Messages of support from ordinary Australians and community leaders standing with the Jewish community after the terrorist attack on Adass Israel Synagogue.

We have been over­whelmed by mes­sages of sup­port and sol­i­dar­i­ty from the Aus­tralian pub­lic since the hor­rif­ic ter­ror attack on Adass Israel Syn­a­gogue. Here is a selec­tion of the mes­sages we have received:

Messages from the public

I sup­port every sin­gle Jew in Aus­tralia. I am dev­as­tat­ed by what hap­pened.

I love you Jew­ish peo­ple. Hang in there and pre­vail. We love you.

From region­al Vic­to­ria: I want­ed to express my utmost sup­port for the Jew­ish peo­ple to live freely in Aus­tralia. I ring my local MP once a week to express mu sup­port for the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty.

From Queens­land: My heart is with you. I am so proud of you – don’t let those evil acts destroy you. We love you.

I am so sor­ry about the vio­lence and hate in Vic­to­ria. No mat­ter who you are, where you are from and what reli­gion you fol­low – we should all want to keep Aus­tralia peace­ful. This is not the Aus­tralia we know and love.

I am not Jew­ish. I just want you to know that we sup­port you. This is not the Aus­tralia I grew up in and not the Aus­tralia I want to live in.

I am so upset. I can’t believe we have stooped to this lev­el.

I am call­ing as a Chris­t­ian. I am so dis­gust­ed that this has hap­pened to your com­mu­ni­ty. Know that we are pray­ing for you and care.

In response to Antho­ny Albanese fail­ing to sup­port you, Israel and the fire bomb­ing at your place of wor­ship I sug­gest, this being a ter­ror­ist act, that your com­mu­ni­ty boy­cotts the vis­it this week of the prime min­is­ter. Obvi­ous­ly he is not sin­cere as he vot­ed against you in the UN res­o­lu­tion recent­ly. He does­n’t rep­re­sent me or the major­i­ty of Aus­tralians with this vote.

So sor­ry to hear of the dam­age to your syn­a­gogue. Unac­cept­able. I am an Angli­can and I know that Angli­can and Church of Eng­land places of wor­ship will wel­come your mem­bers to our Church­es while yours is being repaired. Sim­i­lar in some ways you can just par­tic­i­pate as is accept­able to you.

SHALOM , as an Aus­tralian cit­i­zen I am appalled at our Gov­ern­men­t’s lack of sup­port for your com­mu­ni­ty. As a Chris­t­ian I offer you prayer to the God of Abra­ham, Isaac and Jacob for you.
I pray for you and for the peace of Jerusalem.

As one who gives thanks for your peo­ple, for God has used your peo­ple to bring His mes­sage of Grace and Sal­va­tion through Jesus Christ.

Num­bers 6:24–26: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gra­cious to you; the Lord lift up his coun­te­nance upon you and give you peace.”

My deep­est sym­pa­thies – I just want­ed to express my shock and out­rage at the recent attacks in Vic­to­ria on the syn­a­gogue. I have watched in alarm since Oct 7 the grow­ing hate and just want­ed to express that I stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty here in Mel­bourne, who even now in all this provo­ca­tion remains peace­ful and dig­ni­fied.

Please know there are many that see what is hap­pen­ing and many do not agree with this gov­ern­ment. I would like to donate to help rebuild the syn­a­gogue.

Mel­bourne used to be great and in no small part due to the thriv­ing Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty here. The haters are doing their best to tear it down. Please stay strong and know we are not all like this. Mel­bourne would be a shell of its for­mer self with­out the Jew­ish pres­ence here.

I pray for peace and tol­er­ance going for­ward.

Send­ing love and sol­i­dar­i­ty.

I’m not a Jew­ish per­son but have many Jew­ish friends and have con­sult­ed for many dif­fer­ent Jew­ish schools in past years.

I am hor­ri­fied at what is hap­pen­ing in our coun­try and Vic­to­ria.

