As it happened: Melbourne synagogue Adass Israel in Ripponlea torched in early morning firebombing; prime minister, leaders condemn attack

Thank you for following our live blog covering the Melbourne synagogue attack. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

The destroyed interior of the Adass Israel synagogue.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the day’s major events:

• The arson and explosives squad is investigating the pre-dawn firebombing of Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community.
• Witnesses reported seeing two suspects in dark clothing and masks at the scene at the time of the attack, shortly after 4am.
• Local business owner Yumi Friedman was in the synagogue and shared his account of alerting police.
• Jewish leaders condemned the attack. “This is a tragic day for the Australian Jewish community. We have been warning about the risk of this since last year 7 October,” said Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “unequivocally condemned” the attack, describing it as an “outrage”.
• Other politicians – including Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, local Jewish MPs Josh Burns and David Southwick, and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan – all denounced the attack.
• Israeli ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon attempted to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, saying the federal government is not responsible for the “deeply rooted” antisemitism.
• At midday, members of the Adass Israel community were able to retrieve religious and personal items, including Torah scrolls and prayer shawls.
• Premier Allan pledged $100,000 to help rebuild the synagogue and a further $1 million for Jewish community security infrastructure grants.
• Religious and multicultural groups – including the special envoy for social cohesion, Peter Khalil – roundly condemned the firebombing as an attack on all Australians who cherish peace and religious freedom.

Wishing all our readers a peaceful weekend.

Special envoy for social cohesion Peter Khalil said he joined the prime minister in unequivocally condemning the attack.

“Attacks based on a person’s ethnicity or faith, or on our many places of worship, are utterly unacceptable, and they are an attack on all of us,” said the federal Labor MP for the seat of Wills, which included suburbs in Melbourne’s inner-north.

MP Peter Khalil.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Places of worship like synagogues are places of peace, faith, learning and community. All of us must continually call out any hatred and violence every time they occur.

“We also call on all the necessary law enforcement and legal measures necessary to stamp out these vile attacks and bring perpetrators to justice.

“Every society has its differences. We all have our differing views – many of them deeply held – but above all else, the key to the ongoing success of our harmonious multifaith, multicultural society is that we must navigate any division or difference respectfully and peacefully.”

Khalil said the synagogue attack was a hate crime.

“There should be no place for violence, hate speech or intimidation. And it is incumbent on all of us to ensure that is the case,” he said.

“I know that this horrific attack will be felt deeply within Australia’s Jewish community, and my thoughts are with the community during what will be a distressing time.”

Khalil’s office in Melbourne’s north was vandalised with red paint and a Hamas-linked inverted red triangle in October, a few months after vandals targeted the office of Jewish federal MP Josh Burns, whose seat of Macnamara includes the suburb of Ripponlea, where the Adass synagogue is located.

Multicultural and faith groups across the country have denounced the attack on Adass Israel synagogue.

In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne “utterly” condemned the firebombing.

Chaim Klein carries a Torah scroll from Adass Israel synagogue on Friday afternoon.Credit: Arsineh Houspian

“A peaceful place of worship has been violated – nothing can justify such violence,” the archdiocese’s statement began.

“Antisemitism has no place in our society.

“We stand in prayerful solidarity with members of the Jewish community at this time.”

Jewish, Christian and Indigenous groups gathered on the steps of Parliament on Friday.Credit: Carla Jaeger

The Australian Multicultural Foundation, which promotes “the spread of respect and understanding between all cultural groups”, also condemned the attack.

“This is a distressing time for the members of the synagogue and the Jewish community more broadly,” said executive director Dr Hass Dellal.

“We are a multicultural and multifaith society where people have the right to practice and express their religion without fear of vilification or violence. This is not who we are as a multicultural nation.

Trainer programs show people to recognise signs of radicalisation: Hass Dellal.Credit: Simon Schluter

“There is no place for such criminal behaviour and hatred towards innocent people, and on a place of worship.

“There can be no tolerance of antisemitism nor for any other acts driven by hate towards any community.”

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC) described the firebombing as “a violation of the peace and security that every faith community deserves”.

President Rateb Jneid said the AFIC strongly condemned the attack and called upon the community to respect all religious groups and sanctuaries.

“We are deeply disturbed by the violent attack on the Melbourne synagogue. There is absolutely no justification for such acts of aggression against any community, regardless of the circumstances,” Jneid said.

“Such acts of hatred and violence must be met with a swift and firm response from law enforcement. We urge the authorities to thoroughly investigate this matter and ensure that those responsible are held accountable.”

Video supplied by a community member shows the aftermath of the firebombing and firefighting efforts.

Before dawn on Friday, in the quiet of a Melbourne synagogue, Yumi Friedman was studying religious texts when what sounded like a sledgehammer ripped through his sanctuary.

Within seconds, the member of Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea saw glass flying. He jumped from his seat, ran from the building and through a back lane to his nearby shop.

Yumi Friedman (centre) was inside the synagogue when the building was firebombed.Credit: Arsineh Houspian.

One of his workers called the police, and Friedman returned to the synagogue, wary, when the smell of smoke hit him.

