Sydney Morning Herald, 16 July 2026
‘My father was an antisemite’: Professor issues plea to royal commission
By Jennifer Westacott
From Sydney Morning Herald
Below is an excerpt of Professor Jennifer Westacott’s submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
I make this submission in a personal capacity, drawing on my experience as chancellor of Western Sydney University, former chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, and as a guardian of the Dor Foundation. I do not speak on behalf of any institution. I speak as an Australian, and a leader, who has watched, with growing alarm, the unravelling of something we once took for granted: that Jewish Australians could live, study and work in safety and dignity.
I want to be transparent about my personal reasons for speaking out because I think they matter to what this commission needs to understand. My early life was characterised by disadvantage, by moments of family dysfunction, and by sporadic but often severe violence. My father was an antisemite. I remember, as a young child, seeing an image on television of two people in striped prison clothing, hanging by their necks in a street. I must have been visibly distressed, because my father said to me: “Don’t worry, that only happens to the Jews.” I have never been able to shake off the image of their faces. Nor have I been able to shake the question of my own silence as a child and then as a young adult. My fear and my own lack of understanding meant that even as I grew older, I was afraid to challenge his views.