By Ashleigh McMillan and Brittany Busch
Police are investigating a rusty bullet found by a child directly outside the Adass Israel synagogue the day after an arson attack gutted the ultra-Orthodox house of worship on Friday.
Four protective services officers and a police officer attended the scene and put the bullet in a plastic evidence bag, but would not comment on whether it might be related to Friday’s attack.
Police take away the bullet found outside the Adass Israel Synagogue.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
A group of about 10 congregants were passing their destroyed place of worship at 4.30pm on Saturday when the boy made the discovery. Two security personnel, dressed in fluoro orange vests, were ushered over and called the police.
There has been no suggestion that the bullet has any relation to Friday’s firebombing.
The rusted bullet appeared not to have been fired.
A rusty bullet found outside the Adass Israel Synagogue on Saturday afternoon.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
A Victoria Police spokesperson said: “Police attended Glen Eira Avenue in Ripponlea after a bullet was located on a footpath just before 5pm. The item will be examined and the exact circumstances surrounding it are being investigated.”
Victoria Police have yet to provide any further details related to the investigation into the firebombing of the Ripponlea synagogue on Friday morning.
Members of the Adass Israel congregation walk to their temporary space for synagogue services on Saturday.Credit: Joe Armao
Images obtained by this masthead show extensive damage inside the synagogue. The blaze gutted the building, leaving charred ruins, a tangle of wiring and a collapsed roof.
Police were on patrol in Ripponlea after the state’s Counter Terrorism Command was called in to help investigate the firebombing. Security guards remained stationed outside the charred synagogue on Saturday.
But police would not confirm how many extra officers they had deployed to patrol the area, saying they would not comment on operational matters.
Several police sources contacted on Saturday were unable to provide any further detail on the progress of the investigation. The Victorian government also provided no further detail on what security measures would be put in place.
It was quiet on Saturday afternoon – the Shabbat or day of rest in the Jewish tradition – near the synagogue, apart from several people laying flowers outside the building in a show of support for the local Jewish community.
Flowers placed in front of Adass Israel synagogue on Saturday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Earlier in the day, members of the Adass Israel congregation filed past heavy security into a temporary venue in St Kilda East for Saturday morning services.
Chani Goldberger, a member of the community who attends Adass Israel each Saturday, said it was a “disgrace” to burn a synagogue down.
“Why are we being treated like this for? Why this hatred?” she said as she surveyed the damaged building.
“We can’t pray, we can’t live in society, we can’t go freely, we can’t live a normal life. What is the world coming to?”
City of Port Phillip Mayor Louise Crawford told this masthead it had been a “distressing and devastating” time for Adass Israel congregants and members of the local Jewish community.
“There’s been a mix of reactions, everything from devastation to shock to anger that this [hatred] could come into an area which is actually so welcoming and inclusive,” Crawford said.
“But for much of the Jewish community, they were not shocked. They’ve been expecting something like this to happen, given the rise in antisemitism, which is a terrible state of affairs.
“We’re in conversation to help [Adass Israel congregants] find a new space to pray and study. That’s the biggest thing – keeping the community together.”
Other synagogues nearby have raised their security measures following the targeted blaze, Crawford said.
Aamer Chida arrived at the synagogue with flowers on Saturday morning in a show of support for the Adass Israel community.
As he shook hands with members of the ultra-Orthodox community who were surveying the burned building, he said that as a Muslim and human being, it was clear the actions of those who targeted the synagogue were wrong.
“It always makes me happy to see the Jewish community engaging with their faith when I drive past, so it made me very sad that someone had disrespected their place of worship,” he said.
A man holding a sign reading “Hate won’t Bring Peace” walks in front of the Adass Israel on Saturday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
In a statement posted to social media overnight, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu connected the firebombing to Australia’s “scandalous decision” to vote in favour of a UN General Assembly resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip earlier this week, along with its refusal to grant a visa to former Israeli minister Ayelet Shaked last month.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia,” Netanyahu said.
But Crawford disagreed, saying she believed policymakers in Australia were trying their best to ease tensions around the Israel-Palestine conflict and encourage togetherness.
“I think a lot of the governments – council, state and federal – have been trying to bring calm and reduce that heightened emotion,” she said.
“We’re all human beings, and these are innocent people that were attacked yesterday. I’m hoping it’s the wake-up call the world needs to take a deep breath and look at each other as people.”
Victorian Roads Minister Melissa Horne, who was answering questions on behalf of the Allan government on Saturday, declined to respond directly to Netanyahu’s criticisms.
“I’m not here to comment on what Israel’s prime minister has said. But what I can say, having spoken to the federal member for Macnamara Josh Burns, who is a member of the Jewish community, [is] that there could not be a more fierce advocate to stand up to antisemitism and support his community.”
As for what her government was doing in the wake of the firebombing, Horne said police would step up their patrols, and that strengthened anti-vilification laws were now before parliament. “We stand ready to do more.”
Henry Pinskier, who is in his 60s, has lived in the Jewish community in Melbourne’s inner south-east for his entire life. He said the targeting of the synagogue exemplified the rising tide of antisemitism he has witnessed in Melbourne in recent years.
A long-standing Australian Labor Party member and former vice president of the Victorian branch, he said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the lack of action by the state and federal Labor governments to stamp out antisemitism.
“I think both governments have lost control of the situation, there’s been a lot of rhetoric but no action,” he said.
“These repulsive deeds have to have consequences, and the law has to be followed and acted upon. If the police and authorities are not acting sufficiently, governments have to stand up and say, ‘This is what we are going to do’. No ifs, no buts, no maybes.”
Pinskier said his 98-year-old mother had come to Australia fleeing persecution but was now seeing daily reports of antisemitism. He said increasing antisemitism from Australia’s political left was “beyond anything” he could have conceived.
“This is a very strong post-Holocaust community who fled Europe to get as far away as possible and came to Australia because it was a slice of heaven.”
Pinskier said recent local events were “no different” from the antisemitism that occurred historically in Russia and Europe.
Liberal state MP David Southwick on Saturday described the attack as “an act of domestic terrorism”.
“Labor have allowed this hatred to fester unchecked and become normalised,” said Southwick, who represents the seat of Caulfield, which has a large Jewish population and includes the suburb of Ripponlea.
“A government’s first and most fundamental duty is to keep people safe – and both the state and federal Labor governments have failed to do so.”
With Broede Carmody
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