Vandals tried to burn shule

Three antisemitic graffiti attacks in 24 hours

Speaking outside Newtown Shule, NSW Premier Chris Minns told reporters on Sunday it was a “racist, antisemitic targeted attack”.

Graffiti at Newtown Synagogue on Saturday morning.
Graffiti at Newtown Synagogue on Saturday morning.

Rabbi of Newtown Synagogue Rabbi Eli Feldman has declared his community will not be intimidated after the exterior of the shule in Sydney’s inner west was graffitied by vandals who attempted to set fire to the building.

The incident early on Saturday morning occurred around the same time that more antisemitic graffiti was found in Henry Street, Queens Park – following a car being daubed with “F**k the Jews” on Monday, January 6 – and just 24 hours after Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah was daubed with swastikas. Then on Monday, “Gas the Jews” was found scrawled on a wall in inner-Sydney Sydenham.

It also occurred just over a month after the Adass Israel shule in Melbourne’s Ripponlea was firebombed and destroyed.

“There was no damage, and the synagogue is back to where it was,” Rabbi Feldman said in an update to congregants on Sunday.

“The people who did this are cowards frankly, and it is good that we have taken the security measures we have, so the fence did its job, the CCTV did its job, and we continue to do ours which is to be a light in the community and to the world.

“Because we are not going to be intimidated by people painting things on our wall.”

Speaking to reporters on Sunday morning, Police Commissioner Karen Webb confirmed an accelerant was used in the attack, though the fire self-extinguished within minutes.

Police have released CCTV images of two people who may be able to assist them with their inquiries.

A home daubed with offensive graffiti in Queens Park. Photo: AJN

Police also said investigations were continuing into the Queens Park vandalism and the Southern Sydney Synagogue vandalism.

Speaking outside Newtown Shule, NSW Premier Chris Minns told reporters on Sunday it was a “racist, antisemitic targeted attack”.

“There’s been a massive escalation in antisemitic hate crime in Australia over the last 12 months,” he said.

Days earlier, Minns described the vandalism at Southern Sydney Synagogue, located in his own electorate of Kogarah, as a “monstrous act”.

“It’s around the corner from my house and I know that the people that I represent and the community that I live in completely repudiate that kind of horrifying vandalism.”

He said the shule has “been in our community for decades” and is “much loved and much revered by members of the local community, whether they are of the Jewish faith or not”.

Minns added that the NSW government will continue to strengthen the laws and throw resources at crime prevention in its efforts to prevent “hate crimes”.

The Premier also posted CCTV images of the alleged perpetrators on his own Facebook page.

Southern Sydney Synagogue president George Foster said the graffiti was “deeply distressing but it’s almost inevitable given the background on the rise of antisemitism currently”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned both shule incidents.

“There’s no place in Australia for antisemitism,” he said responding to Newtown.

The offensive message scrawled on Southern Sydney Synagogue.

“The people that committed these crimes should face the full force of the law.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) president David Ossip labelled the Newtown incident “a failed act of terrorism”.

“The NSW government has also provided us with additional funding to enhance Jewish communal security,” he said.

Ossip earlier said of the Southern Sydney Synagogue incident, “It isn’t normal or acceptable that Australians are having to wake up every morning filled with apprehension about whether or not there’s been another antisemitic hate crime overnight.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin lamented the environment in which the attacks took place.

“‘Enough is enough’, people are now declaring. But they’re 15 months late,” he wrote on X.

“Now attacks on Jews are the norm.”

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