Victorian MP Joshua Burns delivered emotional testimony before Australia’s commission into antisemitism on Monday, recounting how a group of frum ninth-grade girls told him they had all been subjected to antisemitic harassment while traveling to school.

Burns told the Commission into Antisemitism in Australia on Tuesday that before the October 7 Hamas attacks, he could count “on one hand” the number of antisemitic incidents he had personally experienced.

However, he said “something dramatic shifted” in October 2023.

“But never did I grow up thinking being Jewish would be something I would have to hide or something that would prohibit me from reaching any part of Australian society or reaching any of the goals that I would have for my life or for my family,” he said on Tuesday.

Burns recalled one visit to Canberra when a group of ninth-grade girls from a Jewish school came to meet him.

“And I said to them … put up your hand if you’ve experienced anti-Semitism. And they all put up a hand,” he said.

“I said, all right … well, let’s dissect that, put up your hand if you’ve had someone shout at you, and barely a hand went down.

“These are Year 9 girls who are distinctly dressed in … school uniforms that have a modest and religious design to them …. being screamed at because they’re Jewish.”

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion resumed this week for its third round of hearings after receiving more than 20,000 submissions.

The commission was established in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach terror attack, in which 15 innocent people celebrating Chanukah were killed on December 14.

The commission’s final report is scheduled to be delivered in December, marking one year since the Bondi attack.

The inquiry is continuing, with additional proceedings expected.