‘Terrifying’: political candidate violently abused and schoolboy thrown into bin, antisemitism royal commission hears | Antisemitism

Violent antisemitic abuse was allowed to spread on a Jewish political candidate’s social media as part of a wider trend designed to deter Jewish Australians from public life, a royal commission has heard.

Joshua Kirsh launched a campaign as an independent candidate for the New South Wales upper house in late 2025, but found his ads bombarded with antisemitic tropes, abuse and threats online.

“The ads were full of… particularly vitriolic antisemitic comments, in the sense of… ‘Fuck you, Zionist scum,'” he told the commission on Wednesday.

“There were also various conspiracy theories that Israel paid for firebombing sites in Australia, that the October 7 massacre was a misleading signal, and that we had enough Jewish politicians on our hands.”

Kirsh cataloged the abuses and reported them to the Executive Council of Australian Jews for its annual report on anti-Semitic incidents; He described this process as tiring and sad.

Kirsh remains a candidate for the NSW parliament but says his Jewish friends are afraid to participate in public life.

“I’ve had many conversations with people in the Jewish community who are incredibly bright and talented and who are perfectly suited to becoming more involved in politics in this country. But their view is that they can’t risk facing the kind of backlash I’ve received.”

Kirsh also presented evidence that an Australasian Jewish Students Union event he helped organize in 2019 to celebrate Purim, often described as the Jewish Halloween, was directly threatened with gun violence years before the Bondi massacre.

He said the organizers of the commission event were contacted by an anonymous reporter who told them to “Kill the Jews.”

His messages read: “Me and my friends have already purchased six automatic rifles as we plan to kill hundreds of Jewish students on the eve of Purim festivals.”

The threat, which Kirsh described as “terrifying”, was reported to the Community Safety Group and police. The event continued under strict security measures.

“There was still a lingering fear in the back of my mind. This wasn’t something we announced to the students… We bore the brunt of this threat because it’s our responsibility as leaders in the community. For me, it was terrifying to think that we could endanger people’s lives by choosing to go ahead with this event… That’s a pretty heavy burden to put on a 23-year-old kid.”

The third day of the royal commission hearings into antisemitism and social cohesion heard more evidence from Australian Jews that antisemitism is manifesting in schools, universities, workplaces and online spaces.

A Jewish father, known to the commission only as AAT, said his 13-year-old son was bullied at his Australian school, called a “dirty Jew”, a “stinking Jew” and subjected to a Nazi salute.

“Physical bullying includes being squeezed until you can’t breathe… dragged on the ground… thrown into the trash bin, beaten,” AAT said.

He said some students were suspended from school and AAT removed his son from school.

While the bullies were supported, he felt the school had provided his family with “worse than zero support”, and the vice principal did not address racism in his response, instead implying that the behavior was “a game of fighting”.

She said her son is now subjected to anti-Semitic slurs at his new school, including a boy who put black tape on his lips to imitate Hitler’s moustache.

A man wearing an anti-Semitic T-shirt was escorted out of committee hearings in Sydney’s CBD by police as evidence was being presented.

The man, who wore a T-shirt combining the Israeli flag with a swastika and the slogan “Anti-Semitism, proud to be accused”, claimed he did not know the royal commission was being heard in the building behind him.

“I’m enjoying my coffee on the streets of Sydney. Why am I being attacked like this?” he asked.

Speaking to reporters, he denied disrespecting Australian Jews who had given evidence to the commission.

“What is happening in Gaza, Lebanon and abroad, the killing of innocent people and children, is disrespectful.

“I was asked to move on,” he said as police led him away, “that’s the situation with the protests in New South Wales.”

Police confirmed the 68-year-old was later arrested.

The commission heard evidence from numerous witnesses that Jews in Australia were unfairly held responsible for the actions of the state of Israel or the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza.

The commission was established in December after the Bondi massacre, in which two gunmen allegedly inspired by the Islamic State shot and killed 15 people and injured 40 others as they attended a beachside Hanukkah event for the Jewish community.

The royal commission’s hearings before commissioner Virginia Bell continue in Sydney.