Federal Budget 2025: Adass Israel Synagogue receives over $31 million in ‘cohesion’ budget bump
Nearly $100 million will be spent keeping Jewish worshippers safe following an 18-month wave of anti-Semitism attacks, including more than $30 million for one synagogue alone.
Federal Budget
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Nearly $100 million will be spent keeping Jewish worshippers safe following the tide of anti-Semitism attacks which have afflicted the Australian community over the past 18 months.
The Albanese government has committed $31.4 million over four years in the federal budget to restore the Adass Israel Synagogue and community centre in Victoria after it was firebombed in December last year, including the restoration of Torah Scrolls.
That sum alone is almost double the government’s current total budget for “social cohesion”, spending on which will rise to $59.6 million in the next financial year.
The 2025-26 budget allocates a total $178.4 million over a five-year period to bring Australians from multicultural and multi-faith backgrounds together, including refugees.
The Jewish community will receive the majority proportion of funding following a slew of horrific anti-Semitic attacks around the country, including graffiti sprayed across school sites and cars being torched outside homes in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Elsewhere, $3.5 million will go towards establishing a permanent Holocaust museum and education centre in Queensland, providing a “a facility to remember and teach the lessons of the Holocaust and allow for the collection and preservation of historic objects”, while a further $2 million will be paid to the Holocaust Institute of Western Australia to upgrade their education centre.
A further $4 million will go to the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”, where the Project Rozana Foundation will be supported to “address critical gaps in rehabilitation services and foster capacity‑building in the health sector”.
The measures built on a $32.5 million commitment to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in the 2024 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook for the enhancement of security at Jewish community sites.
In total, $60.4 million over four years will be split between the Jewish and Muslim communities to boost security at their places of worship and other significant locations, such as schools.
Much of the funding has been redirected as part of the government’s response to the multicultural framework review, while savings elsewhere in the Department of Home Affairs will also help pay for the spend.
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