Police are investigating the circumstances of the fire which took place on Thursday evening at the “Adat Israel” synagogue in Melbourne, Australia. One of the Australian television channels reported that members of the Jewish community of Melbourne were inside the synagogue when at 4 a.m. local time loud banging was heard. When those present looked toward the front of the building, they saw two people pouring gasoline and setting the building on fire. The fire caused significant damage to the synagogue. Around sixty firefighters helped put out the fire, which left two people injured.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the arson, adding that he had zero tolerance for anti-Semitism and that the perpetrators must be arrested. One of Australia’s Jewish organizations was not particularly impressed by the Prime Minister’s condemnation and called the synagogue incident “anti-Semitic terrorism”, while highlighting the fact that “Adat Israel” was used by an Orthodox community, and not by a community particularly identified as Zionist.
The American Jewish Committee (AJC) described the incident as an anti-Semitic and violent attack, noting that Molotov cocktails had been thrown into the synagogue, one of the busiest in Australia. Along with the description that two people were injured and considerable damage was caused to the building where the synagogue was located, the American Jewish Committee said it stood with Australia’s Jewish community and called on law enforcement authorities to act quickly and arrest the criminals.
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