Young Jewish students are being taught how to navigate “difficult conversations” they may be forced to have as they grow up, and are forced to hide their religious identity during school excursions for fear of antisemitic violence.

The growing safety risk to Jewish schoolchildren was laid bare on Tuesday when the [Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion](https://archive.is/o/pkKnk/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/if-i-wanted-to-succeed-would-i-have-to-again-hide-part-of-myself-antisemitism-royal-commission-hears-of-lost-livelihoods/news-story/98e21a1fe7a8e04e0bec5ad1e38aceec) heard [confronting testimony](https://archive.is/o/pkKnk/https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/i-was-scared-for-my-life-at-sydney-mardi-gras-man-tells-antisemitism-inquiry/news-story/242349ba059f3f6621769c9eb2cae49d) from Jewish leaders from across the nation. 

Bialik College board president Tyson Wodak told the commission his children were among those learning about the tough conversations Jews face and the nature of “the world they live in”. 

He said students at Bialik were also told not to wear their uniforms – which would identify them as Jewish – when going on excursions after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

“I fear a lot … about the impact of constant security on my kids’ attitude to living in Australia and on the way they understand Australian society and their role in it,” Mr Wodak said.

“My kids have spent their whole lives living under security,” he added, visibly emotional.

Annual tuition for the independent school includes an $840 security levy. Mr Wodak said the levy had risen more than 230 per cent since 2023. 

When asked if he was hoping to get more government funding for security, Mr Wodak said: “I don’t want more security funding. I want less need for security. No one wants their children having armed guards around them every day.”

Mount Scopus Memorial College is another Jewish school forced to charge parents a security levy. 

Principal Dan Sztrajt told the royal commission the security levy was $1130 in 2025, up more than 100 per cent from $500 in 2020.

Mr Sztrajt recalled seeing the words “Jew die” graffitied in huge letters across the front entrance to the school’s main campus. He said they replaced the hateful vandalism with the Australian flag and Hebrew words that translated to “Jewish people live”.

He said Mount Scopus had recorded more than 130 incidents of antisemitism since 2022, including numerous hateful letters sent to the school. These included slurs, antisemitic tropes related to money, dehumanised pictures of Jews – including characters with horns and unnaturally large noses – and images of the yellow Star of David Nazis forced Jews to wear.

Central Synagogue chief Rabbi Levi Wolff was similarly devastated at how often his community had been attacked. Tearing up, he told the commission about a particularly distressing message.

“Somebody had anonymously placed a mezuzah, which is a Jewish little box that stands on the frame of a home, anonymously in my letterbox, with a note with it that said, ‘I am afraid to have this. I’m afraid to have this on my door. Please pass it on to somebody who’s brave enough and who needs it’,” he said.

“That note has stayed with me. In Australia, no one should have to have courage to simply place a symbol of their faith on the doorpost of their very own home.”

Rabbi Wolff said he was sick of seeing children afraid to go to school and synagogues deemed unsafe. “My children, as all Jewish children in this country, are growing up attending schools where they have armed guards in front of their schools and their houses of worship, and that’s normal. But they are not normal, and we should never allow this to become Australia’s normal.”

Adass Israel Synagogue board member Benjamin Klein said he’d watched his community withdraw and close off in recent years.

“(In the past) when kids would go on excursions from school, there was no coordinating. There was no discussion around what type of security measures we have in place. It wasn’t a conversation. It was just normal life,” he said.

Mr Klein said the synagogue put locks on doors, installed CCTV cameras and hired private security guards. He recalled people driving by the synagogue and yelling “F the Jews” and “You belong to the gas chambers” out their window. He said this constant harassment was pushing Jewish Australians to move to Israel, despite the safety risks, including his own daughter.

“You have to think to yourself … why are rational, successful accountants, lawyers, doctors picking themselves up and moving to Israel? And the answer is they just don’t feel safe.”

Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors & Descendants president George Foster said he was concerned about the vilification of Zionism. 

“There’s an important distinction between criticising the policies of a government and denying the legitimacy of the state’s existence. No other nation is routinely expected to justify its continued existence,” he said

Young Jews told to hide in fear