‘Hatred’ on show: Rabbi Shmuel Karnowsky lashes protesters as police sent to help

An extra 60 police officers have been rushed to southeast Melbourne to reassure the Jewish community as a rabbi labelled Friday’s demonstrators as ‘shocking and deplorable’.

Rabbi Shmuel Karnowsky, who abandoned a service.

An extra 60 police officers have been rushed to the suburbs of southeast Melbourne to reassure a fearful Jewish community about its safety as the rabbi who had to abandon a synagogue service in Caulfield on Friday labelled the pro-Palestinian demonstrators as being motivated by “blatant Jew hatred”.

The decision to send such a large number of additional police to three heavily Jewish suburbs – St Kilda, Caulfield and Balaclava – is in response to a steep spike in anti-Semitic incidents, which have rattled Melbourne’s Jewish community. The decision followed an urgent request for extra security from Jewish community leaders during a meeting with police on Saturday after a demonstration by pro-Palestine activists in Caulfield on Friday night ended in violent brawls between the Palestine and pro-Israel supporters.

The demonstration forced Rabbi Shmuel Karnowsky to cut short Friday night prayers for about 150 people at his synagogue adjacent to the protest site.

In an angry letter written to his congregation the next day, Rabbi Karnowsky said the pro-Palestine group that chose to hold their demonstration in Caulfield had “shattered” calm in the Jewish community.

“What occurred in South Caulfield on Friday night was shocking and deplorable,” the rabbi said. “That level of hate and violence has never happened on our peaceful streets before and it cannot be allowed to ever happen again.

“On Friday night, for our community, that feeling of refuge, calm and serenity was shattered. The freedom to practise our religion without fear or intimidation was jeopardised.

“Coming to our community, on a Shabbat, with intimidation, incitement, blatant Jew hatred and violence cannot be and should not be tolerated. It is abhorrent and must be dealt with swiftly and appropriately.

For at least the next two weeks an additional 60 police officers would patrol St Kilda, Caulfield and Balaclava. Picture: Alex Coppel

“We join with the entire Jewish community and demand from our government and leaders to go ­beyond supportive words and statements and empower Victoria Police to do everything necessary to ensure that our community remains safe and feels safe, on our streets and in our shules.”

A Victoria Police spokesperson said that for at least the next two weeks an additional 60 police officers would patrol St Kilda, Caulfield and Balaclava “to provide visible police presence and community reassurance”.

The Jewish community has strengthened privately funded security across Jewish schools, ­synagogues and organisations to protect against anti-Semitic attacks that began after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7 and have continued to rise during Israel’s war on Hamas which has led to thousands of civilian deaths in Gaza.

Free Palestine Melbourne, the group that organised the Caulfield demonstration, has revealed it is organising another controversial protest by calling on all Melbourne schools to join in a “school strike for Palestine” on November 23.

Education Minister Jason Clare rejected the planned protest. “Students should be at school during school hours,”he said. “It’s incumbent on political and community leaders to turn the temperature down and do everything possible to maintain community cohesion.”

The nation’s peak Jewish Body, the Executive Council for Australian Jewry says incidents of serious anti-Semitic incidents are now at the highest level on record. Incidents have been recorded around the country, including the sending to the ECAJ of an image of an ­Islamic State terrorist with a knife in his hand about to behead a hostage in Syria with the words “We are coming for you soon, from western Sydney”.

Rabbi Karnowsky said he abandoned the prayer service at his synagogue on Friday night as a precaution to avoid any confrontation with the demonstrators who were arriving at the park ­opposite.

“We did not want confrontation and we did not want to expose our children, our people, to any of the ugly scenes that we didn’t know were going to unfold - but were quite predictable - just an hour or two later,” he said.