A grandfather, giving evidence anonymously under the pseudonym AAL, has spoken with great emotion about his fears for his grandchildren encountering antisemitism in Australia.
“I love this country. I thought we’d made a great choice,” he said, his voice trembling with emotion.
He said it was “not the Australia I chose to call home”.
AAM also told the commission that his young granddaughter, who attended a non-Jewish school, was subjected to a substitute English teacher “performing several Hitler salutes” in the classroom.
“My granddaughter was 13, 14 at that stage and left the classroom deeply shocked”.
He said, “to the principal’s credit, she invited my daughter and my granddaughter to talk to her and praised her for being brave”.
Ultimately, after losing several friends, his granddaughter left the school and was enrolled in a Jewish day school, “which is also a little confronting to go past armed guards as she goes to school but she is much happier there”.
