When Torahs burn
The charring of sacred Torah scrolls, the foundational documents of Judaism, is a knife to the heart.
After Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue was torched last Friday, December 6, the most heartrending aspect was the damage to sifrim Torah. The charring of sacred Torah scrolls, the foundational documents of Judaism, is a knife to the heart.
That it happened in Australia in 2024 is shocking. As the news broke, Jewish and Indigenous leaders were meeting at Melbourne’s Beth Weizmann Community Centre to commemorate December 6, 1938, the day William Cooper and his Australian Aborigines’ League marched to protest Kristallnacht, when Torah scrolls and synagogues burned in Nazi Germany.
We were heartened, however, at the instant response from the wider Australian community to Friday’s horror. Non-Jewish well-wishers brought solidarity and support. Politicians from both sides spoke of the need to quell the explosion of antisemitism.
However, we were dismayed it took Anthony Albanese five days to fly in and see the blackened ruins. It seems even a tennis date took precedence. It reinforced a nagging sense that the PM doesn’t get it, though we hope seeing the charred remains with his own eyes may change that.
And on it goes. This week, Sydney’s Woollahra was hit again with antisemitic slogans and a car burning.
The government’s passivity on Australia’s antisemitism crisis ever since the horrific mob at the Sydney Opera House in October 2023 has been deeply disturbing. Albanese has repeatedly stated antisemitism has “no place in Australia”. But it’s a platitude; a weak return serve, when what’s needed is a muscular smash over the net.
Albanese should invite Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to share a bipartisan address to the nation that antisemitism in Australia is not on, without immediately equating it to other forms of racism.
The government has announced Operation Avalite, which will engage the Australian Federal Police and ASIO in probing the shule firebombing, now declared an act of terrorism. But the Coalition’s pledge, which includes a more wide-ranging investigation among other measures to combat antisemitism and strengthen security, seems far more comprehensive.
The government must also come clean on the domestic nexus of its wayward Israel policy. Penny Wong’s remonstrations that “it’s not antisemitic” miss the point. The spin that Israel is a villain for defending its existence has created an air of licence for the worst actors back home.
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