No argument can justify this attack on a place of worship

This much we know. About 4am on Friday, people in dark clothing and wearing masks firebombed the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, in Melbourne’s inner south-east. Witnesses reported seeing two people throw fuel inside the synagogue and then set it alight. At least one worshipper The Age spoke to was in the synagogue at the time and escaped. The synagogue has been extensively damaged.

Congregants outside the synagogue on Friday morning.Credit: Simon Schluter

The synagogue was a place of worship. Its congregation is not politically aligned. Its congregants are ultra-Orthodox. Some speak in Yiddish, do not use the internet and shun other aspects of modern life. Their clothing sets them apart in the street. It is possible there is not a more insular community in the city, indeed in the country. They are, in the practice of their faith, removed.

They are blameless to the events in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon. Yet they became targets this week of a violence that could have led to deaths.

No argument can justify this act at a place of worship in Melbourne. While police don’t yet know the precise motivation of the attackers, they are looking at terrorism as a possible motive.

Condemnation of the attack has been swift across the political spectrum. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was an outrage. “The violence and intimidation and destruction of a place of worship is something that we should never see in Australia,” he said. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton described it as “abhorrent”.

Premier Jacinta Allan said: “Like any place of worship in this state, it should be a refuge – a place of peace, prayer and safety.”

Allan showed leadership by attending the scene and speaking to members of the community, many of whom were reeling and blaming governments for failing to stamp out antisemitism.

Liberal state MP David Southwick, who is Jewish, said the attack had “devastated Melbourne’s Jewish community and caused deep angst”. Synagogue board member Benjamin Klein said: “For this to happen to a synagogue thousands of kilometres away from anywhere else in the world, a peaceful neighbourhood, a peaceful community – it is quite horrendous.”

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network said “attacks on religious institutions have no place in our community”.

There can be no apologists for this attack. Australia, quite rightly, prides itself on its capability to allow protests and demonstrations in the name of freedom of expression. The October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, massacre of Israelis and the taking of hostages precipitated a response from Israel that has left Gaza and parts of Beirut in ruins and cost tens of thousands of lives. The ripple effects are felt around the world.

The conflict has led to protests on the streets of this country. Legitimate concerns about the fate of Palestinians have prompted ferocious debate and a cleaving of public attitudes.

At the UN on Wednesday, Australia voted in favour of Israel withdrawing its “unlawful presence” from the West Bank, Gaza and eastern Jerusalem, thus changing a 20-year-old stance on the matter. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office responded to Australia’s vote by saying it would “invite more terrorism” and more antisemitic riots on campuses and in cities, including in Australia.

Antisemitism, the stain that society seems unable to wash free, has enlarged and deepened its mark globally, and has washed onto our shores, and onto our streets. Antisemitic slogans and messages have defaced schools and other buildings. Jewish communities now live with a fear that they should not have to.

The echoes of Nazi Germany in the symbolism of this act cannot be dismissed. It might once – even just last week – have been impossible to contemplate such a thread running back to those dark times. But the symbolism is irrefutable. A Jewish synagogue has been firebombed. Indeed, this synagogue was set alight in 1995, too. Historians have given a name to the wave of hatred that burnt through Nazi Germany in November 1938: Kristallnacht. Hundreds of synagogues and Jewish institutions were burnt to the ground.

And this much we know. Memory is resilient. It flows from one generation to another. A worshipper at the Ripponlea synagogue thought it an “obvious target. The feeling is reliving the war years ... We really just want peace. We’re doing our own thing. We’re all business people or [studying] or [learning religious texts], and we keep to ourselves. Most of us are all first-generation, second-generation [descendants of Holocaust] survivors, so this brings back memories.”

The Israeli ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said of the attack that it was “a chilling reminder that antisemitism is not a relic of the past, but the growing threat that demands immediate actions, not empty words”.

Indeed. Now is not the time for empty words or cheap shots in the political sphere. Now is the time for leadership at all levels of government and community. To say as one, this is unacceptable. To say, this old hatred will not be allowed to terrify those living peaceful lives.

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