‘Terrifying’: political candidate violently abused and schoolboy thrown into bin, antisemitism royal commission hears

Violent antisemitic abuse was allowed to proliferate across a Jewish political candidate’s social media as part of a broader trend designed to intimidate Jewish Australians from public life, a royal commission has heard. Joshua Kirsh launched a campaign as an independent candidate for the New South Wales upper house in late 2025 but found his advertisements online bombarded by antisemitic tropes, abuse and threats. “The ads … were deluged with antisemitic comments of a nature that was particularly vitriolic, in the sense of … ‘Fuck off you Zionist cunt’,” he told the commission on Wednesday. “And there were a range of conspiracy theories about Israel paying people to firebomb places in Australia, that the October 7 massacre was a false flag, that we’ve got enough Jewish politicians already.” Kirsh catalogued the abuse and reported it to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry for its annual report on antisemitic incidents, a process he described as exhausting and distressing. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Kirsh remains a candidate for NSW parliament but says Jewish friends have been intimidated from participating in public life. “I’ve had a lot of conversations with people in the Jewish community who are incredibly bright and talented and would be perfect fits to be more involved in politics in this country. …