Standing up to be heard

Following the release last week of its interim report, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has this week got down to business.

There have been some concerns from members of the Jewish community as to the scope of the interim report, but as we have seen in the public hearings so far this week, there is much more to be said before Commissioner Virginia Bell tables her final document.

Many of the testimonies that have been given are truly heartbreaking.

A woman being told the alleged Bondi terrorists should have killed more Jews. Shouts of “f**k the Jews” and “kill the Jews” in a Jewish area of Melbourne on the anniversary of Kristallnacht. A man wearing a yarmulke being called a “dirty f**king pig Jew” and being spat on in the face.

Too many stories of public antisemitic abuse where bystanders did nothing. Synagogue staff reluctant to go to work. And a crying eight-year-old girl telling her mother, “When I come to Bondi, I think about dying.”