Sydney high schools are seeing a rise in anti-Semitism, with at least two in the eastern suburbs dealing with incidents of Nazi salutes and Jewish students being bullied.
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, the representative group for the Jewish community, has received reports of two cases of anti-Semitic bullying in Sydney’s east in the past two weeks alone, one at an elite private boys’ school and the other at a public high school.
This comes after revelations last week of a toxic culture at Knox Grammar on the north shore, where some students at the elite boys’ school used a chat room to share racist and homophobic videos and rantings on violent misogyny.
The two eastern suburbs schools had students reportedly performing regular Nazi salutes, particularly in the boys’ locker rooms and change rooms.
A grandparent at the public school provided screenshots to the Board of Deputies where students in a chat group on the Discord app sent photos of Hitler to other students, including Jewish students, accompanied by comments such as “dumb ass Jew n—-r” and “I hope your family gets gassed”.
Earlier this year, a different public high school in the eastern suburbs had the word “Hitler” graffitied on its fence, which was removed after a couple of months.
The parent at the private boys’ school said children in his son’s year group did not refer to him by name but instead called him “Jew”, made inappropriate comments, and used the Nazi salute in his presence.
Read the article by Caitlin Fitzsimmons in The Sydney Morning Herald.