Still Burning in Melbourne  

Last Friday night, an arson attack on Australia’s East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation resulted only in fire damage to the building — but the images that went viral after Shabbos testified that only a miracle had prevented a tragedy.

Angelo Loras, 34, was arrested by Australian police hours later and charged with hurling a Molotov cocktail at the doors of the shul while some 20 people were having a Shabbos seudah inside. B’chasdei Hashem, the doors withstood the flames. And though there were no fatalities, the incident set off new alarm bells within Australia’s Jewish community, which has become the target of numerous attacks since the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel.

In fact, although the synagogue attack made front-page news due to its severity, two other acts of violence against the Melbourne Jewish community were committed that very same day. In the first, a mob of pro-Palestinian protesters vandalized the Israeli-owned restaurant Miznon; later, another mob set fire to cars and sprayed anti-Semitic graffiti.

Sadly, these images are not new to Australians. Last December, another Melbourne shul, Adass Israel, was hit with an arson attack. At the time, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack and pledged to “shed light on the facts.”