Flames of hate in London

We stand with the British Jewish community this week as they reel from the most vulgar of antisemitic attacks, the torching of four Hatzola ambulances in the heavily Jewish London suburb of Golders Green.

The Jewish world rallied for us after December 14, 2025. In our darkest hour, it meant so much to know we were not alone. Now it is our turn to repay the love and solidarity. That is the unique beauty of our global Jewish community. We are there for another. We are family.

Setting fire to ambulances is a particularly heinous crime. It is one thing to daub a wall with hateful graffiti or to hurl online abuse. To destroy vehicles that are critical in saving lives shows a whole new level of depravity.

We can also imagine how important Hatzola is to UK Jews given our own dependence on Hatzolah in Melbourne and Hatzolah and Community Health Support in Sydney.

The latter two were directly involved in providing life-saving treatment in the immediate aftermath of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack. Hatzolah paramedic Rabbi Yanky Super was himself struck by a bullet while aiding shooting victims. If not for their heroics, the death toll may have been higher.

The arson attack in London is yet more evidence that the world is in the midst of a global antisemitism emergency.

Here in Australia, incidents of hate continue to occur with alarming regularity.

Just last week we saw school students on an excursion in Canberra verbally abused, while a student at Rose Bay Secondary College who had fired an airgun at school was found to have been disseminating antisemitic hate on social media and extolling Nazis.

One could reasonably argue that school kids are young and will learn from their mistakes. Which brings us to who should know better.

There are no excuses for the vile cartoon in the Australian Financial Review over the weekend. The well-respected newspaper, which shapes opinions and should have standards, needs to explain how it allowed a grossly antisemitic caricature echoing conspiracy theories of supposed Jewish power to sully its pages.

Because when respected publications print such propaganda, it normalises hate against Jews. And that’s when Jewish ambulances get firebombed, or worse – as we well know.