Jewish Australians have been told to use “less obviously Jewish” names, felt pressure to resign and been verbally abused by colleagues in the wake of 7 October 2023.
On its fourth day of public hearings, the antisemitism royal commission also heard evidence from Australia’s antisemitism envoy, who said hatred towards Jews had become “almost fashionable”, while a Sydney nurse said New South Wales Health was “not safe for Jewish people”.
The nurse manager and dual Australian-Israeli citizen, under the pseudonym AAV, said her fellow nurses had called her “Zionist scum” and she blamed NSW Health for failing to act.
“Having tolerated this behaviour, it means that the healthcare system is not only not safe for Jewish people; it’s potentially not safe for anyone that comes from some sort of diverse background,” she told the commission on Thursday.
After her cousin was taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October 2023, the nurse said she put posters of the hostages on her office wall and wore a necklace and yellow ribbon in their memory. She said her manager told her to remove them “because of the likelihood of them upsetting or offending other people”.
In early December 2025, her hospital’s media team rejected her request to share a “happy Hanukah” message similar to its Diwali and Christmas posts.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailAAV said Jewish friends had told her they were afraid to go to hospital, a fear she shared when she went to have knee surgery in February 2025 after reports two nurses at a Sydney hospital had threatened to kill Jewish patients.
“I spent probably the worst 24 hours of my life imagining all the ways I could be killed legitimately in a hospital, particularly in the operating theatre, from putting toxic drugs into an IV to overdosing me on anaesthetic,” she said. “I was paralysed with fear.”
Sarah, a clinical psychologist, said Jewish Australians were seeking psychological healthcare as they faced growing harassment, from children asking “why do they hate us?” to adult academics.
“I have so many people that I’m seeing currently that are not welcome any more in academic spaces or in places of profession,” she said.
Sarah, who did not share her surname, said she had faced that exclusion herself. She and other Jewish colleagues left a Facebook group of about 2,500 clinical psychologists, after some were accused of taking “the side of the oppressor” for asking the group to avoid discussing Israel.
“That no longer became a safe place for us,” Sarah said.
Jillian Segal, the government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, said young Australians had become especially hostile to Jewish people. Conflation of the Israeli government with Jewish people was Australia’s “fastest-growing” form of antisemitism, she said.
“It’s almost fashionable, so if someone that they follow online, an influencer, is of that view, they adopt that view,” Segal said.
Leading figures in Australian society had also been hesitant to speak out against antisemitism, both due to a lack of understanding and a fear of blowback, but that had changed since the Bondi terror attack, Segal said.
“I’ve been contacted by many leaders since then, wanting to be more engaged,” she said.
“There’s been a realisation that what the Jewish community was experiencing and complaining about … wasn’t a collection of isolated incidents, it wasn’t an exaggeration, it was very real and very dangerous for the country.”
Workplace shame
The fourth day of hearings at the royal commission heard from Jewish Australians who had been targeted in the workplace and lost work over anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment.
One woman, speaking under the pseudonym ABM, said she had left an Australian-owned global company after her chief executive asked her to use a “less obviously Jewish” name.
The employee said she had last year replaced an Israel-based employee who had left after an overseas stakeholder in a “big commercial partnership” declared it did not want to work with the company’s Israeli division.
ABM said she had been advised by the company’s chief executive to use a different name and to changeher email signature and internal directories. She agreed, feeling she had no choice, but resigned months later.
“I felt a sense of shame that I hadn’t felt before,” she said.
“It really made me question whether or not I can be outwardly and openly Jewish in professional workplaces.”
Stephanie Cunio, a longtime Sydney trade unionist and climate activist, said she felt she had to step down from the board of a green advocacy group as younger members fought the leadership to campaign against Israel.
“I got called up by a board member and the board member said: ‘I know this is getting very difficult for you, um, you know, maybe you should consider leaving,’” Cunio said.
An Israeli musician, speaking under the pseudonym ABK, said he had taken a break from performing, affecting his income, after facing protesters at his show and campaigns to cancel his performances.
“I’m forced now to call venues upfront and tell them you might get hate because I’m Israeli, which I’ve done just now, just a few weeks ago” he said.
“I am scared to play and I’m always thinking: ‘Is there someone in the crowd that knows that I’m Israeli and is here with a gun?’”
Others saw their workplaces destroyed, with the owners of Lewis’ Continental Kitchen telling the commission of the alleged targeted attack that burned down their kosher restaurant in Bondi in 2024.
Judith Lewis told the inquiry she had lost the restaurant she and her family had set up and run for 54 years.
“A lot of people came and met there, and were able to sit and eat and then see other people there, it was a communal centre,” Lewis said.
“For us, it’s devastating.”
