The Royal Commission showed me that I didn’t understand the full extent of antisemitism in Australia.

“How are things in Australia?” It’s the question I’m asked most often by fellow members of President Herzog’s Voice of the People initiative. For most of my life, the answer was easy. Australia wasn’t perfect, but it was a place where Jewish life flourished. We built schools, synagogues, charities and businesses. We contributed to every part of Australian life and felt proud to do so.

I don’t answer that question so easily anymore. Like many Australian Jews, my life changed after October 7, 2023. Antisemitism that may have once been hidden under the surface suddenly became mainstream. I stopped going into the city in order to avoid the weekly protests. I felt less comfortable in once safe professional environments. And then on December 14, 2025, the deadly terrorist attack in Bondi reinforced what many of us were already feeling – that something significant had shifted in Australia. Antisemitism was no longer something we read about happening overseas. It was here.

I found that my own work changed too. For most of my career, both professionally and as a volunteer, I’d worked across the broader Australian philanthropic and not-for-profit sectors. Today, a significant part of my work is focused on supporting Israel, strengthening the Australian Jewish community and responding to antisemitism. I never expected that to become such a defining part of my life.

Because of my involvement with the Jewish community, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what was happening. Then I listened in on the hearings of the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

For readers outside Australia, a Royal Commission is the highest form of public inquiry. It has the power to compel witnesses, examine evidence and make recommendations to government. More than 20,000 written submissions have been received, an extraordinary response that reflects just how many Australians (not all of them Jewish) felt they had something important to say.

I expected to hear difficult stories. What I didn’t expect was just how many and wide-ranging they would be, or how similar they were. Story after story described Jewish children being bullied at school. Jewish university students feeling unsafe on campus. Professionals feeling excluded in workplaces where they had once felt welcome, even to the extent of changing their names at work to non-Jewish-sounding names. Jewish Australians feeling the need to conceal their identity when seeking or providing healthcare. Parents making decisions they never imagined they’d have to make about their children’s safety and identity.

These were not only stories from the fringes of society. They were happening in schools, universities, workplaces, the healthcare system, sporting clubs and public institutions, places that Australians rightly expect to be safe, welcoming and inclusive.

The people I have thought about most since the hearings are the university students. Many showed extraordinary courage in telling their stories publicly, knowing that speaking out could expose them to even more hostility. They should have been worrying about exams, careers and friendships, not whether they could wear a Magen David necklace, attend class openly as Jewish students or feel safe expressing who they are. Listening to them was one of the most confronting parts of the Commission for me.

In recent days, the Commission has turned its attention to the healthcare sector. It has heard deeply troubling evidence from Jewish doctors, other healthcare professionals and patients who described feeling compelled to hide their Jewish identity, fearing discrimination or even questioning whether they would receive impartial care. For many Australians, hospitals represent places of compassion and trust. Hearing that some Jewish Australians no longer feel safe in those spaces has been profoundly confronting.

The hearings have served a critical function. They have created a space where experiences that were often dismissed as isolated incidents can finally be understood as part of a much bigger picture. That matters not only for Jewish Australians. When any group feels the need to hide its identity, or when institutions fail to protect people equally, social cohesion is weakened. That affects all Australians.

Later this year, the Commissioner will hand down a report with recommendations for governments and institutions. Whether those recommendations are implemented remains to be seen, but I don’t think that will be the Commission’s only legacy. It has already created a permanent record of what Jewish Australians have experienced during this period. Future generations won’t be able to say, “We didn’t know.”

As members of the Voice of the People network, we’re often reminded that the Jewish story is one of resilience, responsibility and hope. That’s the story I want to share about Australia. This has been a painful period for our community. But we’ve also seen courage, leadership and an extraordinary willingness to stand up, not only for ourselves, but for the kind of Australia we want.

Like every Australian, we simply want to live openly, safely and proudly, while continuing to contribute to the country that has been our home. My hope is that the Royal Commission becomes not just a record of what has happened, but the beginning of a brighter future.