Antisemitism has become ‘almost fashionable’ among Australians, Jillian Segal tells royal commission

Jewish Australians have been told to use “less obviously Jewish” names, felt pressure to resign and been verbally abused by colleagues in the wake of 7 October 2023. On its fourth day of public hearings, the antisemitism royal commission also heard evidence from Australia’s antisemitism envoy, who said hatred towards Jews had become “almost fashionable”, while a Sydney nurse said New South Wales Health was “not safe for Jewish people”. The nurse manager and dual Australian-Israeli citizen, under the pseudonym AAV, said her fellow nurses had called her “Zionist scum” and she blamed NSW Health for failing to act. “Having tolerated this behaviour, it means that the healthcare system is not only not safe for Jewish people; it’s potentially not safe for anyone that comes from some sort of diverse background,” she told the commission on Thursday. After her cousin was taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October 2023, the nurse said she put posters of the hostages on her office wall and wore a necklace and yellow ribbon in their memory. She said her manager told her to remove them “because of the likelihood of them upsetting or offending other people”. In early December 2025, her hospital’s media team rejected her request to share a “happy Hanukah” message similar to its Diwali and Christmas posts. …