Bondi royal commission live updates: Jewish Australians share harrowing lived experiences of anti-Semitism

Ben says he grew up in Bondi and is relating a story about his parents from 2013.

He says they were walking home from synagogue with his brother and some friends on a Friday night when they were set upon and bashed by a group wielding weapons.

“They were severely injured,” he says.

He says he found out via a news article after recognising his brother.

He lived in Melbourne and his parents didn’t have their phones becuase they were orthodox Jews practising Shabbat.

He says his daughter, who was quite young at the time, remembers it as the first time she saw him cry.

A new witness, also appearing under a pseudonym, Ben, has taken the stand.

AAM says “many people we know” are wondering if it’s time to leave Australia.

“A lot of us don’t feel safe here, we don’t feel welcome anymore,” they say.

“We thought things might be challenging.

“We never expected synagogues to be burned down, we never expected to be hunted on Bondi beach.

“There is so much fear and so much anxiety. All of us are nervous and worried about what could possibly come next.

“There’s something coming and we all know it. We all knew that Bondi was going to happen - it was not a surprise.”

AAM also says their own family has made the difficult decision to relocate to Israel.

“We don’t feel safe here, we don’t feel welcome,” they say.

“We feel safer in a war zone.”

Their 13-year-old daughter is heading to Israel for school because it’s safer to be there than here.

They say the lucky ones pack their stuff into boxes to relocate - the unlucky ones go with just the clothes on their back.

They say “we’re not here yet” in Australia. But it’s coming.

AAM is still on the stand.

They are describing a horrifying incident where someone shouted ‘you f...ing Jew c..t’ at their children on a bus.

They say it has affected their daughter’s behaviour and mindset when it comes to going out in public.

Police told them there was not a reasonable prospect of prosecution so they would not pursue charges.

The royal commission is taking a quick break.

We’ll be back with you as soon as proceedings resume.

AAM says the wall outside the school their children attended was defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti saying “Jew die”.

When asked how their children responded to it, AAM says sadly, that sort of thing was “just normal”.

They described the heavily armed police, bollard and “high-tech security equipment” their children faced when going to school every day.

AAM says after helping out at the Melbourne synagogue they helped out at another synagogue that was being evacuated.

When they got home, they stopped and asked themselves “how did we get here?”.

“That park is where I pushed my kids on the swing,” they say.

“It’s now the park that that happened.”

AAM also says they rarely go to synagogue anymore because they “don’t feel comfortable”.

AAM says they moved their family to Australia because of the rise of anti-Semitism in the UK.

“We saw Australia as being a safe haven,” they say.

“We loved it, we really did.”

AAM says they work with the Community Security Group in Victoria - a group that provides security to Jewish synagogues, schools and Jewish functions.

AAM says in November 2023 they were conducting security outside a synagogue in Melbourne.

They were told there was to be a protest at the burger restaurant down the road from the synagogue.

They said there was “trouble” there.

“It was chaos. It was a riot in the street,” they say.

AAM says they had a chat with a suspicious person who was watching the synagogue that night with their husband, who was also working.

“I said ‘What brings you here this evening’?”

He replied that he was there for the protest “against the f...ing Jews”.

They says they became aware of a group of 20-30 people with black masks and face covering.

“I thought ‘something’s going down here’,” they say.

People started coming out of the synagogue and “it was mayhem”.

“I’d never seen anything like this before,” they say.

It was their job to move people quickly out of the synagogue after it was evacuated.

They hurried the synagogue attendees along and told anyone in a keffiyah or in a pro-Palestine t-shirt to “move away” or “back off”.

We’re having a short pause while the witness makes their way to the stand.

They say a substitute teacher at a school their granddaughter was studying at performed a series of nazi salutes in the classroom.

They say the incident was reported and the principal responded well, but nothing appeared to happen.

They claim the teacher still works at that school.

“It’s affected her profoundly,” they say.

The granddaughter was taken out of the school and now goes to a Jewish school.

“This is not the Australia that I chose to call home. This is not the Australia that I thought my grandchildren would grow up in,” they say.

AAL’s voice trembled as they made this statement.

“I love Australia,” they say.

“I have to admit, things have changed. I really have to think very, very seriously whether this is the country for my grandchildren.”

They say unless the root cause of anti-Semitism at schools, mosques and public gatherings is “absolutely, totally stamped out, this country has no hope”.