Inside Albanese’s private meeting with Adass Israel leaders

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has given a personal pledge to the Adass Israel community to provide whatever financial support it needs to rebuild the synagogue that was destroyed by suspected terrorists in an arson attack on Friday.

After being accused by Jewish leaders of abandoning them at a time of crisis and copping a political backlash for playing tennis and meeting donors in Perth instead of coming earlier to the scene of the firebombing, Albanese was heckled by a few, but largely welcomed, as he visited the burnt-out synagogue on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with Rabbi Shlomo Kohn inside the blackened shell of the synagogue on Tuesday.

The prime minister’s brief public appearance at the Ripponlea synagogue didn’t mark the end of his visit to the Adass Israel community.

Shortly after Albanese was ushered through a scrum of onlookers and into his car, he spent almost an hour at a private meeting with leaders of the synagogue and school at the home of Adass Israel community president Michael Spigelman.

There, he listened to the impact that growing levels of hatred against Jews was having on their children, families and neighbourhood.

Aaron Strasser, principal of the Adass Israel School, told Albanese of a nine-year-old child who, according to their mother, hadn’t slept since the synagogue was torched.

“There was a discussion about antisemitism in Australia,” said Adass Israel synagogue board member Benjamin Klein, who sat at a table with Albanese and about 15 other community leaders.

“We are all born-and-bred Aussies, and this is not the Australia we know and are used to. Our kids have grown up knowing a little bit of antisemitism on the street, but to have your synagogue firebombed has really shaken them up.

“The prime minister was very sympathetic, understanding and grateful for the warmth the community had shown him.”

Klein said the prime minister’s offer of financial assistance didn’t contain a specific figure, but was a standing offer to help with the rebuilding of the synagogue.

There was also a discussion about the potential for the declaration on Monday by Victorian and federal police that it was a “likely” terrorist attack to complicate any future insurance claim. The synagogue, like most commercial buildings, is not covered for damage caused by terrorism.

At the end of the meeting, Albanese was presented with a menorah, a ceremonial candelabra – used during Hanukkah, which begins on December 25 – that symbolises bringing light to dark places.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion, KC, said that in the four days between the attack and Tuesday’s visit, it appeared as though the prime minister had been “paralysed by domestic” politics and was unable to provide the leadership his community needed.

“At times, that paralysis has been perceived by us as abandonment,” Aghion said.

Rabbi Laibl Wolf says the Jewish community should reject the government’s offer of extra money for security at synagogues and schools.Credit: Paul Jeffers, The Age

This sentiment was echoed by Rabbi Laibl Wolf, an internationally recognised Jewish author and spiritual leader, who came to the synagogue the day before Albanese’s visit.

He described the prime minister’s earlier announcement of an additional $32.5 million in government funding for security at synagogues and Jewish schools as a bribe.

“I don’t expect Jewish leaders to reject it, but I would be proud of them if they did,” he said. “There have been a lot of platitudes from the government. Unfortunately, all those platitudes have not been put in practice.”

The Victorian government has previously pledged $100,000 to kickstart a donation drive to rebuild Adass Israel synagogue.

Late on Tuesday, it announced an additional 15 community organisations would share in $950,000 in funding to ensure Jews could safely gather and pray.

After Albanese visited the synagogue, Aghion said he hoped the arson attack – which gained international attention and prompted the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre to issue a travel advisory for Jews travelling to Australia – would be a turning point in local community attitudes.

“The difference will be in the actions, not the words, but he spoke with the leaders of the Adass community, and he was marked by what he saw, and I think he is genuine,” Aghion said of Albanese.

“For 14 months, we have been fighting antisemitism as a Jewish issue. This has changed that.

“There is a huge frustration that it took an arson attack on a synagogue...to bring this about, but I do think it is now an Australian issue rather than a Jewish issue.”

Jewish Community Council of Victoria president Philip Zajac was in Israel when the synagogue was broken into and set alight by arsonists in the early hours of Friday.

He returned on Monday to what he described as a social landscape altered by the suspected terror attack.

“This has woken up the Australian community even more so than October 7,” he said outside the synagogue.

Zajac said he had been inundated by messages of support from non-Jewish Australians pledging to do more to confront antisemitism.

During his synagogue visit, Albanese was swept along a narrow footpath in a rolling maul of Adass Israel community members, security officers, news crews and others who had caught wind of his planned visit.

Once inside the blackened building, he exchanged stories with Rabbi Shlomo Kohn, the leader of the congregation, and listened to community concerns about the fate of Torah scrolls potentially damaged in the fire.

Later in the day, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke also visited the synagogue.

Not everyone was happy to see Albanese in Ripponlea. Melinda Tassone – a 55-year-old accountant and Jewish community member – shouted “he’s not on our side”, as Albanese was bundled into his waiting Comcar.

She later said she had come to “let him know how I feel, to let him know he’s let us down, to let him know his words are cheap”.

Delivering a brief statement outside the synagogue, Albanese said the country needed to come together.

“One of the things we spoke about inside with the community leaders was the fact that people have come to Australia because we are a country that is peaceful, we are a country that respects people in different faith and are enriched by our diversity here.”

Zajac said the view outside Australia was very different. “For Jewish people over the world, this is about the breakdown of society in Australia,” he said.

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