Taylor visits firebombed Adass Israel synagogue

Opposition leader Angus Taylor has vowed to stand by Australia’s Jewish community, declaring antisemitism a national issue, during a visit to the firebombed Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.

Taylor met with Adass community leaders to discuss their plans to rebuild on the site of the synagogue, which was firebombed in December 2024 in one of the most shocking antisemitic attacks in Australian history.

Speaking exclusively to the AJN during the visit, Taylor said protecting the Australian way of life is one of his core priorities, and that the Jewish community embodies the values that has made the country great.

“You are great Australians, and we need to make sure that you can enjoy the Australia and be part of the Australia that I grew up in, and that the threats and the terrorism that we’ve seen in recent times comes to an end and is never repeated,” he said.

Taylor said the firebombing and broader rise in antisemitism were not solely a Jewish community concern.

“There’s no question that the Jewish community here has been the one that suffered, because we all saw the terrible tragedy at Bondi, but there are questions here for all Australians,” he said.

“The question is, are we committed to maintain and protect that way of life that has been so essential to the success of this country over a long period of time?”

The new Liberal leader, who took over the party after its heavy defeat at the May 2025 federal election, was candid about the challenges facing the opposition.

“We’re in the worst position we’ve been in since we were formed a long time ago in the 1940s and we have to do better,” he said, adding that the path to recovery lay in returning to core Liberal values, including the rule of law, democracy and fundamental freedoms.

Taylor also revealed a personal family connection that gives him a particular affinity with the Jewish community.

His paternal grandmother’s family came from Eastern Europe, and he said he was only just beginning to explore what that heritage meant.

“Whilst I obviously wasn’t brought up as Jewish, my grandmother, her family, did come from Eastern Europe and I’m intrigued, and I need to understand more about what it was, that flood of Jewish people coming to Australia in the 19th century,” he said.

He noted that near his own home there was a significant Jewish cemetery dating from that era, a reminder, he said, of how foundational Jewish immigration had been to Australia’s development.

“I’m very proud that that’s a piece of my background as well,” Taylor said.
On the question of whether Labor had effectively abandoned the Jewish community by calculating where electoral advantage lay, Taylor was careful not to directly accuse the government but said he would stand firm regardless of the political arithmetic.

“Australians, I think the vast majority, believe in what I have described. And wherever they’ve come from, whatever their religion, whatever their race, they know that the magnificent part of this country is that we leave the hate and violence of other parts of the world there. We don’t bring them to this country,” he said.

Taylor also addressed the AJN‘s recent social media poll, which found that 65 per cent of Jewish respondents said they might consider voting for One Nation.

Rather than attack that party directly, he called on the Liberal Party to return to its conservative roots so that disaffected voters would have no reason to look elsewhere.

“Some have left the Liberal Party, or have considered leaving the Liberal Party, because there’s a sense that we are no longer being a party of conviction, that we’ve adopted the politics of convenience,” he said.
“It’s extremely important now that we get back to those roots and those core values.”