Arson hit shule won’t be intimidated

The East Melbourne shule community is vowing not to let the arson attack affect them.

Rabbi Dovid Gutnik said the community is shaken but determined to turn the incident into “something positive” by expanding their activities and community programs.

“Let’s take this event and turn it into something where, you know, we embolden our efforts to enhance the community, to grow the community,” Rabbi Gutnik said.

Congregation President Danny Segal, who was present during the attack, described how events unfolded.

“One of the rabbis kids ran back and said that there’s smoke, there’s a fire. And we all rushed out there, and then we saw what had been done,” Mr Segal said.

Emergency services arrived quickly after passersby called for help, but Mr Segal said congregants experienced “that unsure feeling” and uncertainty about whether more attacks would follow.

“There were actually kids here and it was pretty frightening,” he said, noting the potential for delayed trauma.

“You can think, as David and I are thinking, about what could have happened if it happened a little bit differently?”

The congregation has received widespread community support across the political spectrum and from interfaith leaders.

The first visitor on Shabbat morning was Reverend Michael Bowie from the Anglican church across the road.

“On the night of the event, a number of people came down, like the artist from the local gallery, from the Goldstone gallery, the curator, the Lord Mayor, was here straight away, almost immediately after it happened, lots of heads of the emergency services,” Rabbi Gutnik said.

In response to the attack, congregants have decided to perform additional mitzvot, including putting on tefillin and lighting Shabbat candles.

“As if to say, you know, attempts to diminish our voice and our presence will only be countered by attempts to flourish and increase our goodness,” Rabbi Gutnik explained.

The Rabbi drew parallels with historical persecution, referencing the biblical figure Miriam who told her parents that “even if we’re in abject conditions in slavery in Egypt, we still have to embrace our traditions, and we still have to continue to have families and to perform our Jewish rituals and customs.”

“And yeah, that’s how we got Moses. That’s how we got freedom,” he said.

Rabbi Gutnik said the congregation’s infrastructure “held up well” but security processes would be reviewed for potential improvements.

“When somebody comes to diminish you, you have an obligation to say, if what I’m doing is good and right, then I’m just going to redouble my efforts to do that,” he said.

The congregation plans to continue building projects that have been in development for years, including a learning centre potentially named after the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, whose family has given their blessing.

Mr Segal described plans for the new facility to include “learning centres” and “areas where people can come to learn and to be together and mix and feel free.”

He noted that many community members from northern Melbourne are already attending the synagogue for cultural activities, seeking what he described as “a Jewish feel” in a welcoming environment.

“A lot of the people from the north are coming in, and they don’t even come to the shul for religious reasons, and they come here and they talk, and they have
weekly meetings where they discuss things, and the rabbi comes in and speaks to them,” Mr Segal said.

“It’s not so religious, but it’s a Jewish feel, and those people are yearning for that.”

The congregation sees the expansion as both meeting community needs and serving as a defiant response to intimidation, with Rabbi Gutnik describing their approach as taking “a step down for a giant leap up.”

Mr Segal emphasised the need for community support.
“We want the support of all the community to help us, and we want to build a centre”, he said.