He tried the door and burnt his hand. The small fire – started by masked arsonists who threw in accelerant – soon engulfed the building.

“The person who saw them [described them], and he saw they had big things of petrol,” Friedman told this masthead.

“There was someone else with me, but he left five minutes before I left.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Age reporter Cassandra Morgan captured this footage outside Adass Israel synagogue on Friday.

Read her report from the scene here.

A group of religious and Indigenous leaders gathered on the steps of Parliament in Melbourne this afternoon to commemorate the 86th anniversary of Aboriginal activist William Cooper’s walk and letter in protest of Kristallnacht.

Jewish, Christian and Indigenous groups gathered on the steps of Parliament on Friday to honour the legacy of Aboriginal activist William Cooper, who protested the Nazis’ persecution of Europe’s Jews in 1938.Credit: Carla Jaeger

Cooper was one of the first people in the world to publicly protest the forced imprisonment of European Jews in concentration camps in 1938.

The group, which included Christian, Jewish and Indigenous leaders, delivered a statement of unity.

Michael McDonogh is the great-great-grandson of Cooper, who walked from his home in Footscray to the city of Melbourne to deliver his letter of protest 86 years ago.

William Cooper led a delegation of the Australian Aborigines’ League to the German consulate in Melbourne in 1938 to protest the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews.

“It’s an unhealthy Australia that sees people who are very upset with decisions being made by politicians in Israel, pouring out the hatred on Australian citizens and on children,” he said.

“That’s not a healthy Australian society. So rather than be silent, I choose to stand with the Jewish community to say, never again is now.”

Steven Green, of the Southern Cross Alliance for Israel, said: “There is a feeling that stronger laws earlier on would have not seen us in a position where a synagogue has been fired on this morning, [or a] lockdown in a synagogue in Sydney on Wednesday night while violent protest was happening on the outside.”

Read more about William Cooper in today’s story from Age chief reporter Chip Le Grand.

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network has condemned the firebombing.

“Attacks on religious institutions have no place in our community,” the group said in an Instagram post on Friday afternoon.

“Racist attacks rooted in antisemitism, Islamophobia or anti-Palestinian racism must be opposed and condemned in equal measure.

“Our thoughts are with the Jewish community and all those impacted by these acts.”

Meanwhile, Free Palestine Coalition Naarm – a separate, smaller group – also denounced the attacks.

“Solidarity with Jews in Naarm/Melbourne against the antisemitic firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue,” the group wrote on Instagram.

“We stand together with Jewish communities in the fight against the local and international forces of racism and fascism.”

Last week, the group briefly led a call for a snap rally outside another synagogue in Melbourne to protest a speaking event that featured former Israeli military officials. However, the protest was cancelled when organisers said they received “threats of serious bodily harm”. A crowd of pro-Israel supporters still turned up in anticipation of the rally, and eventually got into a heated confrontation with about 10 pro-Palestinian activists who attended, despite the initial action being called off.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, has sought to turn down the temperature on the domestic debate on antisemitism, arguing the Albanese government should not be held responsible for attacks on Jews in Australia.

A statement from the office of the Israeli prime minister overnight said Australia’s increasingly anti-Israel diplomatic positions would “invite more terrorism and more antisemitic riots at campuses and city centres, including in Australia”.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But Maimon on Friday played down the statement, noting it was drafted by the PM’s office and not attributed to Benjamin Netanyahu himself.

When asked about the relevance of the distinction, Maimon said he “didn’t want to get into it”.

The Coalition and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have regularly accused Labor of turning a blind eye to rising rates of antisemitism and attacks on Jewish sites since the events of October 7, 2023.

Maimon rejected the notion that the Australian government should be directly blamed.

“Well, I don’t hold … the Albanese government as responsible for the rise [in antisemitism],” he said.

“But I do urge the Albanese government to take all necessary actions and steps in order to uproot this ugly phenomenon and to make sure the Jewish people, whether they live in Canberra or in Melbourne and Sydney or elsewhere, will feel safe and secure.”

Premier Jacinta Allan shut down a press conference outside Adass Israel synagogue after being heckled.

Allan began by thanking the Jewish community for attending her address on “one of their darkest days” and pledged $100,000 to help rebuild the burnt synagogue. A further $1 million will be distributed as Jewish community security infrastructure grants.

She denounced the attack on behalf of all Victorians, who “feel as sick and as disgusted as I do … We also stand united to condemn this act”.

The premier surrounded by media and onlookers on Friday.Credit: Arsineh Houspian

“In being able to see the damage today and talk directly with members of the community … it will take some time to understand the extent of the damage, to survey the damage and look at what next steps need to be taken,” she said.

Allan also confirmed there would be increased police presence in the Jewish community over the coming days.

“They’ll be around synagogues. They’ll be around important places for the Jewish community. They’ll also be in public spaces as well providing support to the local community,” she said.

The conference was cut short after a heckler interrupted, accusing Allan of “losing control” of the situation.

“Why should we trust that you’re going to keep the [Jewish community] safe when you’ve failed for a year and a half?” they asked.