Alexander Ryvchin (Russian: Александр Рывчин; born 18 July 1983) is a Ukrainian-born Australian author, advocate, media commentator, and lawyer.
[4][2] At the age of 4, Ryvchin migrated to Australia as a refugee, arriving on 10 January 1988 with his parents, brother and maternal grandparents.
[2] The family was also selected by The Sydney Morning Herald for a story on Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union arriving in Australia.
[2] A photograph of Ryvchin's grandfather embracing the taxi driver appeared on the front page of the Morning Herald.
[2] In their early days in the country, his father worked as a taxi driver and cleaner at Emanuel Synagogue and his mother was employed at a pie shop.
[2] His grandfather, a mechanical engineer, became a volunteer bus driver for the Berger Centre and his doctor grandmother worked as a nanny.
[9] He practised law at Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Sydney and Herbert Smith in London before serving as a spokesman for the Zionist Federation UK and being awarded an Israel Research Fellowship.
[33] Ryvchin is an outspoken critic of the anti-Israel movement referring to its activists as "self-righteous westerners" with "pretensions to heroism" who seek "redemption" by "slaying the Zionist beast".
[40] He also said Payman and Australian Greens "must be held accountable" and accused them of bringing antisemitism into the mainstream and have legitimized violent protests [41] and "deceitful rhetoric on genocide" and endangering Jewish community.
[42] In the wake of the 2024 Melbourne synagogue attack, Ryvchin called for a "serious and profound" government response to increasing levels of antisemitism in Australia.