'I’m not sure I see a future for Jews in this country'

Giving chilling testimony, Australian Jews unsure antisemitism inquiry can bring change

Royal commission launched after Bondi massacre hears accounts of harassment, threats and fear as Jewish community fears unprecedented post-Oct. 7 surge in hate could be here to stay

MELBOURNE, Australia — Josh Gomperts became a paramedic because he wanted to help people in distress. But after years of volunteering with Hatzolah, Melbourne’s Jewish volunteer ambulance service, the 31-year-old found himself testifying before Australia’s royal commission into antisemitism about the abuse he endured while serving the public.

Gomperts told the commission about the time a 90-year-old patient performed a Nazi salute at him after noticing his kippa, and about a regional Australian music festival where, while he was volunteering as a paramedic, a volunteer firefighter threatened to skin him alive after realizing he was Jewish.

His testimony is among dozens now being heard by Australia’s royal commission into antisemitism, established by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese following the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre in Sydney, in which 15 people were slaughtered by gun-wielding terrorists while gathering to celebrate the holiday.

A royal commission is Australia’s highest form of public inquiry, with sweeping powers to compel witnesses and documents. Its findings often shape Australian law and policy.

The hearings have become a rare public forum for Australian Jews to describe how antisemitism has reshaped life in the aftermath of the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and the subsequent war against the terror group in Gaza.

Two weeks of public hearings are now underway, with Jewish Australians and other witnesses giving evidence before the commission. Further blocks of hearings are expected later this year, and the commission is due to hand down its final report by December 11, just before the first anniversary of the attack.

Gomperts, who testified online from his Melbourne home, told The Times of Israel, “I came forward with my story because I don’t want to sit idly by if change is possible.”

At the same time, he remains uncertain whether the commission’s recommendations will be enough to stem the surge of antisemitism that Australian Jews have been experiencing.

“I’d love to see a more unified Australia where we all live in peace and don’t feel like we are harassed. But I’m also not sure I see a future for Jews in this country at the moment,” Gomperts said.

Sheina Gutnick, whose father Reuven Morrison was murdered at the Bondi Hanukkah gathering, was the first witness to testify before the royal commission.

After the prime minister initially rejected calls to establish a royal commission, Gutnick helped lead a weeks-long public pressure campaign urging the government to reconsider.

In her testimony, Gutnick described being verbally abused in a shopping center while holding her baby and wearing her Star of David necklace, when a stranger pointed to the star and called her a “fucking terrorist.”

Gutnick, who has become one of the most high-profile Australians speaking out about antisemitism since Bondi, hopes her testimony will serve as a wake-up call.

“I think this is an opportune and prime moment to have our voices heard by the Australian community and to hear what it’s been like for Australian Jews for the last two and a half years and for that to be a catalyst to inspire change,” she said.

Jew-hatred follows Hamas Oct. 7 onslaught

The inquiry heard from witnesses about the impact on the Jewish community of antisemitic chants during a protest against the war in Gaza outside Sydney’s Opera House in October 2023, shortly after the Hamas massacre in Israel.

Jewish community groups recorded 2,062 antisemitic incidents in 2024 alone. However, the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting brought the issue of Jew hatred firmly into public consciousness.

Sajid Akram and son Naveed are accused of opening fire as Jewish families thronged Bondi Beach for a Hanukkah celebration in December, carrying out Australia’s deadliest mass shooting for 30 years.

The royal commission is not expected to hear detailed evidence from many Bondi survivors or relatives of those killed who were present on the night of the attack, due to the pending criminal proceedings against Naveed Akram, one of the two Bondi shooters.

The commission has been careful not to interfere with the upcoming terrorism and murder trial, meaning much of the evidence surrounding the attack itself will likely be dealt with through the criminal justice process expected later this year.

Overseen by retired Australian High Court judge Virginia Bell, the commission handed down an interim report last week outlining 14 recommendations, including stronger security protections at high-risk Jewish events and a nationally consistent firearms agreement, alongside a proposed gun buyback scheme. Five recommendations were withheld from the public report on national security grounds.

The report also raised serious concerns about failures in intelligence sharing and counterterror coordination in the lead-up to the Bondi attack, while acknowledging that Australian authorities could not have prevented the massacre.

“The sharp spike of antisemitism that we have witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other Western countries and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East,” inquiry chief Bell said in opening remarks.

“It’s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they are Jews.”

Thousands volunteer to testify on antisemitic events

Those appearing before the commission first submitted written accounts of their experiences and were later contacted to provide further testimony if they indicated they were open to doing so. To date, more than 5,000 submissions have been received, detailing lived experiences of antisemitism, including more than 1,000 from non-Jewish Australians.

Witnesses called to the royal commission may testify under their full names, first names only, or anonymously using pseudonyms.

The evidence heard so far has often been harrowing.

A Jewish school president described how the security measures now required at her school have made it feel more like a prison than a place of learning. A Jewish businessman spoke about being racially abused for wearing a kippa. Another witness recalled sitting at the Australian Open tennis tournament beside a stranger who lamented that more Jews had not been killed at Bondi.

Rabbi Benjamin Elton of Sydney’s historic Great Synagogue also testified about his community’s experience of antisemitism. He described how a caravan discovered in Sydney, initially feared to contain explosives, allegedly contained a handwritten note reading “fuck the Jews” alongside the address of his synagogue.

Although Elton found testifying before the commission challenging, he said he felt compelled to appear.

“I was very grateful to be able to share the story of the Great Synagogue, its members, and my family’s own experience of antisemitism since October 2023. It was very confronting to recount everything that has happened, but this truth-telling is essential if we are to correct this terrible situation for our Australian society,” he told The Times of Israel.

A woman who works with a Jewish security group recounted having to escort people to safety from a Melbourne synagogue in November 2023 on the anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom, as a “mob” of around 30 people dressed in black, their faces masked, appeared.

Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia and one of the country’s most prominent Jewish communal leaders, also testified in person this week at the royal commission in Sydney.

For Leibler, the decision came down to his concerns about the future of Jewish life in Australia.

“As both a community leader and a father, I felt a responsibility to give evidence to the Royal Commission,” said Leibler.

“I grew up in an Australia where being Jewish was something you could live openly and confidently, and I want my children to have that same experience. What many in our community are feeling now is a real erosion of that sense of security and belonging,” he said.

— AFP contributed to this report.