Australian political rivals pledge to rebuild Melbourne’s firebombed synagogue

Ahead of Australia’s national elections, both of the country’s largest parties have pledged to rebuild Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue, destroyed in December in an antisemitic firebombing attack.

On Tuesday, the ruling Labor party pledged AUD 30 million ($19 million) towards the rebuilding, as well as up to $1.2 million for security upgrades. This is in addition to AUD 250,000 given to replace and restore Torah scrolls damaged in the Synagogue.

“The firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue was a crime of cowardice and prejudice,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. “We won’t stand for that. We are committed to ensuring that this community rebuilds.”

That announcement came a day after Opposition leader Peter Dutton pledged up to AUD 35 million ($22 million) to restore the synagogue if his Liberal party comes into power in the elections, scheduled for May.

“We want to bring it back to life, much bigger and better than what it was,” Dutton said Monday during a visit to the synagogue site. He also pledged to fight antisemitism at universities if elected, and pass laws allowing law enforcement agencies to deport visa holders convicted of antisemitic crimes.

Rising levels of antisemitism have become a hot-button issue in Australia, particularly after the discovery last month of a trailer in Sydney packed with enough explosives to cause a significant mass-casualty event. The explosives were believed at the time to be intended for a Sydney synagogue, although police now believe they were planted by an organized crime network in order to divert police resources.

A video of two nurses in a Sydney hospital threatening to kill Israeli patients and saying they would refuse to treat them shocked the nation when it was released in February. There is also a suspicion that foreign actors are paying locals to carry out attacks in a coordinated effort.

A member of the Jewish community reads messages attached to a fence where flowers have been left at the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea on December 9, 2024. (Martin Keep / AFP)

Many of Australia’s Jews are strongly critical of the government for what they see as insufficient action against frequent antisemitic attacks. The attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue was seen as a turning point in a situation that has become untenable for the 120,000-strong Jewish community.

The number of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia quadrupled in the year after Hamas terrorists launched the war against Israel on October 7, 2023. Some 2,062 incidents were recorded between October 2023 and September 2024, compared to 495 incidents a year earlier, according to data from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

The Adass Synagogue, one of several buildings in a Jewish community complex in the Ripponlea suburb, was founded in 1949 by Holocaust survivors from Hungary, Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Many of the current members are Holocaust survivors or descendants of Holocaust survivors, and some of the Torah scrolls saved from the fire had been rescued from the ashes of the Holocaust, a website for the congregation said. The community is now home to a Hasidic congregation of several hundred families.

Adass Israel restarted weekday services at a new temporary synagogue last week, according to the Australian Jewish News. The location is being kept secret for security reasons.

Police have still not arrested two men who were seen on camera carrying out the predawn attack, although the investigation continues, police have said.

The synagogue previously raised more than $600,000 in a crowdfunding campaign for its reconstruction shortly after the fire.