “clothing which allegedly displayed an offensive slogan on the front”.
The 68-year-old was later charged with behave in offensive manner in/near public place/school and cause prohibited Nazi symbol to be displayed in public place.
More on the royal commission