A Jewish tutor at the University of New South Wales told the Royal Commission that escalating antisemitic incidents on campus became so severe that he obtained a second citizenship for reassurance.
Testifying under the pseudonym ACJ, the former UNSW College tutor and PhD candidate described how the events had transformed his relationship with Australia.
“This whole experience was the worst time in my life, and it really changed the way that I felt about being an Australian,” he said.
“Before the protest at the Opera House on October 9th, I was really proud to be Australian, and I was excited to contribute to being an Australian.
“Since then, I feel worried that Jews don’t have a future here in Australia. And I’ve taken out a second citizenship, and that gives me some comfort.”
ACJ recounted one of the most alarming incidents, in which four students performed Nazi salutes directed at him during a business class.
“Four students stood up on two occasions inside the class and did a Heil Hitler Nazi salute at me in the class and then immediately outside again in the corridor, directed at me,” he told the commission.
He said the gesture had particular significance because his grandparents survived the Holocaust while many members of his family were murdered by the Nazis.
“Because of my family history, that my grandparents had survived the Holocaust, that the Nazis had tried to murder all of the Jews, and they murdered a huge proportion of my family … When someone does a Nazi salute, it feels like they want to kill me,” he said.
ACJ first reported the incident to his supervisors, with whom he said he had previously had a “very good” relationship.
Their response, however, disappointed him. He said they described the incident as “an awful thing” but proposed only a verbal warning for the students.
“They said ‘this is an awful thing that’s happened’, but that the only consequence for the students would be a verbal warning,” he said.
ACJ escalated the matter to human resources, but said the proposed response remained unchanged.
“We had this meeting, their reaction again was just to have a verbal warning and to cite the misconduct procedure to the students, which made me feel that the university wasn’t treating it as disgraceful or unlawful,” he said.
He then reported the incident to NSW Police. Publicly performing a Nazi salute is illegal in NSW.
The university later suspended the students for a period that included a mid-semester break, meaning they missed only one of ACJ’s classes. They were also required to attend the Sydney Jewish Museum to learn about the Holocaust.
Despite this, ACJ said he was not allocated any teaching classes the following semester. The university attributed the decision to administrative changes and the need to give priority to permanent staff.
“I followed up with all of my colleagues who are also PhD candidates like me, and everyone else had received a timetable for the following semester. I was the only one who had lost a job,” he said.
He lodged a Fair Work claim alleging UNSW College had taken adverse action against him in reprisal for reporting the incident internally and to police.
Although he returned to teach for one more term, ACJ said he continued to face antisemitism and eventually stopped reporting further incidents because he feared losing his work again.
“I’ve experienced many other antisemitic incidents at UNSW. I reported one of them in March of 2025, but since then I stopped reporting them, even though I knew that it was so important to report antisemitic incidents. I was scared that I was going to be fired again,” he said.
In another incident, a first-year Jewish student greeted him with “Chag Sameach”, meaning happy holiday, and he returned the greeting.
Another student then said: “We should really be more focused on children in Palestine than worrying about Jewish holidays.”
ACJ said the exchange showed that hostility linked to Israel was being directed at Australian Jews during ordinary expressions of their religion and culture.
“I think that really goes to show how antizionism has nothing to do with Israel but is just about bullying Australian Jews who are going about celebrating a festival,” he said.
His evidence formed part of the opening day of the commission’s fourth hearing block, which is examining the experiences of Jewish students and staff at Australian universities and schools.
Counsel assisting the commission Zelie Heger said the evidence would include Jewish people being called “baby killers” and “genocide supporters”, Zionist being used as a slur and Jewish staff and students hiding their identities on campus.
“A recurring theme is Jewish staff and students being assumed to take a particular position on the conflict in the Middle East simply by virtue of being Jewish or being Israeli,” she said.