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June 19, 2026 \u2014 11:45am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Daniel Onas was 10 years old when he started playing for AJAX, an Australian rules football club in Melbourne. The club had formed in 1957 (and its youth teams in 1972) so that Jewish players and children excluded from other clubs had somewhere to play.<\/p>\n His earliest memories of playing for them are overwhelmingly positive. His teammates comprised friends from school and others nearby, they were coached by one another\u2019s dads and travelled to Ballarat for footy camps. \u201cWe lost more than we won, but we had a lot of fun,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But fused with the fond memories are those of another nature somewhat common in youth sports: incidents of verbal abuse, children leaving games in tears, spats between parents and a rare melee. Onas\u2019 memories, however, are unique among many Australian children\u2019s. In his, the vitriol thrown his team\u2019s way was distinctly antisemitic.<\/p>\n \u201cI can remember some nasty incidents when our players ended the game in tears because of things that were said,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThere was the accepted norm that things would happen from time to time and antisemitism was there.\u201d<\/p>\n There would be about two to three incidents a season across the junior club in Onas\u2019 first few years as club president \u2013 a role he took on after his children began playing. Even though his nephew was victim to one incident, Onas said they dealt with individual cases as they occurred and carried on accepting things were how they\u2019d always been.<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cIt stems back to such a large percentage of our community are descendants of Holocaust survivors,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s littered through our Jewish history, the fact that there\u2019s always been that hate there, going back thousands of years.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s been part of our education growing up in a way that there\u2019s been an awareness of it for our kids. So even reiterating to them what may happen on a sporting field would not seem out of the ordinary or unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n But last month Onas gave evidence at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. It was an act that rejected the behaviour he and his teammates had, as children, and later, as adults, accepted as normal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe view is there\u2019s the pre-October 7 world and the post, certainly in 2024 and 2025 those two seasons, there was an astronomical rise in the number of antisemitic incidents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As he would go on to tell the royal commission<\/a>, in the 2024 season, a 13-year-old boy was told \u201cHitler should have finished you off\u201d by a player from the opposing side. In another incident, an 11-year-old was told \u201cf— the Jews\u201d at the end of a match. After the under 18s final, parents were called \u201cJewish dogs\u201d, players were called \u201cf—ing Jews\u201d and one opposing player tried to take a kippah off an AJAX player.<\/p>\n In one, a seven-year-old was told that his team would lose the match because they were Jewish.<\/p>\n \u201cYou imagine how a seven-year-old deals with something like that,\u201d Onas told the commission. \u201cThe questions that they would have, that they would ask of their parents \u2026 It\u2019s a very difficult thing for young kids to have to endure when all they should really be doing is playing football.\u201d<\/p>\n Onas drafted the submission with two others from the club\u2019s committee. \u201cWriting the submission was challenging because we\u2019ve lived through each one of those cases, one by one over two years, and you go through it as it happens,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very draining, it\u2019s very difficult, and then to document it all, you\u2019re going through that again and reliving it, you\u2019re sort of doing a bit of an assessment as to what the journey\u2019s been. Have we achieved anything? Have we made life easier for our players and families?<\/p>\n Related Article \u201cAt what point is it realistic to hope that our kids will just be able to play football like any normal other football club that isn\u2019t AJAX?\u201d<\/p>\n Although the response to his evidence from within the AJAX community had been positive, as it had been from other clubs in the league and from the league itself, which also contributed to royal commission submissions, the club had to disable comments on social media video clips because of antisemitic comments left on them.<\/p>\n Then, no more than two days after Onas gave evidence at the royal commission, a mother allegedly hurled antisemitic slurs at an under 12s Jewish netball team in Sydney\u2019s eastern suburbs.<\/a> On Wednesday, Jody Scarcella, 42, pleaded not guilty to a charge of using offensive language in a public place or school.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first thing I wondered was whether that person had any knowledge that there was even a royal commission going on because the timing of that really does make you wonder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Then, the following week, a player from the Redfern Raiders soccer club was banned from playing for two years by the Eastern Suburbs Football Association for using an antisemitic slur.<\/p>\n Still, Onas hopes that things will change. For one, he wants Australia\u2019s professional sporting leagues to introduce an explicit reference to antisemitism in their sporting codes.<\/p>\n And while Onas\u2019 testimony was followed by more incidents of antisemitic hate, it was also followed by instances of the opposite. Last week, the Beaumaris Football Club stood in a line with AJAX players ahead of their Premier B matches at Trevor Barker Oval. Beaumaris said it wanted to stand with AJAX to reject antisemitism in every form.<\/p>\n Ahead of another match this week, against the Mazenod Panthers, Panthers club president Phil Ryan read out a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that makes Australian sport unique is that when we go to the footy, supporters from opposing teams sit side by side, and that\u2019s pretty unique,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cWe don\u2019t separate ourselves into different parts of the stadium. Families, friends and strangers can barrack for different teams and sit together. But they do so together with respect for one another. That\u2019s something worth celebrating, and it\u2019s a lesson that extends beyond sport.\u201d<\/p>\n News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f2d9752d13ceeba934a59d26ab540b05e637316f.jpeg\")
President of AJAX football club Daniel Onas at Wednesday night training this month.Joe Armao<\/p>\n![\"Dani](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/90da034e9f75480e2a15ac1879c116e1765a1199.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4ad2ccf0831d6ac83eb5e7f5c01285cc69b17054.jpeg\")
Daniel Onas appearing as a witness at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. <\/p>\n![\"Police](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778487252_340_25815ed953a97574f13875b74a83c319d794a788.jpeg\")
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