Antisemitism fight to be taken into kinders, schools and universities
By Noel Towell, Jackson Graham and Bridie Smith | December 18, 2025
The Albanese government will take its attempts to combat antisemitism into the nation’s kindergartens and childcare centres as well as schools and universities. A new antisemitism education taskforce, led by eminent expert David Gonski, was announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday as part of the wide-ranging response to the massacre of Jewish Australians at Bondi Beach on Sunday.
Special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, wants children across Australia taught about the Holocaust. Credit:Dylan Coker
Gonski, best known for helming two separate reports into school funding for the Gillard and Turnbull governments, has been given 12 months to bring together state education ministries, universities, tertiary education authorities, private and religious schools and the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority, the agency with oversight of the pre-school sector, to develop a response.
Jillian Segal, Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, will also work on the reform after calling for a nationally consistent approach to teaching students about the ancient hatred in her plan to combat antisemitism.
In her report, handed to the government in July, Segal wanted an understanding of Nazi Germany’s campaign of genocide against European Jews in the 1930s and 1940s taught in all Australian schools, “including an understanding of the Holocaust as a major case study of where unchecked antisemitism can lead”.
New Antisemitism Education Taskforce: the brief
Source: Australian government
“Educators and public servants must have access to training to recognise and address antisemitism in classrooms and public settings,” the special envoy wrote.
Segal did not include preschools, kindergartens or childcare centres in her call for action in July, and it is not yet clear what the federal government envisages for the sector.
Thursday’s announcement also promised more money for not-for-profit group Together for Humanity. Founded by Rabbi Zalman Kastel, the group has worked with hundreds of schools nationwide to combat prejudice through programs facilitated by multicultural and multi-faith teams, while also providing technical and financial support in response to specific incidents.
Together for Humanity chief executive Annette Schneider said antisemitism was a unique form of prejudice and hatred, which education could help combat from a young age.
“Antisemitism education is more than Holocaust education,” Schneider said. “[It] also needs to involve the foundations of our core understanding of who we are as people, identity, culture, faith, respect and how to live with the other and live with difference.”
The taskforce will also build on work being done at Monash University, which is seeking to address antisemitism in tertiary education and other sectors. So far, the Monash Initiative for Rapid Research into Antisemitism has trained more than 1000 university leaders to combat antisemitism.
“My focus has been on vice-chancellors, executive teams and boards, but we really want to get to department-level leaders, school-level leaders, student-facing teams and front-line staff,” said David Slucki, director of Monash’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. “The government incorporating this into its plan to me is just recognition of something that has been working really well and having a big impact.”
The task force will also oversee a review of the Australian curriculum, and provide teachers with free resources to strengthen social cohesion and combat antisemitism in the classroom.
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum, which is dedicated to Holocaust education, research and remembrance, has more than 25,000 school students visit each year – more than 90 per cent are not Jewish.
Chief executive Dr Breann Fallon said elements of Jewish faith and culture should be introduced to the curriculum earlier. Students in Victoria learn about the Holocaust in year 9 and 10 while learning about World War II.
Fallon acknowledged the curriculum was crowded, but said students must learn about the Jewish community before they learn about the Holocaust.
“You can’t understand what was lost if you can’t understand what was [there first],” she said.
Education Minister Jason Clare told Thursday’s press conference in Canberra that there “were lots of things that we need to do to tackle and weed out antisemitism”.
“The curriculum already has in it Holocaust education, but there is more that we can do here to make sure that we embed in it an understanding of the evils of antisemitism, of the horrors of the Holocaust and the importance of Australian values,” Clare said.
A Victorian government spokesperson said the state stood ready to contribute.
“Words and actions rooted in discrimination are not just hurtful, but deeply traumatic and unacceptable,” the spokesperson said.
“Our schools work really hard to stamp out vile, racist, antisemitic behaviour, and we are always on hand to lend support.”
Independent Schools Australia, which has about 1230 member schools nationally, welcomed the taskforce and chief executive Graham Catt said it would strengthen social cohesion and address antisemitism.
Gonski was contacted for comment.
This article is republished from: The Sydney Morning Herald