Sydney’s Christian leaders issue joint call to end hate crimes

Christian leaders have declared Israel’s military response to Hamas could not be used to morally justify the domestic explosion in anti-Semitism as they said Sunday’s ceasefire must put an end to a recent wave of anti-Jewish crimes.

Archbishops Makarios Griniezakis, left, Anthony Fisher, centre, and Kanishka Raffel, of the Greek Orthodox, Catholic and Christian denominations.

Sydney’s Christian leaders have declared Israel’s military response to terror group Hamas cannot be used to morally justify the explosion in anti-Semitism in Australia, as they said Sunday’s ceasefire must put an end to a recent wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes.

The Catholic and Anglican archbishops of Sydney and the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Australia issued a joint call to reject the “normalisation of hatred” based on religious beliefs and the “seriously misguided” use of the actions of the Israel Defence Forces to attack Australian Jews and synagogues.

The intervention by archbishops Anthony Fisher, Kanishka Raffel and Makarios Griniezakis comes amid escalating anti-Semitism in Australia but as Israel and Hamas prepared for the first stage of the ceasefire, which was delayed on Sunday.

“Some have sought to justify anti-Semitic behaviour by referencing the actions of the state of Israel in its war against Hamas, but such a moral calculus is seriously misguided,” they said.

“It does the very thing it purports to abhor: the targeting of innocent civilians. There is no logic to attacking Jewish people in Australia as a means of ‘resisting’ the actions of another nation’s military.”

Anthony Albanese on Sunday stressed Australians wanted “action, not meetings” to combat the escalating anti-Semitism crisis as NSW Premier Chris Minns conceded imminent hate-speech law reform could have been enacted sooner.

The Prime Minister – who has described himself as a “non-practising Catholic” – has a strong relationship with Archbishop Fisher, who joined the then opposition leader during a 2022 visit to his alma mater, and who Mr Albanese said he knew “very well” and met “regularly”.

The prime minister, front-left, and NSW Premier Chris Minns, right, on Sunday.

The leaders’ warning followed Friday’s latest anti-Semitic attack, where cars were torched and vandalised in Sydney, and the former home of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin doused in red paint, Mr Ryvchin said he feared someone would be killed if the crisis weren’t quelled.

“The world has been cautiously celebrating the recently announced ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and anxiously waiting to see if the agreement holds,” the archbishops write in The Australian on Monday.

“We hope and pray that it does and that this might be the beginning of a sustained peace in a region so often marred by war and human suffering.”

Their intervention coincided with Sunday’s ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, with the first three hostages held in Gaza set to be released, despite a last-minute delay that the terror group blamed on “technical reasons” over providing a list of names.

As the truce unfolded, the archbishops declared there had been a “sinister” motive behind recent anti-Semitic attacks, which were a danger to “all of us”.

“Some of the vitriolic language expressed on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023, before the most recent war between Israel and Hamas began, and in various places since, indicates something more sinister in the hearts of some people toward Jews.

“History shows us of how the dehumanisation of the Jewish people can quickly descend into violence, even genocide. A society that tolerates anti-Semitism is regressive in treating some people, based on their religious or racial affliction, as ‘fair game’.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin and wife Vicki, outside their former home in Dover Heights, Sydney, which was the subject of an anti-Semitic attack on Friday. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

“Although we might be tempted to think of the horrors of the pogroms and the Holocaust as things in the distant past, over the past 15 months it has been clear that belief in the intrinsic worth of each person and their freedom to live and worship in peace are things that cannot be taken for granted.”

Speaking on Sunday in western Sydney, Mr Albanese said he was “devastated” by Friday’s scenes in Dover Heights.

“I spoke to Alex on Friday … And me and the premier have been constantly talking about these issues, and people want to see action,” he said.

Mr Albanese ruled out calls from his envoy against anti-Semitism for an immediate national cabinet and tougher sentences for synagogue attackers, pointing to how the Australian Federal Police’s Operation Avalite made its first arrest last week, charging a man for allegedly making threats towards a Jewish organisation.

“My government has legislated against Nazi symbols, legislated against doxxing and appointed the first envoy to combat anti-Semitism,” he said.

Mr Minns – who has been praised for his 15-month response to anti-Semitism in NSW – said he “couldn’t promise an end” to more “despicable” anti-Jewish attacks, calling the perpetrators “terrible people”. “What I can promise is that they’ll be met with a full police response and we will change the law to keep people safe,” he said.

A car is shown torched and vandalised with anti-Semitic graffiti on Friday on Military Rd, Dover Heights, in Sydney’s east.

Mr Minns reiterated that he would strengthen the state’s hate-speech laws on parliament’s return in February, saying the “initial spark” of the attacks was in vilification and hate speech that had gone unpunished.