Interfaith volunteer suspended

The AJN has been told a person responsible for filming an anti-Israel social media video inside a Melbourne synagogue during a school interfaith visit has been suspended from the Dandenong Interfaith Network.

The Melbourne synagogue, which does not wish to be identified for security reasons, has initiated a review after the volunteer, who described himself in the post as “Melbourne’s hardest wog”, filmed footage both outside the synagogue and inside the sanctuary during an educational visit coordinated by the City of Greater Dandenong Interfaith Network last week.

In the video, which has since been deleted, he made comments that appeared to conflate Orthodox Judaism with anti-Zionism. The post was removed from Instagram approximately one day after it was uploaded.

The synagogue’s president has advised members that the volunteer had been granted permission to film for “internal educational use only” but had taken a second, unauthorised video.

“Without knowledge of the school or of the Interfaith Network, the volunteer took a second video, while still on the shule premises, in which he expressed anti-Israel views,” the president wrote in a letter to congregants. “He uploaded that video to his social media page.”