Rabbi Benjamin Elton, chief minister of the Great Synagogue in Sydney, is now giving evidence.
He said that “Free Palestine” stickers had been placed on the front of the synagogue.
“We do not have a foreign policy; we do not have jurisdiction in that part of the world,” he said.
He said a man had yelled at him, “Jew, go home”, outside the synagogue. On another occasion someone in a van yelled an antisemitic slur at him.
The synagogue had also received abusive phone calls, he said. The message to staff was “we’re coming to get you”, he said.
“We really are being asked to serve as surrogate security guards, even though that is not what we were employed to do,” he said.
