Sydney Morning Herald, 22 July 2026
‘Head to your cars quickly, don’t loiter’: How the fear of antisemitism has changed Jewish community life
From Sydney Morning Herald
A few years ago, the young Jewish children attending an annual youth camp in NSW cried at night because they were homesick.
But after the Bondi terror attack, the children were crying for a different reason, a Jewish youth group leader said in her evidence to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion on Wednesday.
“Many who usually would just be homesick were suddenly crying because they were scared that someone was going to come and murder them in their sleep,” said the leader, who was granted the pseudonym ACV to protect her identity.
“It was very, very real.”
The commission continued its hearings into security issues in the Jewish community, with ACV telling the commission how things had changed since her own childhood spent attending similar camps.