SYDNEY – A synagogue in Sydney was daubed in antisemitic graffiti, police said on Jan 11, a day after the antisemitic vandalism of a separate synagogue in the New South Wales state capital.
Australia has seen a series of antisemitic incidents in the last year, including graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that police have ruled as terrorism.
In the latest incident, police said they were notified of graffiti on the synagogue, in the inner suburb of Newtown, early on Jan 11.
A house in Sydney’s east, a hub of the city’s Jewish community, was also daubed with antisemitic graffiti, police said, adding they were also probing offensive comments on a street poster in the suburb of Marrickville.
On Jan 10, a special police taskforce was set up to investigate an attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah in the early hours of Jan 10.
“(There is) no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Jan 10, referring to the Southern Sydney Synagogue incident.
Australia has seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza. Some Jewish organisations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response. REUTERS
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