Published: 27 May 2025
Last updated: 27 May 2025
Jennifer Westacott, Chancellor of Western Sydney University
Jennifer Westacott can remember the transformative moment in her appreciation of the extent of antisemitism: it was the realisation that the Holocaust was state-sponsored genocide, that every institution was focused on annihilation of the Jews.
“I’d grown up as a person who was never afraid of the state, who never had reason to fear the institutions of the state,” she tells The Jewish Independent. “Walking through Yad Vashem, I tried to imagine Jews in the camps being aware that no institution would save them. That no intervention was possible. I cannot imagine what that would be like, to know that the entirety of an institutional set of arrangements was focused on one of the greatest, if not the greatest, acts of immorality.”
Westacott, who has spoken out strongly and repeatedly against the upsurge in antisemitism in this country, has joined the board of Josh Frydenberg’s recently established Dor Foundation because she is appalled at “how quickly antisemitism got out of the box, how quickly it was unleashed.
“Multiculturalism has been a tremendous success in this country, but that’s not to say there aren’t things that need fixing. We must be constantly vigilant to guard against fragility and threats to our social cohesion. Antisemitism is a threat to our multiculturalism and a threat to our democracy. We have to keep working at it and ensure that our institutions uphold society’s values.
“While we have been a successful multicultural society, we have to remember that Indigenous Australians do not share the same experience. Together, as a nation, we have much work to do to improve Indigenous health, incarceration, education and living standards.”
Comments2
Philippa Jacks2 June at 09:53 pm
Thank you Vic for your article and hope that it will make its way to the mainstream press.
As someone who considers herself a true ally of Indigenous Australians it is comforting to hear people such as Marcia Langton and Nova Peris stand by us.
Unfortunately their voices are seldom heard above the threatening din at so many public spaces by pro palestinians, with the Aboriginal flag flying amongst those of Hamas and Palestine.
It is painful to see the Aboriginal flag at these events. Particularly at the cultural misappropriation of First Nations’ cause, piggy backing on that of the Palestinian one.
Ima Watching27 May at 12:19 pm
Thanks Vic for this informative article, which illustrates the humanitarian principles that these 3 Friends share.
It is important for Jewish Australians to have Friends like these, and also for other Australians to understand the common values that have created the cohesive multicultural community that is Australia.