Shoah lesson for bus offender

ONE of the youths responsible for the anti-Semitic taunts against young Jewish students travelling home from school last August, was this week given a tour of the Sydney Jewish Museum and met a Holocaust survivor.

The teenager was among six boys who had boarded the bus at Queens Park and started abusing students from Mount Sinai College, Moriah College and the Emanuel School.

According to reports, they yelled “Heil Hitler” and threatened to slit the students’ throats.

During Monday’s two-hour guided tour, the teenager was given an explanation of how the Holocaust came about, beginning with isolating and demonising Jews and progressing to violence and ultimately genocide.

He was accompanied by his parents, a social worker and NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD) CEO Vic Alhadeff.

“He was attentive throughout and willing to learn and engage and to better understand that when people make racist and anti-Semitic comments, how wrong and hurtful it is,” Alhadeff commented.

“We felt the tour was important as the museum exposes one to a seminal aspect of the Jewish story and conveys most powerfully the end result of where racial hatred can lead.

“The student was affected in a thoughtful and positive way and was thoroughly engaged. One hopes he has come away with an appreciation of how hurtful the conduct on the bus was and that he will grow from this and go on to exert a positive influence on those around him.”

Alhadeff said the boy was also “very moved” to meet Holocaust survivor Kuba Enoch, 88, and to hear about his experiences.

Late last year, the minor attended a youth justice conference where he came face-to-face with a 12-year-old female victim of the attack.

Alhadeff said youth justice conferences are a constructive way of dealing with minor offenders as “they are confronted by those who have been impacted by their behaviour and hear directly from victims about the hurt they have caused”.

“It delivered a measure of restorative justice and will hopefully help the student turn his life around,” he said.

The teenager will also participate in JBOD’s “Respect, Understanding, Acceptance” harmony program for schools in May.

EVAN ZLATKIS