‘Sham’ anti-Zionist ad against Herzog’s Australia visit includes names of Nazi kapos and ‘A**e licker’

An open letter organised by an anti-Zionist Jewish group in Australia opposing Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit – published in some of Australia’s leading papers today – includes the names of notorious Holocaust kapos, a Hebrew name which translated means “a**e licker”, and a self-described Australian Jew who believes “Hitler’s only mistake was stopping too soon.”

The “Jewish Council of Australia”, which was founded in 2024, is anti-Zionist in outlook and was intended to challenge longstanding representative organisations within the Australian Jewish community, such as the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), which are Zionist.

The JCA opposed a visit by President Herzog to Australia, calling on Jews and allies to sign a letter opposing his visit.

In a social media message on Monday, the organisation said: “Thanks to your support, our full-page ad is in today’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Over 1,000 Jews and thousands of allies have signed our open letter to say that Israeli President Isaac Herzog is not welcome here.”

Unfortunately for the group, those perusing the list of signatories published as part of the ad soon found the name “Milkek Tachat”, Hebrew slang for “a**e licker”. Soon afterwards, the names “Eliezer Gruenbaum”, “Carmen Mory”, and “Josef Heiden” were all found to have been listed on the ad run by some of Australia’s leading papers.

Josef Heiden, an Austrian political prisoner, was a kapo – a functionary of the Nazi regime – at Dachau concentration camp. Known for his cruelty towards fellow inmates of the camp, several of whom he murdered, he was subsequently freed by the Nazis and welcomed into the Waffen SS.

Eliezer Gruenbaum, a Communist activist, was arrested by the Nazis due to his Communist activities rather than his Jewish ethnicity, and became a kapo at Auschwitz, where he was accused of playing a part in the beatings of some prisoners and in the deaths of tens of thousands of others.

Carmen Mory, a former journalist for the Manchester Guardian (which would later become the Guardian) subsequently served as a Swiss spy for the Nazis during the war and ultimately as a kapo at Ravensbrück concentration camp. When the camp was liberated, she committed suicide rather than face trial and execution.

Meanwhile a contemporary signer, Kate Emerson, wrote on Twitter in January 2024 that “I am a Jew. I am Ashkenazi, as are most Jews around the world and in Israel itself. And all I can think about tonight was that Hitler’s only mistake was stopping too soon. Pity, that.”

In October Alex Hearn, director of Labour Against Antisemitism, posted in the wake of the Heaton Park terror attack about how he had described going to Synagogue, only to have his social media mentions flooded with antisemitic comments. Emerson responded, in reference to Hearn, that “These are the kinds of Jews who need driving from the world.”

Commenting on the ad, Hearn said: “This list of people using a Jewish identity to support destroying the Jewish state has been exposed as a sham. It appears to include a Hitler supporter who targets Jews for racist abuse, as well as Nazi kapos. Another name is a joke in Hebrew, which accurately conveys the nature of this anti-zionist campaign.”

As part of the general statement from the JCA against the visit, the organisation also incorrectly claimed that President Herzog’s rhetoric has “been cited by the ICJ as evidence of genocidal intent”. In fact, a speech by Herzog was cited by those attempting to prove their case against Israel at the ICJ – and which relies on selective pruning of his speech to present a false impression of what he said – something which has been repeatedly called out by Herzog himself.