Waverley to co-host national antisemitism summit

Waverley Council is set to co-host a major national summit on antisemitism in the lead-up to the first anniversary of the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Mayor Will Nemesh will move a mayoral minute at next Tuesday’s council meeting calling for Waverley to join with the NSW and Commonwealth governments to help stage the National Local Government Summit on Social Cohesion and Antisemitism.

The conference, convened by Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), will be held on November 26 and 27 and will bring together mayors, councillors, senior officers and community representatives to explore best-practice approaches to social cohesion.

“The devastating terror attack at Bondi Beach on December 14 laid bare the urgent need for all levels of government to work together with the community to combat antisemitism,” Nemesh said.

“All Australians have a role to play in how we move forward in our communities, our workplaces and our schools.”

CAM public affairs officer Sheina Gutnick, whose father Reuven Morrison was killed in the Bondi Beach attack, said the summit carried profound personal and national significance.

“Holding this summit in Bondi, in the weeks before the first anniversary of the attack that took my father’s life, is a deliberate and powerful statement,” Gutnick said.

“This is the community that bore the cost of antisemitism in its most brutal form, and this is where the national response has to deepen.

“My father was killed because of hatred that was allowed to grow unchecked. If this summit is to mean anything, it has to confront that hatred at its source.”

In March last year, Waverley Council adopted a national-first Strategy to Combat Antisemitism. Council then launched the Model Strategy in August, a template other councils can draw from to craft their own approaches.

Nemesh has been invited to speak on these policies at the summit.

CAM senior advisor Alex Polson said the Bondi summit would scale a national movement already underway.

“Since the Gold Coast summit last September, councils from every state and territory have stepped up, adopting strategies, passing resolutions and building partnerships with their local communities,” Polson said.

“The Bondi summit turns that grassroots momentum into a coordinated national framework and, for the first time, brings every tier of government into the room.”

Alongside council and the state and federal governments, the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism would also act as co-host.

If the mayoral minute is successful, council will support the summit by providing in-kind support in the form of officer time only, with no direct financial contribution required.