Jewish family home targeted in car firebombing
Police identify person of interest as leaders condemn attack in St Kilda East.
A vehicle displaying a Chanukah mobile billboard was set alight in the driveway of a Jewish family home in St Kilda East in the early hours of Christmas Day, forcing the evacuation of young children.
Victoria Police were called to the Balaclava Road property at approximately 2.50am on Thursday, 25 December, after a car was engulfed in flames.
No one was inside the vehicle at the time, but occupants of the house, including young children, were evacuated as a precaution.
Moorabbin Crime Investigation Unit detectives have identified a person who may be able to assist with their investigation. Enquiries into the incident are ongoing.
Police are appealing for anyone with dashcam vision, CCTV footage or information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement posted online: “Australia’s Jewish community is in mourning after the Bondi terrorist attack. The firebombing of a car in Melbourne is another terrible act of suspected antisemitism.”
“Federal authorities stand ready to assist. There is no place in Australia for this kind of hatred, and it has to stop,” Albanese said.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said in a statement posted online that she had been briefed by police about what “the community rightly fear is an antisemitic incident.”
“This is not what any family, street or community deserves to wake up to on Christmas Day in Australia,” Allan said.
“This little car has been driving around town spreading the Chanukah and holiday cheer. I even saw one drive past when I was in Caulfield on Monday afternoon.”
She stated that police were working closely with community leaders to investigate the incident.
“We have a duty to this community: to ensure their families are safe and feel safe right now, and to work long-term in a serious effort to drive antisemitism and hate out of our state.”
Naomi Levin, CEO of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV), said “the Australian Jewish community remains on edge.”
“This is a continuation of the daily fear the Jewish community has had to live in for the past two years, and even more so after Bondi,” Levin said.
Daniel Aghion, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), said: “The ECAJ understands that the firebombing in Melbourne this morning is an isolated incident, and that the Melbourne Jewish community is not at further risk.”
Caulfield MP David Southwick, who attended the scene and has been in contact with the family, said he had been reassured by authorities that an arrest was forthcoming.
“I’ve also been told that there is no further risk to the Jewish community at this stage, which I think is very important for the community to understand, particularly in how we’re feeling right now,” he said.
Southwick described the community as “absolutely on edge” following the recent Bondi terror attack.
“This is the last thing that we would have felt after just coming off the Bondi attack,” he said. “This person needs to be arrested as quickly as possible, and there must be consequences.”
The incident occurred in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community, across the road from a school and near Caulfield’s Jewish precinct.
“You can’t get any closer than where we are standing right now,” Southwick said, noting the attack targeted a family he described as prominent within the community.
Southwick told The AJN he had spoken to one of the family members shortly after the incident.
“They’re very shaken by all of this, as you can imagine,” he said. “It’s very, very hard to process, very hard to comprehend somebody would do this.”
Southwick said the attack followed two years of escalating incidents targeting Jewish Victorians, including two synagogue firebombings, and called for immediate government action.
“It’s time to recall parliament. The premier has been talking really tough about a whole lot of things. Well, we need action,” he said.
“The Jewish community have has had years of hate. We are literally waking up every morning to a Groundhog Day of hate. And we’ve had enough.”
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