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Nir Golan was called a “dirty Jew” and was subjected to a Nazi salute by a stranger as he waited for a bus in broad daylight, in a busy thoroughfare of Bondi Junction. Witnesses turned their heads and said nothing as hate speech spewed from a man who seemingly targeted Golan for wearing a kippah.
Golan has not previously publicly shared details of the antisemitic incident, which happened only a few weeks after the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, for fear of retribution. But Golan now wants to speak out and he will provide evidence to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion on Tuesday.
Former High Court judge Virginia Bell will preside over the first block of public hearings of the royal commission from Monday, with the focus on hearing of lived experiences from Jewish Australians.
Bell last week handed down her interim report, which focused on NSW Police and security agencies and possible failures that may have led to the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, in which 15 people, most of them Jewish, were killed on the first night of Hanukkah on December 14 last year.
The first witness will be Sheina Gutnick, whose father Reuven Morrison was killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack. Other witnesses expected to appear on Monday include Rabbi Benjamin Elton from The Great Synagogue and Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin, whose former Dover Heights home was firebombed during Sydney’s so-called summer of hate.
Golan was born in Israel and grew up in the US. He met his wife, Barbie, in Australia when he was an exchange student. He also fell in love with the country. The couple moved their young family to Bondi from the US in 2020, and they became citizens on Australia Day this year.
He says he only now feels safe speaking publicly because his family has made the “heartbreaking” decision to upend their lives and leave Sydney for a new life in Israel.
“I am and have been a committed Australian,” Golan’s submission to the royal commission says.
“I have run a business here and have sat on multiple charity boards. I organised national campaigns. I raised my family here. I am leaving to resettle in a country that is at war because I no longer feel safe and my children no longer feel safe to express who they are in Australia.”
After he was subjected to the antisemitic attack in October 2023, Golan called Triple Zero and the Community Security Group, the volunteer-run Jewish security agency, but when police officers arrived, Golan was told there was nothing they could do.
The perpetrator had run off, and the Nazi salute had not yet been banned under NSW state laws.
“The incident I experienced in Bondi Junction was the beginning of a sustained deterioration in my sense of safety in this country,” Golan’s submission says.
“The wearing of a kippah is a Jewish tradition which reflects an awareness and recognition that G-d is ‘above’ at all times. I wear it as a visible expression of my Jewish identity. I no longer wear a kippah in public in a way that is visible. I now cover my kippah with a baseball cap.”
Golan says his children attend a Jewish school that teaches the NSW curriculum as well as Jewish studies and Hebrew, and their uniform includes a kippah and a tzitzit, ritual garments with strings.
“My wife and I do not let our children wear their school uniforms, kippot or tzitzit out in public any more. We insist that they get changed as soon as they leave school if going anywhere other than home,” Golan’s submission says.
“My children, who should be growing up proud of their Jewish identity, are instead being taught to conceal it for their own safety.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said the commission was the “most significant national examination of antisemitism in Australia’s history”.
“Over the next fortnight, the country will hear from the people who lead our community alongside ordinary Australians who have lived through what happens when words of hatred go unchallenged long enough that they stop being only words,” Wertheim said.
“The Jewish community is approaching this as Australians asking Australian institutions to look honestly at what has happened in this country and what needs to change.”
As of April 30, the royal commission said it had received more than 5700 submissions, most from NSW (more than 2700 submissions), followed by Victoria (about 1700).
More than 4000 respondents identified as Jewish; more than 1000 did not identify as Jewish; and the remaining respondents preferred not to say, according to the latest update from the commission.
