Disturbing bullying of Jewish students in Cairns exposed

Jewish students as young as 11 are being called “dirty Jews” and surrounded by other students chanting “Free Palestine” in a rise of anti-semitism in Cairns schools.

Cairns Rabbi Ari Rubin says students feel so humiliated by the bullying the wont talk to their parents about it. Picture: Brendan Radke

Jewish students as young as 11 are being called “dirty Jews” and surrounded by other students chanting “Free Palestine” in a rise of anti-semitism in Cairns schools.

Rabbi Ari Rubin says the young students are being taunted with comments such as “Hitler was right”.

Students from 11-14 are the most common perpertrators and the victims are afraid to even tell their parents because they feel so deeply humiliated.

He said in one instance a group of 11 and 12 year old students surrounded an 11-year-old Jewish girl and began chanting “Free Palestine” at a private school in Cairns.

“Every Jewish child in Cairns has a story of being bullied or discriminated against, but this conflict has brought it all up to the surface,” Rabbi Rubin said.

“It’s the old story — Jews are getting scapegoated. We make for an easy target because whilst we are visible and make a contribution to the society, we are small in numbers so it makes it difficult for us to defend ourselves here.”

Rabbi Rubin himself is now installing extra security cameras at his home.

Jewish are students are being called ‘dirty jews’ at Cairns schools.

The disturbing news comes amidst a rising spate of anti-semitic and anti-Palestinian incidents around Australia since the Israel-Palestine conflict began on October 7.

A travelling Holocaust memorial that was due to tour Queensland, including Cairns and Townsville, also decided to cancel the trip in fear of the communities reaction.

“We decided that we couldn’t ensure the exhibition’s safety so we postpned it until next year,” Jason Steinberg, Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies president, said.

Mr Steinberg said the bullying of Jewish students had been long-standing.

“The problem is pre-existing, but we have seen a significant increase in the bullying of Jewish school students,” he said.

But it’s not just students who are facing anti-semitic abuse, Mr Steinberg added.

QJBD’s recent survey of 100 members, including ten from Cairns, found 85 per cent have felt less safe across the state since October 7.

Mr Steinberg said many Jewish people concealed their identity at work because of “bullying, intimidation and harassment”.

“When you have people in Queensland posting ‘It’s time to kill all Jews’ we know we have a serious problem at the moment,” he said.

People gather in Brisbane's CBD in support of Israel six weeks since the war started.

Mr Steinberg said anti-semitism was the “canary in the coalmine of a society’s demise” and “the oldest form of hatred” based on “lies, fallacies and untruths”.

When asked about what it was doing to ensure the safety of Jewish students in private schools an Independent Schools Queensland spokesperson said: “Bullying of any kind, in any school, is an incredibly serious matter and schools have policies in place to deal with this kind of behaviour”.

It follows a pro-Israel rally in Brisbane at the weekend where several Jewish community members said they felt unsafe in in the state’s capital.

Originally published as Disturbing bullying of Jewish students in Cairns exposed