Jeremy Stowe-Lindner, principal of Bialik College in Melbourne, is giving evidence.
The college is a pluralist, non-denominational Jewish school, he said. “We don’t default to a type of denomination,” he said.
“Before October 7, maybe once every few months there might be an incident on a football ground or on public transport. [Since then] we have faced … an avalanche of experiences,” he said.
This included graffitiing, stickers, people driving past the school and yelling slurs or giving a Nazi salute or a gun symbol, and harassment of students on public transport.
“We can’t go into the CBD in Melbourne any more in school uniform,” he said. “We have had Hitler salutes and Jewish slurs.” He said pupils were spat on by two students from another school during one university trip.