Anthony Albanese a no-show at leading Sydney synagogue

Anthony Albanese has rebuffed invites to speak at the country’s largest synagogue – a 20-minute drive from Kirribilli House – as the Jewish community mourned six months since Hamas’s October atrocities.

Anthony Albanese speaks at the St Kilda Shule in Melbourne in October. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese has rebuffed invitations to speak at the country’s largest synagogue – a 20-minute drive from Kirribilli House – as the Jewish community mourned six months since Hamas’ October 7 atrocities and locked in Peter Dutton instead.

Bondi’s Central Synagogue – the largest in Australia with a more than 2000-person-strong congregation – has failed in its ­attempts to welcome the Prime Minister to address its members with the community’s figures growing increasingly frustrated with Mr Albanese’s apparent lack of engagement.

A senior Jewish community leader said members were “shocked” he hadn’t met with Sydney’s community across the past six months, which had coincided with “unprecedented levels of hate” and some members of the government “berating Israel”.

“But they couldn’t find an hour in the past six months to meet with Sydney’s Jewish community,” the leader said, accusing it of being “missing in action”.

It comes as Foreign Minister Penny Wong set out a case for Palestinian statehood, which Jewish leaders called premature and risked “rewarding” Hamas.

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies said such a move would “embolden” Hamas and “disincentivise” Palestine from entering into peace negotiations or making concessions to ensure ­Israel’s safety.

The Australian understands that the synagogue’s leaders have frequently reached out to the Prime Minister’s team with an invite to speak at a suitable time for him, but have been rebuffed or ­received offers that Mr Albanese could send “local representatives” in his stead.

Former prime ministers Scott Morrison and John Howard have both recently spoken at the synagogue and it has long been used by leaders to address its con­gregation and the wider Jewish community.

Bondi's Central Synagogue in Sydney.

The area’s federal and state members have met with the synagogue’s congregation, as has Senator Dave Sharma. NSW Premier Chris Minns’s engagement with the congregation and wider community has also been well received since October 7.

The Prime Minister’s Grayndler home is about a 35-minute drive to the eastern suburbs location; Kirribilli House is less than 20 minutes away.

By way of comparison, a trip from either location to Homebush’s Accor Stadium, where the Prime Minister watched Taylor Swift perform in February, is about 30 minutes.

On Sunday, the Prime Minister celebrated the Sikh new year at an event in Melbourne.

Wentworth MP Allegra Spender.

Vaucluse NSW MP Kellie Sloane.

The Australian understands that invitations from the synagogue hadn’t aligned with the Prime Minister’s diary and Mr Albanese was hoping to speak to its congregation as soon as possible.

However, as a result, a recent invitation was instead extended to the federal Opposition Leader, who accepted “immediately” and will speak at the synagogue in a matter of weeks.

There is widespread goodwill among Sydney’s Jewish community towards the Liberal leader, given his stance against anti-Semitism, but also his attendance at a large October vigil in the wake of the Hamas attacks.

Mr Dutton has also accepted a recent invite from St Kilda Shule to speak, and addressed the Tom Hughes Oration at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday.

Peter Dutton meets with Rabbinical Council of NSW at the Mizrachi Synagogue in Bondi in late 2023. Picture: Richard Dobson

Here, Mr Dutton made a “full-throttle defence” of Israel and “deplored the rise of anti-Semitism” since October 7.

“The anti-Semitism that has emerged in the wake of October 7 is of a magnitude and intensity unlike anything we’ve seen before in this country,” Mr Dutton said, claiming the Prime Minister had “failed to grasp the gravity of what’s happening”.

“(The government) has downplayed unprecedented levels of anti-Semitism afflicting our country by dishonestly treating it as analogous with other forms of prejudice,” he said

“What should have been clear-cut condemnations of anti-Semitism from the Labor Party have been clouded by instances of moral equivalence and moral ambiguity,” he said.

The synagogue’s congregation has grown upset and frustrated at the Prime Minister’s failure to appear, given the community’s distress since October 7 and how leaders of all stripes had ensured their voices had been heard there previously.

The area’s state and federal members – Wentworth MP Allegra Spender and Vaucluse NSW MP Kellie Sloane – have attended the synagogue on multiple occasions. Ms Spender said that the “tragic events” on and since October 7 had left the community “frightened and grieving”.