Christmas Day pig’s head slur in Sydney
A PIG’S head was found hanging in a tree outside an apartment block in Bellevue Hill – home to several Jewish residents – on Christmas day.
A PIG’S head was found hanging in a tree outside an apartment block in Bellevue Hill – home to several Jewish residents – on Christmas day.
One of the residents of the small block called local police and the State Emergency Service, however ultimately she had to contact a friend to cut down the head.
She then called Woollahra Council to take it away.
Throughout European history, pig’s heads have been a symbol of anti-Semitism. The most recent incident was in August in 2010 when one was left outside a synagogue in Lithuania’s second-largest city, Kaunas, in an apparent neo-Nazi attack.
In November 2008, a bloody pig’s head was hung on the gates of a Jewish cemetery in Bild, Germany, next to a sheet daubed with the words “6 million lives”.
Reflecting on the Christmas day incident in Bellevue Hill, Executive Council of Australian Jewry executive director Peter Wertheim said the holiday season did not just bring out the best in people.
“Despite the general goodwill that prevails at this time of the year, Christmas and Easter are also occasions when a handful of creeps come out of the woodwork to give vent to their prejudices,” he said.
“They are invariably too cowardly to openly claim responsibility for this sort of a stunt.
“The community can have every confidence that the CSG is handling the matter appropriately.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff said the incident was unacceptable.
“Whatever the motivation which prompted this deed, such an act is intended to be unpleasant and has no place in Australian society,” Alhadeff said.
JOSHUA LEVI
Executive Council of Australian Jewry executive director Peter Wertheim
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