University of Sydney’s Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott appointed a special advisor for the antisemitism training program, but forgot to tell anyone until months later. Cathy Peters and Wendy Bacon with the story.
The person chosen for the role of Sydney University’s antisemitism chief is Michael Abrahams-Sprod, Chair of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies. His role is to help roll out a training program for ‘front-line’ staff on issues facing the Jewish community, including antisemitism in ‘contemporary settings’.
University staff only learned about the appointment through a staff intranet notice last week. A University spokesperson told MWM that Abrahams-Sprod’s new position began on January 1, 2026 and continues until December 2027. Asked to specify the date the position was approved and from whom the Vice Chancellor sought advice, the spokesperson said it was approved on the recommendation of the USyd Senate People, Culture and Safety Committee on March 6, 2026.
This was two months after Abrahams-Sprod started his special advisor job. He was previously campus coordinator of Sydney University’s branch of the pro-Israel Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism and works alongside the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal.
This MWM investigation can also reveal that even before his new appointment, Abrahams-Sprod was funded to work on anti-semitism issues by the University. In 2025, he worked on a collaboration with the Special Antisemitism Envoy, Jillian Segal, and the Sydney Jewish Museum, developing an antisemitism awareness training program funded by the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne.
Antisemitism training program
In his new role, Abrahams-Sprod will co-deliver 12 sessions with the Sydney Jewish Museum to 120 USyd staff in key areas including Human Resources, Protective and Risk Services, the Student Affairs Unit and the Office of the Vice-Chancellor. These key front-line staff administer policies, communicate with staff and students staff and respond to complaints.
After completing the training of administrative staff, Abrahams-Sprod will advise on training for all staff within an “overarching anti-racism framework … to align with the expectations of the Australian Human Rights Commission”.
In response to MWM questions, a spokesperson said that Abrahams-Sprod’s appointment recognised “his unique skills and experience, ongoing work supporting our Jewish and broader community and his existing role as an academic leader at the University.” He will “consult with relevant communities …on how to tackle antisemitism and other forms of discrimination and build a campus that’s safe and welcoming to all”.
Abrahams-Sprod’s appointment is a win for the pro-Israeli lobby.
Equally, it aims to silence other staff and students and deter protests in support of Palestine.
Claims of exceptionalism
Last week, USyd Staff for Palestine called on Mark Scott to reverse the Special Advisor appointment and abolish the role.
They accused the university of ‘exceptionalism’ and drew attention to a recent Australian Human Rights Commission finding of high rates of racism experienced by students and staff from First Nations, African, Asian, Jewish, Māori, Middle Eastern, Muslim, Palestinian and Pasifika backgrounds.
In an open letter, they stated that “in creating a unique special advisor role for antisemitism, the University has signalled that racism against Jewish people is being uniquely prioritised above other forms of discrimination.”
Sydney University Staff for Palestine statement on the appointment of a special advisor to the university on antisemitism . We call on Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott to reverse this appointment, and to abolish the special advisor role. pic.twitter.com/gXF0DlsiyT
— Sydney Staff for BDS (@sydneystaff4bds) April 1, 2026
Abrahams-Sprod will work across the university sector to fulfill requirements of Segal-appointed former conservative Australian Catholic University VC, Greg Craven, who has been tasked to oversee her punitive universities Report Card initiative.
As reported in the Guardian, Craven accused universities of being a ”major factor in making antisemitism respectful” and referred to campus protesters as “mutant radical groups”. Government funding could be withheld from universities found to “facilitate, enable or fail to act against antisemitism.”
Jillian Segal’s Plan to Combat Antisemitism makes sweeping claims about antisemitism in Australian universities, which have been strongly critiqued by the Australian Human Rights Institute.
The assessment will be based on the contentious IHRA definition of antisemitism. This definition is rejected by many Australian university staff and students, including Jews and students from Middle-East backgrounds whose families deal with the daily horror of Israel’s genocide, violent occupation, bombings, denial of humanitarian aid and other war crimes.
Bowing to Zionist pressure
Abrahams-Sprod’s appointment can be seen as a response to continuous pressure from October 2023 onwards from Abrahams-Sprod and fellow Zionist staff members on senior university managers to discipline staff and students for pro-Palestinian advocacy. Zionist leaders described ($) Scott as
“arrogant and dismissive” at a meeting in April 2024.
