This week, Jewish Australians have spoken about how displays of hostility, discrimination and the Bondi terror attack have changed their lives and their feelings about their place in the community
The narrow benches of the public gallery are filled. They have come from all over to offer their testimony, to support friends, to give and receive comfort. They come too, to listen.
This, in this small, quiet room, is Australia’s attempt to reckon with the violent modern manifestation of an ancient bigotry.
“The sharp spike in antisemitism that we’ve witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other western countries and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East,” the commissioner, Virginia Bell, said on the first morning.
“It’s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they’re Jews: displays of hostility that are sometimes expressed in images and sentiments that can sometimes be traced back to the Middle Ages if not earlier.”
