Real estate agent stood down

The Ray White Group has indefinitely stood down real estate agent Andrew Dimashki after an antisemitic social media comment he posted a year ago resurfaced last week.

The post, made while Dimashki was working at Harcourts, included the message: “The most Jew thing I’ve ever seen. Who builds a house at a sacred site? Yep, only a money hungry Jew. $$$$$ Child murdering [pig emoticon].”

The comments were brought to Ray White managing director Dan White’s attention on Thursday night after being shared by the Australian Jewish Association’s Instagram account.

“Obviously I was disgusted when I saw it,” White told The AJN.

“The fact that, when I saw the post, it also had the Ray White logo on the post that was obviously put there subsequently, it wasn’t on the original post. So all of a sudden, our name was being associated with such disgusting comments.”

The AJN has so far been unable to discover who placed the company’s logo on the original social media post.

White said the company made the decision last Friday to stand Dimashki down indefinitely. They are now seeking guidance from Jewish organisations to determine whether he could return and what conditions would need to be met.

“We’re seeking the assistance of organisations within the Jewish community to help us with that process, to understand what sort of things we should be considering, how do you assess if people are genuine and lasting in terms of being apologetic and remorseful, and what education is there,” White said.

He confirmed the company has reached out to the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Australian Jewish Association for assistance.

White acknowledged the company received immediate backlash when the posts surfaced.

“We were flooded with messages from early on Friday of obviously understandable, total outrage.”

He noted that while most Jewish community members he spoke with were comfortable with the company’s position, some believed Dimashki should have been terminated immediately.

“If Andrew had made those comments while he was a Ray White member, it would have been a pretty simple process to simply just terminate,” White explained.

Dimashki has acknowledged his actions, calling them “a very stupid decision”.

“I was reprimanded very heavily at the time, and it was a very dark period explaining myself to my close friends who are Jewish, who are very dear to me. I apologised at the time and I am still very sorry,” he said, adding that his office has since received threats.

White said the incident has prompted important discussions within the company.

“It has enabled us to have a lot of good discussions with many of our members and got us talking about this terrible issue of antisemitism more and what we can be doing.”