Protecting Australia’s Jewish community has become “a second life” for security volunteers.
Some are devoting the equivalent of a second full-time job as record levels of antisemitic incidents force Jewish schools, synagogues and community organisations to rely on extensive protection, the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard today.
Three Community Security Group witnesses, all appearing under pseudonyms, described volunteers being placed under mounting personal and psychological strain as threats against Jewish Australians intensified.
A senior Victorian CSG leader known as ACR said the demands of his almost 25 years of service had escalated sharply since the Hamas attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023.
Most days now begin with early security meetings and end with briefings or training, while calls continue throughout his paid working day.
“The magnitude of that has escalated significantly,” he said.
“It’s now probably more like a second life alongside the first.”
ACR said the cost was borne not only by volunteers but also by their families.
Emergency alerts force him to leave home at short notice without knowing when he will return. He discourages his family from attending events where he is working because he does not want to face a choice between protecting them and responding to a wider emergency.
Even when attending synagogue privately, he remains connected to CSG radio traffic and scans the congregation for threats.
“I don’t really remember the last time I sat in synagogue with my father and properly participated in the service,” he said.
“I’m not really there in the truest sense.”
Another Victorian witness, ACS, told the commission he worked full time in a corporate role while devoting as many as 30 to 40 hours a week to CSG.
Since joining in about 2021, he estimated he had contributed about 8400 hours, including about 3500 documented volunteer hours and another 1500 hours of unpaid work.
“That’s essentially a full-time role on top of full-time study or work,” he said.
ACS said he was involved in several on-call roles and, “for all intents and purposes”, felt he was available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Before the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, CSG Victoria received an antisemitic incident report about once every three days.
Within 24 hours of the attacks, a vehicle was reported driving through Caulfield North while its occupants shouted abuse linked to the killings in Israel.
ACS said it was the moment CSG realised events overseas were “strongly resonating back here” among people who wanted to harm the Victorian Jewish community.
Constant exposure to threats and abuse had left him desensitised.
“I’ll see something that is objectively shocking, yet not have the visceral response that I should have,” he said.
“It became a new normal.”
ACS warned that CSG’s ability to keep operating risked disguising the severity of the situation and the cost of responding to it.
“Because we are managing the situation, the scale of its enormity is probably not being understood in the way that it should be,” he said.
He described a paradox in which the community’s successful adaptation to a worsening environment made it easier to overlook the burden on volunteers, finances and Jewish life.
Before October 7, he said, some organisations occasionally questioned whether security was necessary at their events. Today, it was simply assumed.
ACS said the workload was unsustainable and called for greater access to professional psychological support for volunteers exposed to threats, abuse and intense workloads.
“It’s not sustainable for anyone to be working essentially two full-time jobs at once, especially given the risks associated with working in Jewish communal security,” he said.
A third witness, ACP, told the commission CSG had recorded 1276 antisemitic incidents across Australia during 2025, a 22 per cent increase on the previous year and the highest annual total in its records. That marks the second consecutive year of record numbers, after 2024’s total was itself a high.
Victoria recorded 569 incidents and New South Wales 543.
The report found a marked increase in incidents at synagogues and schools, which ACP said indicated more deliberate targeting of Jewish institutions and areas where Jewish people lived. There were 247 incidents on Shabbat and 141 on Jewish festival days.
Another 51 involved Jewish schoolchildren, many of them visibly Jewish students travelling in uniform on public transport or walking to and from school.
The 2025 figures included 31 assaults, 79 threats, 237 incidents of damage and desecration and 605 cases of abusive behaviour.
ACP described one attack in which three visibly Jewish men were punched, kicked and seriously injured after a group shouted antisemitic abuse.
Another incident involved a man holding a knife from a vehicle window while shouting abuse at Jewish people near a synagogue.
Police were notified of 346 incidents during 2025, with offenders charged in relation to 67 incidents, a 97 per cent increase on the previous year.
ACP said the figure was incomplete because CSG relied on police forces to report outcomes.
Many victims were also reluctant to provide statements because they feared further threats, wanted to protect their identity or lacked confidence in law enforcement.
ACP said CSG’s classification system was deliberately conservative. Incidents were excluded where there was doubt about whether they were antisemitic, particularly where political content was involved.
The reports were intended to identify trends in incidents formally reported to CSG, rather than measure every antisemitic incident occurring in Australia.
“I think that reflects the current state of the threat landscape,” ACP said.
Counsel Assisting, Richard Lancaster SC, said Jewish institutions were carrying financial, cultural and personal security costs simply to allow people to attend school, worship and participate in community life.
Some evidence is being heard privately to avoid revealing operational security arrangements.
ACR warned that inadequate protection would force some Jewish Australians to stop attending schools, synagogues and community events or conceal their identity.
“If one group of citizens can’t live openly and safely and confidently, without extraordinary security and vigilance and constant calculation, then I think something really important has gone wrong in our national fabric,” he said.
Ensuring Jewish Australians could live openly and safely was “a significant test for our country, not just a challenge for the Jewish community”.