If there is any­thing I can do to sup­port your com­mu­ni­ty in any way please let me know.

I am so very sor­ry for what is hap­pen­ing.

Good friends

As a for­mer faith leader here in Vic­to­ria I write to assure you of my prayer­ful con­cern over the griev­ous arson attack on the Adass syn­a­gogue last night.

Prime Min­is­ter Albanese on ABC radio today spoke on behalf of us all when he deplored this unright­eous and ille­gal attack which is an affront to all fair mind­ed Aus­tralians. All places of wor­ship should be treat­ed with rev­er­ent respect irre­spec­tive of polit­i­cal and social ten­sions here or abroad.

In my pre­vi­ous for­mal capac­i­ty I have been delight­ed to be twice received as an invit­ed guest to wor­ship at Tem­ple Beth Israel fol­low­ing which a rab­bi from that con­gre­ga­tion spoke to my staff at a retreat to which we invit­ed him.

Be assured of my con­tin­u­ing con­cern on the behalf of your mem­ber­ship.

Our sup­port, thoughts and prayers are with you

What strange times we live in. We are not Jew­ish prob­a­bly not real­ly reli­gious but we respect our Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and hope this stu­pid­i­ty of hate is just a pass­ing act. We wish you well and any­thing we can do.

We write as mem­bers of an Aus­tralian fam­i­ly, of Chris­t­ian her­itage, whose con­tact with
Jew­ish peo­ple, both in Aus­tralia and abroad, has been part of our lives for 50 years.

Dur­ing that time, half a cen­tu­ry, we have each, in dif­fer­ent ways, been blessed by the
pres­ence and influ­ence of Jew­ish friends and neigh­bours, class­mates and col­leagues. We
have admired Jew­ish val­ues and tra­di­tions, mar­velled at your con­tri­bu­tions to soci­eties,
learned from your wis­dom and been inspired by your resilience.

We were shocked and pro­found­ly dis­turbed by the pre­med­i­tat­ed slaugh­ter of inno­cent
civil­ians in Israel on 7 Octo­ber 2023. We mourn the ongo­ing effects of that ter­ri­ble day,
trig­ger­ing a bloody war on mul­ti­ple fronts, the trag­ic loss of so many lives, and a glob­al surge
in anti­semitism.

The esca­la­tion of anti­semitism in our own nation of Aus­tralia is deeply dis­tress­ing to us and
to all fair-mind­ed Aus­tralians. Over the 14 months since Octo­ber 7, we have seen hate­ful
words and men­ac­ing actions turn into the burn­ing of an elec­toral office, of cars and now a
syn­a­gogue. Arson attacks threat­en not only prop­er­ty, but human lives. These are appalling
devel­op­ments and utter­ly unac­cept­able.

We write to express our sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and our ongo­ing com­mit­ment
to doing all that we can, each in our own way, to chal­lenge and edu­cate against anti­se­mit­ic
influ­ences in soci­ety and to incul­cate val­ues that strength­en social har­mo­ny and sta­bil­i­ty for
all Aus­tralians. Our sphere of activ­i­ty tra­vers­es a range of endeav­ours: par­ent­ing and
edu­ca­tion, sci­ence and med­i­cine, the­ol­o­gy and music, art and sport, busi­ness and law
enforce­ment, men­tal health advo­ca­cy, neigh­bour­hood friend­ships and faith-based activ­i­ties.

In a par­tic­u­lar way, at this time, we extend our heart­felt con­cern to the com­mu­ni­ty of the
Adass Israel Syn­a­gogue in Mel­bourne as they come to grips with the destruc­tion of their
place of wor­ship and the impact of this vio­lent action on their fam­i­lies and way of life. We
also con­tin­ue to join our prayers and voic­es with all who call for the safe and imme­di­ate
return of each and every hostage being held in Gaza.