Their anger against anti-Israel sentiment grew after a student encampment began that month.
Scott’s initial reaction was to maintain neutrality regarding the protest, assuring the university community that he understood the right of protesters to peacefully assemble and the right of free speech.
However, by July 2024, after the two-month Gaza encampment had disbanded, USyd launched into defensive action, introducing its new Campus Access Policy, which clamped down heavily on future student or staff protests and political speech. This policy was strongly criticised, including by the university’s Law School, which published this open letter.
Bowing further to orchestrated pressure on Scott and the university, it then commissioned an external review by Bruce Hodgkinson AM SC about the university’s handling of claims of campus antisemitism in relation to the encampment. The External Review Report made 15 recommendations, including strengthening the restrictions on protests and the imposition of a New Civility Rule with strong penalties for breaching it.
In September 2024, a contrite Mark Scott apologised to Jewish students and staff at a Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee Inquiry for ‘failing them’ in his handling of the encampment. But key lobbyists, including Zionist Federation of Australia President, Jeremy Liebler, said Scott had lost credibility and continued to call for his resignation. Scott publicly promised ($) to fix the situation.
One of the ways to ‘fix’ the situation appears to have been to
turn the coordinator of the Zionist complaints into a leader in his own office.
Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A)
When announcing Abrahams-Sprod’s appointment to all university staff last week, Scott praised the “wealth of knowledge, experience and critical expertise” that Abrahams-Sprod brings to the new role. He did not mention his activities as the coordinator of the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism (5A).
5A is a network of academics working to counter antisemitism in universities and medical institutions that was formed in November 2023. It claimed in its opening statement to the NSW Inquiry into Antisemitism that, “they (Jews) are hated because of their nation state, Israel. Anti-Zionism is the new antisemitism disguised as wine but truly an old poison, rebottled, labelled with new academic terminologies that misrepresent and deceive.”
5A’s linking of Jewish identity with the state of Israel, its misrepresentation of anti-Zionism and the BDS movement as antisemitic strategies that the Israeli government has generated over many years to deflect and misconstrue focus on Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It claims that campuses post Oct 7, 2023, became “epicentres of antisemitic activism” and that this was rooted in “protests, university encampments and cancel culture.”
This puts it on a collision course with thousands of pro-Palestinian and human rights focussed staff and students.
In his role as coordinator, Abrahams-Sprod collated at least 100 complaints against fellow staff and students, many of whom he assisted. This puts him at the centre of the campaign to pressure Scott. According to 5A, the number of complaints emanating from USyd far exceeded the minuscule number submitted from the other four large universities in Sydney.
5A labelled campus protests as antisemitic because they ‘delegitimise the state of Israel’. Similarly, stating that Israel is an apartheid state or that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is also considered antisemitic, even though these are widely accepted findings of UN Inquiries and international lawyers.
Antisemitism Bill. Same shirt. Different stairs. Years in prison.
The Roth/Segal connection
Abrahams-Sprod is also connected to Jillian Segal through the funding of his own senior lectureship. Segal is married to property developer John Roth and was the sister-in-law of Stanley Roth, who died in January this year. For more than twenty years, charitable foundations associated with the Roth family, along with several other philanthropists, have helped fund the discipline of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies.
In November 2023, the Roth family established the Roth Senior Lectureship in Jewish Civilisation, Education and Israel Studies to which Abrahams-Sprod was appointed. The University spokesperson said that the funders played no role in his selection.
In addition, the Roth family has provided funding to Youth Mental Health at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre.
After his death, Stanley Roth was celebrated as one of Australia’s strongest and most generous funders of Israel. The brothers also received widespread publicity as directors of Henroth Investments, which donated $50,000 to the far-right group Advance Australia in 2023/4.
Given Abrahams-Sprod’s highly partisan role, his appointment will only stoke division rather than build a safe and civil environment on campus. Staff for Palestine has accused the University Management of being “hijacked by supporters of Israel”. But VC Scott’s appointment has done more than signal his capitulation to the pro-Israel pressure and disdain for the pro-Palestinian supporters.
As we will explore in part two, it also raises conflict-of-interest issues for the university.
David Gonski and Jillian Segal lead Israel lobby heavies at Gold Coast antisemitism summit