Executive Officer at Jewish Council of Australia
Sarah is a human rights lawyer. She is a Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre, working on democratic rights and freedoms, and a lecturer at Melbourne Law School. Sarah has worked for many years representing clients in the areas of democratic rights, police accountability, the rights of people in prison and coronial inquests into deaths in custody. She was awarded a John Monash Scholarship in 2019 and completed a Master of Laws at Harvard University focused on policing, racism and mass incarceration. Sarah has written widely on issues of policing, racism, protest rights and Palestinian human rights. Sarah went to a Jewish school on Gadigal country and has been involved in many Jewish community organisations. Sarah is committed to collective liberation and working alongside and learning from the communities she works with in their fights for justice.
Sarah Schwartz speaks to Deepcut about the Antoinette Lattouf verdict
Executive Officer Sarah Schwartz recently spoke to Deepcut for a story titled Landmark court rulings reveal limits of pro-Israel lobby. An excerpt from her comments: The Lattouf judgement sends a message to employers, to institutions, to decision-makers that you shouldn’t cave in to these blatantly antidemocratic tactics of intimidation. Click here to read the full…
Sarah Schwartz speaks to The Guardian about the synagogue arson attack
Executive Officer Sarah Schwartz recently spoke to The Guardian for a story titled Tony Burke says Melbourne synagogue fire an ‘attack on Australia’ as NSW man charged over incident. An excerpt from her comments: These responses fuel division. We urge politicians not to engage in kneejerk responses, and to instead support grassroots efforts between communities…
News.com.au covers Jewish Council’s concerns about anti-hate laws
News.com.au recently published a story titled NSW government to probe anti-Semitism response amid concerns about anti-hate laws. It spoke to Jewish Council extensively, below is an excerpt from Sarah Schwartz’s comments quoted in the story: The government needs to get serious about addressing the root causes of hatred. The measures they are proposing are really…
Sarah Schwartz talks to SBS News: “How war in the Middle East could shape the federal election”
Executive Officer Sarah Schwartz recently spoke to SBS News for a story titled How war in the Middle East could shape the federal election. An excerpt of her comments: I think it’s really dangerous to flatten any community and to say that an entire community holds a particular political view in support of Israel, particularly…
Sarah Schwartz speaks to The Guardian about Labor preferencing the Greens last in Macnamara
Executive Officer Sarah Schwartz recently spoke to The Guardian for a story titled Jewish leaders unhappy at decision to block Greens candidate from Melbourne community forum. An excerpt from her comments: Like any community, the Jewish community has diverse political views. It does an incredible disservice to Jews and to our community not to recognise…
Sarah Schwartz speaks to The Guardian about the Coalition’s proposal to include antisemitism questions in Australia’s citizenship test
I think Peter Dutton and the Coalition are clearly trying to use the Jewish community and very real fears about rises in antisemitism to push their own anti-immigrant agenda. Click here to read the full piece.
