Second synagogue in Sydney, Australia desecrated with anti-Semitic graffiti | Religious news
Australia has seen a spate of anti-Semitic incidents in the past year, including graffiti on buildings and cars.
The synagogue in Sydney is painted antisemitic graffitipolice said, a day after anti-Semitic vandalism at a separate synagogue in the New South Wales capital.
Vandals spray-painted red swastikas outside the entrance to a downtown synagogue early Saturday, while a home in Sydney’s affluent east was daubed with anti-Jewish slurs, according to police officials.
The incident comes a day after the attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah early Friday morning. Later on Friday, a special police unit was established to investigate the incident.
“[There is] there is no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this type of criminal activity,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, referring to the incident at a synagogue in southern Sydney.
“These people are determined to split our community in two,” added state Premier Chris Minns.
“We will always call these acts out for what they are – monstrous and horrific.”
Australia has seen a streak anti-Semitic incidents in the past year, including graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as an arson attack at a synagogue in Melbourne that police described as “terrorism”.
The attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in December prompted the government to set up a federal taskforce to combat anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents in the country have increased since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war against Gaza.
Some Jewish organizations said the government had not taken enough action in response.
Incidents are also stretched Australia-Israel relations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Albanian Labor Party government of encouraging such attacks with “anti-Israeli” policies.
“Unfortunately, this criminal act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel spirit blowing from the Labor government in Australia,” Netanyahu wrote on X in December, referring to the synagogue arson.
Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who is Jewish, said Netanyahu was “absolutely wrong” to link the attack to government policy.
“Australia remains a close friend of Israel as we have been since the Labor government recognized the state of Israel when it was created by the United Nations,” Dreyfus told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster, last month.
“Now, that remains the position.”
