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Allegations of Rampant Antisemitic Abuse and Bullying in Australian Public School System
by Dion J. Pierre
The skyline of Melbourne, Australia, the capital of Victoria. Photo: Alex Proimos/Wikimedia Commons.
Australian officials and nonprofit leaders on Thursday issued statements addressing antisemitism, following a damning report exposing bullying and harassment of teenage Jewish students attending public schools in the state of Victoria.
On Sunday, Australian daily The Age reported the stories of three students who have either refused going to school or hid their Jewish identity to avoid allegedly racist behavior continuously meted out by their classmates. A 13-year-old Brunswick Secondary College student was called a “dirty Jew,” flashed Nazi salutes by his classmates, and assaulted; a 14 year old Brighton Secondary College student found a swastika graffitied on her desk and someone threw a note at her that said, “Jewish rat;” a 12 year old Rowville Secondary Sports Academy student was told that all Jews were supposed to die with their “hands up.”
The report elicited a response from Victoria’s Department of Education, which said the students’ accounts are “distressing and disturbing and taken extremely serious.” Speaking to The Australian Jewish News, Dvir Abramovich of the Anti-Defamation Commission, a Jewish civil rights organization, said the students’ accounts “are another example of what happens when antisemitism spirals out of control and is allowed to grow toxic and unchecked by teachers.”
Jewish students in Victoria have reported similar experiences before. In June 2022, harrowing details of antisemitic bullying and violence were revealed in an Australian federal court during a civil trial to determine whether Brighton Secondary College, located in Melbourne, violated the Racial Discrimination Act when it allegedly ignored the antisemitic bullying of five Jewish students who said the school has a “prison culture.”
Former Brighton student Liam Arnold-Levy testified that no action was taken after someone punched him in the stomach and threatened to slit his throat, nor when others called him “Jewboy,” “f***ing Jew,” and told him to “die in an oven.” In another incident, a school official allegedly accused him of “being dramatic” when a group of female students “violently” pushed him.
A verdict in that case is forthcoming.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
