Hundreds of Jewish creatives have names, details taken in leak, published online

Anti-Zionist activists have published the names, images, professions and social media accounts of hundreds of Jewish people working in academia and creative industries, in an escalation of social tensions over the October 7 attacks and subsequent war in Gaza.

The dissemination of almost 600 names and their personal details was taken from the purported membership of a private WhatsApp Group formed last year by Jewish writers, artists, musicians and academics.

Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

The leak included a spreadsheet with links to social media accounts and a separate file with a photo gallery of more than 100 Jewish people.

The mass doxxing on Thursday came as Victoria Police confirmed it was already investigating potential criminal breaches of privacy from earlier incidents relating to the same WhatsApp group.

“Police are investigating following reports the personal details of a number of people, who belong to a private social media chat group, appear to have been released online,” a police spokesperson said.

It appears the latest material, which was compiled from a leaked transcript of chat group discussions over several months, was published without activists confirming the accuracy of its contents.

Clementine Ford speaking at a pro-Palestine rally at the State Library of Victoria last month.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald were contacted by a Jewish journalist who was not a member of the WhatsApp group but whose name was included in the published spreadsheet.

“I have been vocally critical of Israel, was not added to the group and specially said I didn’t want to be in that group, and my name is on the spreadsheet,” said the Melbourne-based journalist, who asked not to be named for fear of further harassment.

“I am not a Zionist, I have never been a Zionist, I am just a Jewish woman trying to go about my life. This is a group of any Jew they know the name of. I can’t believe it is happening.”

Feminist author Clementine Ford was among several pro-Palestinian activists who published a link to the “leaked zionist group chat” on Thursday.

“This is a group of ‘creatives’ working to silence voices calling for Palestinian liberation,” Ford told her more than 250,000 Instagram followers.

When asked why she published the material, Ford replied: “I would say that people whose livelihoods and professional reputations are mendaciously – and successfully – targeted in secret by others invested in silencing their criticism of a genocide are entitled to defend themselves.”

The doxxing incident comes amid months of pro-Palestinian protests over the ongoing war in Gaza which has killed more than 27,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

This masthead previously revealed that some members of the J.E.W.I.S.H creatives and academics group and a separate WhatsApp group of Jewish lawyers wrote to ABC managing director David Anderson and chair Ita Buttrose demanding they sack broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf.

The ABC has been gripped by conflict between union staff and management since it sacked Lattouf for reposting a Human Rights Watch report on social media that was critical of Israel. Lattouf has taken legal action, claiming unlawful termination on the grounds of her race and political opinion. Anderson has insisted that the corporation was not influenced by external pressure in its sacking of Lattouf.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the widely disseminated “Jew list”, as he described it, was designed to damage the reputation and professional careers of people who had spoken against the rise of antisemitism following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which killed about 1200 people in southern Israel.

“These people have painstakingly collected the names, faces, professions and other personal information of a group of Australians whose sole common trait is that they are Jews,” Ryvchin said.

“They are telling those who chant ‘Where’s the Jews?’ exactly who and where the Jews are.”

Shortly after the October 7 attacks, pro-Palestinian protesters were filmed chanting “Where’s the Jews?” and other slogans outside the Sydney Opera House.

“It is a ‘Jew list’ drawn up and published in a menacing manner intended to inflict maximum emotional damage and professional loss,” Ryvchin said.

Lee Kofman, a Melbourne-based Jewish author who administered the creatives and academics WhatsApp group, said the group was formed in October last year to support and advocate for Jewish people who felt alienated or isolated from their professional peers because of the war.

She said the group was not a political lobby and rejected its characterisation as a “secret Zionist cabal” with influence in high places.

“This is absurd and offensive, and feeds directly into the ancient and hateful antisemitic tropes about the Jews controlling, or trying to control, the world,” she said.

“Instead, we try to oppose: professional discrimination we are experiencing, like loss of work or workplace safety; silencing of our voices; overt racism we’ve experienced from some peers; media coverage of issues affecting our community that we feel is unfair or untrue.”

Kofman confirmed that some members of the group had “exercised their democratic right to complain to government, media and institutions”.

This included some members petitioning ABC management about Lattouf, a broadcaster highly critical of Israel who was contracted as a fill-in host on Sydney radio for five days in December. She was removed from air with two days left to run on her contract.

Although the WhatsApp group was private, with members explicitly asked not to republish the contents of its online discussions, a 900-page transcript of the group chat was leaked and disseminated to pro-Palestinian activists in late January.

Since then, some members of the group – renamed Zio600 by activists – have been outed online, with details of what they said in the chat group and their personal information published through a network of social media accounts.

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