{"id":718761,"date":"2026-06-06T10:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718761\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:15:13","slug":"melbourne-jewish-students-targeted-with-slurs-during-interschool-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/718761\/","title":{"rendered":"Melbourne Jewish students targeted with slurs during interschool sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As a 14-year-old student was getting ready to compete at an interschool swimming carnival for his Jewish school, he saw a student from another private school perform a Nazi salute.<\/p>\n

The Mount Scopus Memorial College student, whose great-grandfather lost most of his family in the Holocaust, ended the race in shock.<\/p>\n

After it was over, the student, using the pseudonym Eli to shield his identity, reported the offender to the head of the Eastern Independent Schools Melbourne sporting association, which organises independent interschool sports.<\/p>\n

\"MountMount Scopus Memorial College principal Dan Sztrajt says his students face acts of antisemitism on the sporting field. Wayne Taylor<\/p>\n

Once the shock subsided, he became very distressed and left the sports event early.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t feel great,\u201d he said. \u201cI did come out crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eli said the sporting association acted quickly when he reported the abuse. But Eli\u2019s principal, Dan Sztrajt, said it wasn\u2019t the first conversation he\u2019d had with the school\u2019s leaders about these kinds of incidents. <\/p>\n

\u201cI informed them that what the student had done is actually considered a crime in Victoria,\u201d said Sztrajt, whose school is Victoria\u2019s biggest Jewish education institution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was information we felt was pertinent to share with the student and share with the student\u2019s family \u2026 to let them know that actually the student has broken the law,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sztrajt said it was not uncommon for his students to be subjected to vicious antisemitism \u2013 and that things had become worse since the war in Gaza began in 2023.<\/p>\n

At a year 9 soccer game, a team shouted, \u201clet\u2019s go kill those Jews\u201d, at another game a student was yelling out \u201cJGA\u201d – \u201cJewish gassing association\u201d. About two weeks ago, he says a year 11 student playing senior school girls football was called a \u201cfat Jew\u201d. The opposing student denied the slur, and without a corroborating witness, the matter couldn\u2019t be taken further.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Jewish students] have as much right to play and be a part of what\u2019s going on as anyone else, but at the same time I want them to be safe, and you know some of the incidents we\u2019ve had, student safety has been a significant factor,\u201d Sztrajt said.<\/p>\n

\"MountMount Scopus Memorial College Rabbi Shamir Caplan.Eddie Jim<\/p>\n

Sztrajt said he dealt with about one antisemitic incident at interschool sports \u2013 played against other private and local schools \u2013 every five to six weeks. In general, including online harassment, it\u2019s about three times a week.<\/p>\n

The words \u201cJew die\u201d were painted on the school fence in 2024; a group of boys from Gladstone Park Secondary College allegedly called 10-year-old children \u201cdirty Jews\u201d on a Melbourne Museum excursion in July last year; and in March this year, students from regional NSW\u2019s Crookwell High School made an antisemitic remark to a year 6 Mount Scopus student at Questacon in Canberra.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our students are genuinely frightened,\u201d Sztrajt said. \u201cOur primary school students have had a number of incidents, and I think they generally get quite frightened by it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s insane that so much of my day has nothing to do with education because of [security-related conversations]\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Victorian Antisemitism Report 2025 found there\u2019d been a huge increase from the eight incidents of hate against Jewish students in 2022 to 79 reported in 2025. <\/p>\n

After the Bondi massacre in December, which left 15 people dead and 41 wounded at a Hanukkah celebration, Sztrajt has been working with Independent Schools Victoria and the associated sporting bodies to tackle antisemitism against his students.<\/p>\n

Independent Schools Victoria chief executive Rachel Holthouse said the organisation was hosting its second roundtable with schools and non-Jewish school members on Friday, June 19, at the Jewish Museum of Australia to discuss how to tackle antisemitism in their schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s complex, and it probably needs a multifaceted approach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a real role for the curriculum to have this embedded into it, and that\u2019s something ISV is looking at, and it\u2019s less about antisemitism itself, and more about acceptance, inclusivity, recognising difference, not being aggressive towards it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said young people needed to learn the distinction between appropriate debate and abusive attack.<\/p>\n

The forum will also explore how schools can support teachers, sports coaches and educators who see racism or antisemitism happen, and how to respond and prevent it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here play out with the Jewish community fundamentally could be played out within any other community. Allowing one cultural group to be attacked means that you open yourself up for any cultural group to be attacked,\u201d Holthouse said.<\/p>\n

Sztrajt wants a more holistic and proactive approach to tackling these issues.<\/p>\n

He believes school sports coaches, especially when they aren\u2019t teachers, need \u201csignificantly more training\u201d on how to manage and respond to an antisemitic or racist attack, unsportsmanlike behaviour or inappropriate slurs at a sports match.<\/p>\n

He said there were too many inconsistent responses, and a clear procedure could support them. \u201cI think at the moment, it\u2019s sort of, \u2018oh well, I didn\u2019t really hear it, and I don\u2019t want to get too involved, and I\u2019m not really sure\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes our coaches have actually needed to step in and say, \u2018no, you need to pull that student off the field\u2019,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is unacceptable behaviour. That student shouldn\u2019t be allowed to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

But students also need strong zero-tolerance ground rules and expectations, with serious consequences for breaching them.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Tahli<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI think every school needs to take that on and say \u2018there is no room for racism in sport, there is no room for this, it is totally unacceptable\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mount Scopus runs a free outreach program in which non-Jewish students or schools visit their campus, and Jewish year 11 students deliver about an hour-long program about Judaism and the Jewish community to foster understanding and acceptance of a community that accounts for less than half a percentage point of the population, guided by Rabbi Shamir Caplan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started because student leaders noticed their peers didn\u2019t have any exposure or knowledge about the Jewish community,\u201d said Caplan.<\/p>\n

Since the outreach work began about 25 years ago, about 30 different schools have been involved and between 6500 and 7000 students have taken part over the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

Jewish school members of Eastern Independent Schools Melbourne (EISM), in a statement supported by the body\u2019s president, Brad Fry, said: \u201cEvery school\u2019s leadership and every organising body, including the EISM, has dealt with incidents of antisemitism and racism supportively, proactively and assertively\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jewish Community Council of Victoria chief executive Naomi Levin said there was \u201csignificant work\u201d being done to upskill teachers and school staff to better address antisemitism, being led by the National Education Taskforce as well as curriculum-aligned resources.<\/p>\n

Caplan said xenophobia was an issue everyone needed to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be trying to improve the tone in Australia in general,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s for Muslims, Aboriginal people and anyone who is a minority. We are a canary in the coal mine; we are an easy target, so lessons need to be learned for our and everyone\u2019s benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"NicoleNicole Precel<\/a> is an education reporter at The Age. She was previously an audio video producer. She is also a documentary maker. Get in touch at nicole.precel@theage.com.auConnect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-718761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}