By Duncan Murray

School students are growing up surrounded by prison-like security and in fear of being subjected to abuse or violence, an inquiry stemming from the Bondi terror attack has been told.

The Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion on Monday held the first in a series of public hearings focusing on the lived experiences of Jewish Australians.

Mount Sinai College board president Stefanie Schwartz told the inquiry her five-year-old daughter was at Bondi on the day of the attack and remains highly traumatised.

Ms Schwartz said since the attack, which killed 15 people, her Jewish school looks more like a prison because of the high level of security required to keep parents and students safe.

“Since … the Bondi attack, the level of guarding, police presence, is much more extreme,” she said.

“You walk past our school and it looks a lot more like a prison than a primary school.”

The school in Maroubra, in eastern Sydney, was targeted with graffiti branding Jews as “terrorists” and “dogs” in January 2025.

“It was clear that the intent was to intimidate children,” Ms Schwartz said.

A nearby day care centre was destroyed in an arson attack Ms Schwartz said she believed was mistargeted and intended for her school.

“There’s always, unfortunately, been a need for security amongst Jewish Australians and Jewish institutions,” she said.

“But the frequency, the visibility, the intensity of these anti-Semitic attacks has fundamentally changed in the last few years and the fact that this is being felt by the youngest and the most vulnerable – our children – is frankly, devastating.”

Other witnesses told the inquiry they felt intimidated and feared for their safety during pro-Palestine rallies, which some compared to the historical persecution of Jews.

One of the witnesses appearing anonymously at the inquiry said the glass front door of an Israeli restaurant he was in was smashed by protesters in Melbourne in July 2025 while diners were observing the Jewish Shabbat.

Other witnesses blamed “radical Islam” for fuelling hatred against Jews and compared pro-Palestine demonstrations to Nazi pogroms.

“Unless the root cause of antisemitism, which is a vitriolic, despicable preaching of antisemitic diatribes at schools, at mosques, at public gatherings, unless that is absolutely, totally stamped out, this country has no hope,” a man speaking under the pseudonym AAL said.

Another witness speaking under the pseudonym AAM said she considered Australia a “safe haven” when she moved from the United Kingdom.

“Precisely what we’re seeing in Australia now we saw in the UK many, many years ago,” AAM said.

“The rise in antisemitism, radical Islam, police doing nothing, government doing nothing.”

The first witness to give public evidence at the inquiry was daughter of one of the Bondi terror attack victims, Sheina Gutnick, who recounted being abused for being Jewish while in a shopping centre with her baby.

Ms Gutnick’s 62-year-old father Reuven Morrison was killed after hurling a brick at one of the gunmen involved in the December 14 attack that left 15 people dead.

Ms Gutnick said in December 2024 – a year before the deadliest shooting since the Port Arthur massacre – she was walking through Westfield Bondi Junction with her baby when a man pointed at her Star of David necklace and called her a “f***ing terrorist”.

“I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe. There were many people around me, but no one intervened,” she said.

The commission’s initial hearing block will run until May 15.

A second hearing block will run from May 25 to June 12 and probe the circumstances surrounding the Bondi terror attack, including the conduct of intelligence and law enforcement agencies before the assault.

A third hearing block will address a number of case studies of antisemitism with a particular focus on institutions and industries, including within the education sector.

The commission will hand down a final report before the end of the year.