Turkish community barracks for embattled Jewish Australians

Australia’s Turkish community has said it stands shoulder to shoulder with its Jewish counterparts amid a wave of targeted attacks and rising anti-Semitism.

The Gallipoli Turkish Cultural Foundation, which runs Auburn’s Gallipoli Mosque, was one of 18 signatories. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Australia’s Turkish community has said it stands shoulder to shoulder with its Jewish counterparts in a forthright show of solidarity amid a wave of targeted attacks and rising anti-Semitism, saying it was “heartbreaking” to see synagogues desecrated and neighbourhoods vandalised.

It follows two anti-Semitic vandalism attacks in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and the firebombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue as federal and state governments scrambled to strengthen or enact legislation.

Although the 18 NSW-based Turkish organisations who undersigned the message are not all ­ religious-based – some are secular, others conservative – their message is one of the strongest inter­community shows of solidarity, and one of the most forthright including members of Australia’s Muslim community.

The signatories said they felt the pain of the Jewish community given they had experienced similar attacks on their mosques and neighbourhoods, and an attack on one community was an attack on all.

“The Australian-Turkish community unequivocally condemns the recent acts of violence and vandalism targeting Jewish places of worship,” the letter sent to Jewish leaders and synagogues on Saturday said. “These hateful acts have no place in our society and are an ­affront to the shared values of peace, respect and unity that underpin our multicultural nation.”

Anti-Semitic vandalism in Sydney’s Woollahra, a notable Jewish suburb. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

The letter was signed by the Australian Turkish Advocacy Alliance, Turkish Association NSW, the World Turkish Business Council, the Islamic Society of ­Illawarra, and the leaders of ­Auburn’s Gallipoli, Bonnyrigg and Redfern mosques, among others.

“We know the pain and fear these actions cause, having experienced similar attacks on our mosques and community centres,” the letter said.

“We, too, have woken up to find our sacred spaces and neighbourhoods defaced with hateful graffiti and banners intended to intimidate and isolate us. The anguish of these moments lingers, and our hearts break for our fellow Jewish Australians who are now enduring this same violation of their safety and dignity.”

Turkish Association NSW founding president Mehmet Evin said his community wanted to ensure the Jewish Australians knew “people were thinking of them”.

“We wanted to let them know that we won’t tolerate any violence against them and we stand together in solidarity,” he said.

Mr Evin said his community was inundated with support during 2023’s earthquakes in Turkey and that amid persistent attacks against Jewish Australians, it was important to support them now.

“No one should be subject to any sort of attack for what is going on elsewhere,” he said, reflecting that neither Australia’s Russian nor Ukrainian communities were targeted because of that war, unlike the Jewish community.

Turkish Association NSW founding president Mehmet Evin.

“No one can watch the TV and not feel empathy (about what’s happening in the Middle East) … but let’s not bring the conflict to our shores. We are hurt seeing people die (in Gaza) and are hurt seeing people being taken hostage (by Hamas).

“We have to be empathetic to everyone’s pain.”

Mr Evin said the cruel irony was that the congregation inside the firebombed Adass synagogue would have likely been praying for “peace”, condemning attacks on any place of worship.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said the community was “deeply touched” by support from “Australians across the spectrum”.

“The statement of solidarity we received from the Australian-Turkish community was particularly poignant and is deeply appreciated by the Jewish community,” he said. “At a time when we’ve seen the worst of our society, we’ve also seen the best as Australians from different communities have come together and stand united in support of maintaining a cohesive and harmonious society.”

The Australian understands the Kurdish community reached out to their Jewish counterparts with a similar message and each society’s leaders had met since.

On Sunday, The Australian revealed the straining relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, but how Jewish leaders had longstanding goodwill with their Turkish-­Muslim counterparts.

Anthony Albanese visits the Adass Israel Synagogue. Picture: Instagram

It comes after a wave of attacks targeting Australia’s religious communities, including the Adass synagogue firebombing, which is being investigated as a terror attack, but also Islamophobic “f..k Islam” graffiti plastered around a notable Lebanese-Australian suburb on Sunday.

The Lebanese Muslim Association and Australia’s peak Islamic bodies denounced that attack, which was also criticised by NSW Premier Chris Minns.

Mr Ossip on Sunday called that graffiti a “bigoted, anti-Islam attack” that was “hateful and deeply offensive”, saying he had reached out to the Australian National Imams Council to express his condemnation.

NSW Multiculturalism Minister Steve Kamper said the entire state should “continue to work together to reject division and promote harmony”.

On Sunday, after the Islamophobic vandalism in Chester Hill, he said “racism and Islamophobia had no place in NSW”, urging ­people to reject “importing overseas conflict” into the state’s multi­faith, multicultural society.