July 21, 2026 — 3:59pm
Senior leaders of synagogues and private Jewish schools have told the antisemitism royal commission they want state and federal governments to pay more to protect their communities from increasing threats of violence.
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion heard on Tuesday that schools and synagogues employed armed guards, had increased the resilience of buildings to attack, and screened everyone coming onto the premises to protect their students from harm.
Dan Sztrajt, the principal of Melbourne Jewish school Mt Scopus, said about 30 per cent of the cost of security was met by state and federal government grants, and the rest by the community. Grants could not be used to pay security guards, which was the largest expense, he said.
The head of the Australian Council of Jewish Schools, Stephen Rothman, told the commission that “at least the recurrent expenditure on [security] guards and other operational recurrent expenditures should be funded by the federal government”.
