Sunday evening marks the start of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. This year, the Day of Atonement takes place against the background of an evident rise in anti-Semitism. Not only internationally but, to a lesser extent, in Australia as well. Three instances warrant attention.
On September 14, Debra Sue Mortimer, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, delivered her judgment in Kaplan v the state of Victoria and upheld most of the claims by the five applicants. She awarded damages, payable by the state of Victoria, totalling around $430,000.
In November 2022, the five applicants, including Joel Kaplan, brought proceedings against the state of Victoria alleging they had experienced anti-Semitism from other students while studying at Brighton Secondary College in Melbourne. BSC is a government school administered by the Victorian Department of Education.
The judgment is a long one at more than 450 pages. Essentially, the Jewish applicants maintained they had experienced acts of discrimination – including the existence of graffiti, consisting of Nazi swastikas, that was drawn in the classrooms and around the grounds of BSC. Also, students drew swastikas on the books of Jewish students.
This behaviour took place between 2013 and 2020, depending on when each of the five attended BSC. Four left on account of the vilification experienced – one to move overseas.
Read the article by Gerard Henderson in The Australian.