Jewish Australians Highlight Concerns Over School Environments in Antisemitism Inquiry

Jewish students are growing up in environments that resemble high-security facilities, living with the constant fear of potential abuse or violence, according to testimonies shared at an inquiry prompted by the Bondi terror incident.

On Monday, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion initiated a series of public hearings centered on the real-life experiences of Jewish Australians.

Stefanie Schwartz, president of the Mount Sinai College board, shared with the inquiry that her five-year-old daughter was present in Bondi during the attack and continues to suffer from significant trauma.

“Since the Bondi attack, the presence of security and police has become significantly more intense,” she explained.

“Passing by our school now, it resembles a penitentiary more than it does an elementary school.”

In January 2025, the school located in Maroubra, eastern Sydney, was defaced with graffiti labeling Jews as “terrorists” and “dogs.”

“It was clear that the intent was to intimidate children,” Schwartz said.

A nearby day care centre was destroyed in an arson attack that Schwartz said she believed was mistargeted and intended for her school.

“There’s always, unfortunately, been a need for security amongst Jewish Australians and Jewish institutions,” she said.

“But the frequency, the visibility, the intensity of these antisemitic attacks has fundamentally changed in the last few years, and the fact that this is being felt by the youngest and the most vulnerable — our children — is frankly, devastating.”

Other witnesses told the inquiry they felt intimidated and feared for their safety during pro-Palestinian rallies, which some compared to the historical persecution of Jews.

One of the witnesses appearing anonymously at the inquiry said the glass front door of an Israeli restaurant he was in was smashed by protesters in Melbourne in July 2025 while diners were observing the Jewish Shabbat.

Other witnesses blamed “radical Islam” for fuelling hatred against Jews and compared pro-Palestinian demonstrations to Nazi pogroms.

“Unless the root cause of antisemitism, which is a vitriolic, despicable preaching of antisemitic diatribes at schools, at mosques, at public gatherings, unless that is absolutely, totally stamped out, this country has no hope,” a man speaking under the pseudonym AAL said.

Another witness speaking under the pseudonym AAM said she considered Australia a “safe haven” when she moved from the United Kingdom.

“Precisely what we’re seeing in Australia now we saw in the UK many, many years ago,” AAM said.

“The rise in antisemitism, radical Islam, police doing nothing, government doing nothing.”

The first witness to give public evidence at the inquiry was Sheina Gutnick, the daughter of one of the Bondi terror attack victims. She recounted being abused for being Jewish while in a shopping centre with her baby.

Gutnick’s 62-year-old father Reuven Morrison was killed after hurling a brick at one of the gunmen involved in the 14 December attack that left 15 people dead.

Gutnick said in December 2024 — a year before Australia’s deadliest shooting since the Port Arthur massacre — she was walking through Westfield Bondi Junction with her baby when a man pointed at her Star of David necklace and called her a “f—ing terrorist”.

“I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe. There were many people around me, but no one intervened,” she said.

The commission’s initial hearing block will run until 15 May.

A second hearing block will run from 25 May to 12 June and probe the circumstances surrounding the Bondi terror attack, including the conduct of intelligence and law enforcement agencies before the assault.

A third hearing block will address a number of case studies of antisemitism with a particular focus on institutions and industries, including within the education sector.

The commission will hand down a final report before the end of the year.

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