Although anti-Semitism undeniably persists, a healthy majority of Australians support the local Jewish community
The smoldering ruins of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, evoke images of Germany in 1939. Charred seforim and siddurim, the bimah reduced to ashes — 70 years of communal life obliterated in flames of hatred that have raged steadily stronger since the tragic events of October 7 around the globe.
One important difference from the situation in Nazi Germany, though: The victims of this attack found warmth and solidarity from their non-Jewish neighbors. Although anti-Semitism undeniably persists, a healthy majority of Australians support the local Jewish community.
Police authorities announced on Monday that they had classified the arson attack on the synagogue as a terrorist act, which increases the resources available to the investigation, and that they were hunting for three suspects.
Early last Friday morning, around 4 a.m., two masked individuals in hoodies set the synagogue ablaze, spreading a liquid accelerant that ignited a fire so intense it required 60 firefighters and 17 fire engines to contain. The destruction could have been far worse were it not for two young men inside the building who, with their cries, managed to scare off the attackers.
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