Grant-funded author ‘led leak of 600 Jewish creatives’ details’

An author who widely shared the leak of details of 600 Jewish creatives celebrated Hamas ‘freedom fighters’ the day after the group’s October 7 atrocities and has received tens of thousands of dollars in federal grant funding.

Author illustrator Matt Chun.

An author who widely shared the leak of details of 600 Jewish creatives celebrated Hamas “freedom fighters” the day after the group’s October 7 atrocities and has received tens of thousands of dollars in federal grant funding.

On Friday, Victoria Police confirmed it was investigating the leaking of details of hundreds of Jewish people from a creative’s WhatsApp group, including their occupation and, in some cases, ­social media profiles and pictures.

The Weekend Australian can reveal that an apparent leader of the leak and dox, which is subject to police investigations, was ­author/illustrator Matt Chun.

He posted a seven-slide explanation as to why the details had been leaked on his Instagram pages, and shared a link to the document.

The now-defunct link took people to the leaked personal details.

“Having now read the entire transcript, I’ll research and publish a number of posts about specific individuals from this leaked group chat, and the organisations with which they intersect,” Chun wrote.

“The group chat confirms what we already know: Zionists are thoroughly racist, thoroughly anti-Indigenous and thoroughly committed to colonialism.”

Across the week, Chun and his “4am.substack” page shared the now defunct link to leaked details, calling it “ours”.

“They’ve taken down our second link folks,” one Instagram story said. “But you can still access the secure folder directly using the QR code.”

In a post to Instagram, Chun called Zionists “parasitic upon progressive spaces”.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin. John Feder

Chun, for his artistic work, received $42,000 in grants from the government-funded Creative Australia last year. He also received funding from Writers Victoria, in partnership with the Myer Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Jewish Myer family.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said he was “in shock … disbelief” that “people are once again drawing up lists of Jews”, calling the tactics “Nazi-like”.

“It has been said to me by numerous community members that they feel relief their parents or grandparents who survived the Holocaust are not alive to see this,” he said.

He also criticised Chun’s posts and that he had received funding.

“The money artists receive from taxpayers helps them to obtain a public platform … We have seen that in some instances that platform has been used to viciously and relentlessly target Jewish Australians, including by compiling and publishing lists of Jews, which has endangered lives and livelihoods,” he said.

Allegra Spender.

Dave Sharma.

Citing his praise of Hamas and referring to Zionists as “parasites”, Mr Ryvchin said Chun’s “despicable conduct” should lead to the withdrawal of funding.

Condemnation of the doxing was swift in political circles. Independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender, whose electorate has a large Jewish community, called the doxing “appalling”.

Feminist author Clementine Ford at a pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“It is abhorrent behaviour that will do nothing to bring peace to the Middle East, but undermines our social fabric and brings enormous distress to fellow Australians” she said.

Liberal senator Dave Sharma said it was a “clear attempt to intimidate Jewish Australians”.

On Thursday, pro-Palestine activists, including author Clementine Ford, shared a link to a spreadsheet of the names, occupations and social media profiles of almost 600 Jewish creatives.

Multiple attempts to contact Chun have not been responded to