‘Shattered’: Melbourne synagogue arson leaves community feeling furious, and vulnerable
Many feel betrayed by the Australian government, citing inaction in the face of a surge of antisemitic incidents and an anti-Israel stance; suspects still at large
For some in Australia, where there are more Holocaust survivors per capita than anywhere in the world outside of Israel, Friday’s arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne recalled painful memories from the past.
“This community was founded by people like my father, who escaped from Germany after the Kristallnacht attack,” said Yossi Aron, religious affairs editor at the Australian Jewish News, a Times of Israel partner site. “It’s in our DNA that whenever you see a burning shul, it’s a bad sign for the Jewish people.”
Aron on Sunday recalled that in the hours after the attack on Adass, a synagogue built by Holocaust survivors, some members of the synagogue wanted to go back into the synagogue to get their ritual prayer objects so they could pray as usual.
“Prayers Friday morning and Shabbat were moved to the Jewish school just 500 meters away,” Aron said. “But some people were missing their tallit (prayer shawl) and tefillin (phylacteries), which they kept at their seats in the synagogue. Eventually, they made special arrangements with the fire brigade that one person, under close supervision for safety, was allowed to go in and gather up whatever personal items that could be brought out.”
While prayers at Adass may have continued uninterrupted, the destruction of the synagogue was a harsh wake-up call for many in Australia’s Jewish community.
“This feels like a turning point,” said Keren Zelwer, a Melbourne resident and community activist. “Things have gotten very serious here since October 7. Our community is proud and strong, but we are very concerned and angry that our government isn’t standing up to fight this.”
Police are still searching for the two mask-wearing arsonists who walked into the Adass Israel Synagogue around 4 a.m. Friday morning. The fire they ignited, just about an hour before prayer services, injured one and destroyed the synagogue building.
Reports say it took about 60 firefighters and 17 fire trucks to respond to the blaze. The Torah scrolls located in the main sanctuary were lightly damaged, but are still usable, witnesses said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack Sunday as an act of terrorism and spoke out strongly against a ‘worrying rise in antisemitism.” But for many in Australia’s Jewish community, there’s a sense of “too little, too late.”
Rising tensions
Australia’s community of some 120,000 Jews has endured a sharp spike in antisemitic activity since the outbreak of war after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Some 2,062 anti-Jewish incidents were recorded on the continent during the year since the attack, more than four times as many as during the previous year, a report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said last week.
In a community built by Holocaust survivors, many of the images that have come out of the past year are a clear reminder of what antisemitism can do if left unchecked. Australia’s Jews tend to see political inaction as a significant part of the problem.
“There has been a growing sense of anxiety in our community since early 2022, when Australia elected its current left-center government,” said Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia. “Coming right after the most pro-Israel government in Australian history, the country’s change in policy was noticeable immediately.”
Exclusive footage showing the devastating aftermath inside the firebombed synagogue in Melbourne, Australia. pic.twitter.com/UdwtRXfBUE
— Osher Feldman (@OsherFeldman) December 6, 2024
But no one expected that to translate to violence on the streets.
“Right after October 7, there was a short outpouring of support and empathy,” Leibler said. “But just a few days later, there was the infamous rally outside the Sydney Opera House, where hundreds of people gathered and chanted “Fuck the Jews!” “Where’s the Jews?” and, according to some, “Gas the Jews!” while police stood by watching. That was the beginning of what has become a serious sense of betrayal within the Jewish community.”
Since then, more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents have taken place, including cases of physical assault, anti-Israel protests outside synagogues and Jewish schools, Jewish homes targeted with hate graffiti and stickers, and attacks against Jewish-owned businesses.
The attacks have come from a wide range of anti-Israel interest groups, including Muslims, left-wing progressives, and right-wing and neo-Nazi antisemites, ECAJ said in its report.
However, the torching of a synagogue reverberated in a different sort of way.
“We haven’t had any attacks like this over the past year,” said Naomi Levin, CEO of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria. “We’ve experienced some terrible things, but nothing like we saw Friday. Our community’s sense of safety was already very fragile, but a lot of people wanted to believe that sort of violence wasn’t possible in Australia, and that has now been shattered.”
Fighting for the future
For many, anxiety has given way to anger.
On Friday morning, angry community members heckled Victorian state Premier Jacinta Allan, as she visited the site of the attack, accusing her of playing politics and losing control of the situation.
Some charged that government officials are afraid to take a strong stand in favor of Jewish interests due to federal elections planned for next summer. Albanese’s party is counting heavily on Muslim votes, which strongly outweigh the Jewish vote, residents said.
Last week, just days before the attack, Australia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Gaza, reversing a policy it had maintained for decades.
“It’s clear that these calculations are partially responsible for the government’s policy shifts,” Leibler said.
Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a line connecting Australia’s foreign policies and Friday’s attack. “It is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia,” he posted on X.
On Sunday, heads of the ECAJ sent a sharply-worded letter to Albanese, calling for stronger action.
“For more than a year, Jewish Australians have lived with fear and anxiety. Many in our community now question their future in this country,” the letter read. “We are calling on you and your government to immediately adopt and to strongly encourage state governments to [respond] to what is now a national antisemitism crisis.”
Albanese rebuffed the accusations, pledging millions of dollars to better protect Jewish communities and speaking out strongly against what he called a “despicable attack.”
“In this deeply distressing time, I want every member of the Jewish community to know our government unequivocally condemns the prejudice you have been targeted with,” he said.
Not everyone in Melbourne’s Jewish community is sounding the alarm, however. Ron Levy, a professor of law and politics at the Australian National University in Canberra, believes there is no reason to panic at this time.
“It’s still a very safe country,” Levy said. “Things have gotten worse here, but we aren’t talking about Germany in the 1930s. Even if things are less safe now, we are not cowering indoors.”
