‘Disturbing parallels’: Holocaust survivors president says exclusion of Jews from public life similar to Nazi Germany

George Foster has told the Melbourne hearings of the Australian royal commission into antisemitism that there are parallels with Nazi Germany. Photograph: Luis Ascui/AAP View image in fullscreen George Foster has told the Melbourne hearings of the Australian royal commission into antisemitism that there are parallels with Nazi Germany. Photograph: Luis Ascui/AAP ‘Disturbing parallels’: Holocaust survivors president says exclusion of Jews from public life similar to Nazi Germany George Foster tells royal commission Australia’s democratic institutions fundamentally different ‘but I can’t ignore certain disturbing parallels in the social atmosphere’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A rise in antisemitism across Australia has “disturbing parallels” with the social climate of Nazi Germany, the president of the Australian Holocaust survivors association says. George Foster, the president of Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants, told the antisemitism royal commission that he did not believe Australia was “becoming another Germany in the 1930s”. “Australia’s democratic institutions, legal system and civilian civil society, are fundamentally different,” he said on Monday. “However … I can’t ignore certain disturbing parallels in the social atmosphere. “For example, the exclusion of Jews from parts of public life, the normalisation of antisemitic language, dehumanising descriptions of Jews, conspiracy theories, the resurgence of antisemitic tropes, attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues, and businesses, and fear about displaying Jewish identity publicly,” Foster said on Tuesday. Abortion clinic-style protest bans could reduce ‘distress and anxiety’ at synagogues and Jewish schools, Dreyfus says Read more The royal commission’s fifth block of hearings, held in Melbourne this week, is examining security arrangements for the Jewish community. It heard from community leaders at synagogues and Jewish schools, who described a rise in antisemitic incidents since October 2023, which had led some Jewish Australians to leave to live in Israel. Foster came to Australia in 1947 after being born in Hungary to Holocaust survivors after the second world war. He said he was shocked by a protest on the steps of the Sydney Opera House two days after Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. “We heard expletives, and you know vilification of Jews to a point which shocked me, and I know much, if not all, of the Jewish community. I never thought that I would see such a thing in this country,” he said on Monday. Following the protest, NSW police said an independent expert had concluded the chants “Where’s the Jews?” and “Fuck the Jews” were used. Foster, the president of the South Sydney synagogue, described several antisemitic attacks at the site, including an arson attack in 1991 during the first Iraq war, but said the atmosphere had changed since then. “There