Australia antisemitism inquiry closes with rabbi’s emotional plea for reckoning
An historic Australian inquiry into antisemitism ended on Wednesday with a stark warning from a rabbi who lost a family member in the Bondi terror
An historic Australian inquiry into antisemitism ended on Wednesday with a stark warning from a rabbi who lost a family member in the Bondi terror attack. The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has now closed after more than 60 days of public hearings.
Final witness at the microphones
Chabad of Bondi director Rabbi Yehoram Ulman was the last of more than 340 witnesses to give evidence. He spoke after months of testimony drawn by the December 14 attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, which sent shockwaves through Australia’s Jewish community and beyond.
Ulman’s statement was deeply personal. He dedicated much of it to his son-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was killed in the attack. Schlanger was among 10 victims for whom Ulman later presided over funerals. His first was held for Schlanger. The loss, he told the commission in effect, had already been building for years before the violence erupted at the beach.
A probe shaped by a deadly attack
The commission examined the prevalence of antisemitism in Australia and the strains it placed on social cohesion. Its hearings stretched across 60 days, reflecting the scale of the public record the panel sought to build after the Bondi tragedy.
Commissioner Virginia Bell has asked for the final report and recommendations to be delivered by December 18, 2026, moving the deadline back from the original December 14 date. The extension gives the panel more time to prepare its findings after a process that has carried strong emotional weight for witnesses and observers alike.
For many in Australia’s Jewish community, the inquiry has become more than a formal review. It has been a public account of fear, grief and the hatred that preceded the attack. Ulman’s closing evidence brought that into sharp focus.
He was the last witness to speak. And he left the room with a plea that echoed the purpose of the inquiry itself: confront the hatred before it hardens into something worse.