As diverse as we are as indi­vid­u­als, we write as a fam­i­ly, with the hope that all Aus­tralian
fam­i­lies, by what­ev­er means pos­si­ble, in small ways and large, in pri­vate and in pub­lic, will
step up to protest the ris­ing tide of anti­semitism, demand stronger action by our gov­ern­ment
to this dis­tress­ing trend, and stand with the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in its hour of need.

With grat­i­tude and respect, Your sin­cere­ly

Prof Ron Piro­la OAM KCSG
Mrs Mavis Piro­la OAM DCSG
Dr Byron Piro­la KSG
Mrs Francine Piro­la DSG
Dr Tere­sa Piro­la
Mr Scott Hen­der­son
Ms Claire Piro­la
Ms Kristi­na Piro­la
Mrs Kiara Black

Messages from community leaders

Archbishop of Sydney

Anti­se­mit­ic attacks
The lat­est attack on the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in Syd­ney is egre­gious, cow­ard­ly and
despi­ca­ble.

All peo­ple of good will, faith or none, will con­demn this out­rage. It fol­lows the ter­ror­ist
attack on the Adass Israel syn­a­gogue in Mel­bourne, and more than a year of increas­ing
hos­til­i­ty and intim­i­da­tion of the Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in mul­ti­ple, grotesque ways.

This is total­ly unac­cept­able.

The Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in Syd­ney is resilient and peace-lov­ing, con­tribut­ing to the wel­fare
and har­mo­ny of our city in myr­i­ad ways. Jew­ish peo­ple arrived in Syd­ney with the First
Fleet. Syd­ney is the home we all share.

I urge all polit­i­cal, com­mu­ni­ty and reli­gious lead­ers to unite and I offer the sup­port of
Syd­ney Angli­cans as togeth­er we stand against hate.

Arch­bish­op Kan­ish­ka Raffe

Australian Federation of Islamic Councils

The Aus­tralian Fed­er­a­tion of Islam­ic Coun­cils (AFIC) strong­ly con­demns the
attack on a syn­a­gogue in Mel­bourne’s south­east. This attack, which caused
sig­nif­i­cant dam­age to a place of wor­ship, rep­re­sents a vio­la­tion of the peace
and secu­ri­ty that every faith com­mu­ni­ty deserves.

Dr. Rateb Jneid, Pres­i­dent of AFIC, expressed, “We are deeply dis­turbed by
the vio­lent attack on the Mel­bourne syn­a­gogue. There is absolute­ly no
jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for such acts of aggres­sion against any com­mu­ni­ty, regard­less of
the cir­cum­stances.”

AFIC extends its deep­est sym­pa­thies to the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty for the
dis­tress and dam­age caused by this inci­dent. We sup­port the prompt
restora­tion of their place of wor­ship and the well-being of its con­gre­ga­tion.
Dr. Jneid added, “Such acts of hatred and vio­lence must be met with a swift
and firm response from law enforce­ment. We urge the author­i­ties to
thor­ough­ly inves­ti­gate this mat­ter and ensure that those respon­si­ble are
held account­able.”

AFIC calls upon the com­mu­ni­ty at large to uphold respect for all reli­gious
groups and their sanc­tu­ar­ies. We com­mend the efforts of all involved in
respond­ing to this cri­sis and reaf­firm our stance against any form of vio­lence
aimed at reli­gious com­mu­ni­ties.

Dr Rateb Jneid
Pres­i­dent

Australian Multicultural Foundation

“The Aus­tralian Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Foun­da­tion con­demns the attack on the ADASS Israel Syn­a­gogue. This is a dis­tress­ing time for the mem­bers of the syn­a­gogue and the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty more broad­ly.” Dr Del­lal said.

“We are a mul­ti­cul­tur­al and mul­ti­faith soci­ety where peo­ple have the right to prac­tice and express their reli­gion with­out fear of vil­i­fi­ca­tion or vio­lence. This is not who we are as a mul­ti­cul­tur­al nation.

