Rabbi Levi Wolff, of the Central Synagogue in Sydney, has compared Jewish people’s connection to Israel with that enjoyed by Aboriginal Australians to the land of Australia.
Wolff has just finished giving evidence at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, where he spoke about the pro-Gaza encampments at Sydney University, saying some protesters had “ideologies fundamentally incompatible with Australia’s values”.
The exterior of the Central Synagogue in Sydney in October 2025.Flavio Brancaleone
“Would you agree,” royal commissioner Virginia Bell asked him, “that people who are protesting on behalf of Palestinians’ right to self-determination are not expressing a value that is inconsistent with Australian values?”
Wolff replied: “I often hear people say, ‘I’m not anti-Jewish. I’m simply anti-Zionist’. And in the same breath they deny the Jewish people’s spiritual, historical, and indigenous connection to their ancestral land.