About 56 complaints of anti-Semitism were made to organisers of the "never again is now" march after a violent clash with members of a weekly pro-Palestine protest in Melbourne's city centre on May 19, 2024.
Jewish Community Council of Victoria chief executive Naomi Levin told the anti-Semitism royal commission that Jewish protesters, including some in wheelchairs, were attacked when members of the other protest crashed the march outside Victoria's parliament.
"There was a level of vitriol against Jewish people who were peacefully demonstrating that was outside what we've ever seen," Ms Levin said.
"It was the worst day we've ever experienced here in Victoria for anti-Semitic incidents."
Police formed lines to separate the groups of protesters and arrested six people as a result of the clash.
But there was a perception among the Jewish community that police "didn't step in and didn't do what was needed to be done", Ms Levin said.
That continued at future pro-Palestinian protests, where Jewish groups were directed by police to leave the area before the rally came through, the inquiry heard.
"The police engagement was not sufficient to create a sense of safety," Ms Levin said.
The progressive Jewish Council of Australia previously criticised the "never again is now" rally as exploiting fears about anti-Semitism to push a "pro-Israel Christian Zionist agenda".
The royal commission was called after 15 people were killed and dozens more injured when two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah event at Sydney's Bondi Beach on December 14.
The inquiry was told 80 per cent of Ms Levin's role was taken up by meetings and discussions surrounding anti-Semitism and security, a need that had increased dramatically since 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel triggering attacks on the Palestinian enclave in Gaza.
A community youth leader giving evidence on Wednesday said children were required to turn off location services on their devices and refrain from appearing outwardly Jewish on summer camps.
"It's a security risk to have any Hebrew or any identifying symbols while we're in public," she said.
"There's a real threat that someone could target us if we are showing that part of us."
The woman, who gave evidence under a pseudonym, reported children as young as eight feeling distressed on Jewish community camps after the attack.
"Many who usually would just be homesick were now crying because they were scared that someone was going to come and murder them in their sleep," she said
Jewish students had become desensitised to abuse endured in the schoolyard and often downplayed anti-Semitism directed at them as a "joke", the inquiry was told.
The commission heard evidence on Tuesday that 90 per cent of rabbis surveyed by the Rabbinical Council of Victoria in April had observed congregants concealing or minimising outward signs of their Jewish identity.
Of the rabbis surveyed, 85 per cent had personally experienced anti-Semitic conduct.
"The incredible amount of abuse just walking to and from the synagogue on a Saturday morning is something that we've just normalised, that's accepted," Â council president Rabbi Moshe Kahn said.
Mr Kahn spoke about the burden of security on the community, adding that anti-Semitic incidents were being investigated at an inconsistent rate by authorities.
Victoria Police Superintendent Amanda Bowden said data was not necessarily collected on anti-Semitic conduct.
She said recording whether a crime was motivated by anti-Jewish prejudice was not mandatory in the state's main database.
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