Youth Who Terrorized Jewish Kids To Visit Jewish Museum as Punishment
Sydney Jewish Museum Image by Wikipedia
One of the five youths arrested for terrorizing Jewish children on a school bus earlier this year agreed to visit the Sydney Jewish Museum as part of an agreed punishment.
In the juvenile justice system in Sydney, the offender – who cannot be named because he is a minor – also agreed to participate in a tolerance program run by the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, attend a Shabbat dinner and read Primo Levi’s “If This Is A Man” and Elie Wiesel’s “Night.” The punishment was levied at a youth justice conference on Dec. 9.
The offender was among the gang of drunken youths who boarded a bus in Sydney carrying Jewish pupils from Moriah College, Mount Sinai College and Emanuel School on Aug. 6.
The gang then intimidated the children, some as young as six, with threats of slitting their throats and chants of “Kill the Jews,” and “Heil Hitler.”
The incident made headline news, with some leaders linking it to the war in Gaza. “It is completely unacceptable and morally repugnant to scapegoat or hold responsible Jewish Australians, including children, for events overseas,” the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said at the time.
Police, however, said they did not believe the kids were targeted because they were Jews.
All five offenders were minors. Two received warnings, and the other two were let off. The youth justice conference was held solely for one gang member whose offenses were too serious for a caution.
Alongside the victim and her parents were NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive officer Vic Alhadeff, who was representing the other victims, a police officer, social worker, and the offender’s parents.
Alhadeff said the conference offered closure to the 12-year-old victim who was present. “It gave her an opportunity to question the offender, to hear from him and to hear him express remorse for his actions.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
