An arson attack occurred at a Melbourne synagogue and is now being looked into as a potential act of terror. This incident has highlighted a disturbing rise in antisemitism within Australia.
A group of individuals wearing masks set fire to the Adass Israel Synagogue on December 6. This event is part of a series of incidents that have alarmed the Jewish community, prompting them to seek assistance from government officials.
Recently, on a Wednesday, Sky News Australia reported that a car was burned down in a Jewish neighborhood in Sydney. Furthermore, between two and potentially seven buildings in the vicinity were damaged by vandals, one of which had “kill Israiel” sprayed as graffiti. This wave of hate crimes comes following a similar occurrence at the end of last month, where vehicles and a restaurant in the same location were defaced.
Following the attacks in Sydney, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told Sky News Australia, “Sydney, per capita, has the second-highest number of Holocaust survivors in the world,” explaining that they came “to Australia specifically to be free from this kind of hate.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pushes his way through a crowd after visiting the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)
Albanese’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about criticisms of the prime minister’s reaction to the Melbourne firebombing, his response to the ECAJ’s letter, and whether the country’s shift regarding a Palestinian state might have an impact on the state of antisemitic hate in Australia.
As it has worldwide, antisemitism has risen dramatically in Australia since Oct. 7, according to an ECAJ report from November 2024. Reporting entities counted 2,062 antisemitic incidents in Australia between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, compared with 495 incidents tallied during the prior 12 months. This represents a 316% increase in expressions of anti-Jewish hate, which began as early as Oct. 8, when the ECAJ reported that Sheikh Ibrahim Daoud told an audience in western Sydney that he was “elated,” explaining, “it’s a day of pride, it’s a day of victory.”
The ECAJ sent Fox News Digital a trove of photographs showing acts of hate directed against Jewish Australians. These included an incident from November 2023, when unknown individuals sprayed “Kill Jews” and “Jew lives here” on a residential unit in southeast Melbourne, and wrote “Jew-free zone” in a Brunswick window, as reported by the Jewish Independent.
Protesters gather in Melbourne to demand justice for Palestinian victims of violence, on Dec. 1, 2024. (Ye Myo Khant/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The government responded to some major acts of antisemitism. In February, anti-Israel activists released a document featuring the “names and other personal details” of 600 Jewish musicians, writers, academics and artists in a WhatsApp group whose communications were also leaked.
Seven months later, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced a proposed sentence of up to six years in prison for those who release individuals’ private details in order to cause harm. The punishment would increase to seven years if a victim was targeted because of their race, religion or sexual orientation, among other factors.
A cyclist passes by the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Ripponlea suburb of Melbourne in the wake of the firebomb attack, on Dec. 8, 2024. (Alexander Bogatyrev/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In recognition of the rising intolerance in Australia, on Dec. 9, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory warning Jews to “exercise extreme caution” if visiting the country. As Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center’s director of global social action, explained, authorities there have failed “to stand up against persistent demonization, harassment and violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in Australia.”