There is no place for such crim­i­nal behav­iour and hatred towards inno­cent peo­ple and on a place of wor­ship.

There can be no tol­er­ance of anti­semitism nor for any oth­er acts dri­ven by hate towards any com­mu­ni­ty.”

Dr Hass Del­lal, AO
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor

Catholic Religious Australia

Catholic Reli­gious Aus­tralia con­demns arson attack on syn­a­gogue in Mel­bourne

Catholic Reli­gious Aus­tralia (CRA), the peak rep­re­sen­ta­tive body for the Lead­ers of Reli­gious Insti­tutes and Soci­eties of Apos­tolic Life, con­demns in the strongest terms the arson attack on the Adass Israel Syn­a­gogue in Mel­bourne.

Peo­ple of faith must be safe and secure to prac­tice their reli­gion. There is no place in Aus­tralia for attacks on places of wor­ship. No per­son or group should be sub­ject to hatred, intim­i­da­tion or vio­lence based on their faith, and anti­semitism can­not be tol­er­at­ed.

We remem­ber in our prayers our Jew­ish broth­ers and sis­ters in their dis­tress and fear, at this time. These weeks prepar­ing for the Fes­ti­val of Hanukkah, a cel­e­bra­tion of light and hope, is a spe­cial time for the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and we pray that they can look for­ward to this fes­ti­val in peace with fam­i­ly and friends.

We must always strive to nur­ture peace and respect for each oth­er to keep our mul­ti­cul­tur­al and mul­ti­faith soci­ety safe, secure, and free from vio­lence.

Chinese Community Council of Australia (Victoria Chapter)

CCCAV Con­demns the Arson Attack on a Syn­a­gogue in Rip­pon­lea, Mel­bourne

We, at the Chi­nese Com­mu­ni­ty Coun­cil of Aus­tralia (Vic­to­ria Chap­ter), are deeply shocked and sad­dened by the recent arson attack on the syn­a­gogue in Rip­pon­lea, Mel­bourne. We strong­ly con­demn this abhor­rent act of anti­semitism and vio­lence.

We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, acknowl­edg­ing the trau­ma, fear, and dis­tress that this attack has caused. We recog­nise that an attack on one com­mu­ni­ty is an attack on all com­mu­ni­ties.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. We offer our heart­felt sup­port as you heal and recov­er from this trau­mat­ic inci­dent.

We are com­mit­ted to work­ing togeth­er with all com­mu­ni­ties to reject hate and pro­mote
under­stand­ing, inclu­siv­i­ty, and kind­ness, and to build a safer and more har­mo­nious
soci­ety for all.

David Davis MP

I am deeply con­cerned with the arson attack at the Adass Israel Syn­a­gogue at Rip­pon­lea.

As con­stituents of the South­ern Met­ro­pol­i­tan Region, the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty at the Adass Israel Syn­a­gogue and the wider Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty with­in South­ern Met­ro­pol­i­tan Region are deeply con­cerned that a place of wor­ship has been attacked. The Syn­a­gogue was built by holo­caust sur­vivors.

All Vic­to­ri­ans of good will will stand in sup­port of the Adass Israel con­gre­ga­tion and the broad­er Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. I and the Lib­er­al Par­ty cer­tain­ly stand strong­ly behind the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty at this dif­fi­cult time and sup­port Vic­to­ria Police who must now urgent­ly find those respon­si­ble and bring them to jus­tice. This is a clear case of anti­semitism that appears part of a very wor­ry­ing trend since 7th Octo­ber 2023.

Mean­ing­ful action must now occur. Many are ask­ing what Pre­mier Jac­in­ta Allan will now do to ensure the safe­ty of Melbourne’s Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty, large­ly resid­ing with­in South­ern Met­ro­pol­i­tan Region.

To date, the Vic­to­ri­an Labor gov­ern­ment has not stood as clear­ly and strong­ly against what appears a tide of anti­semitism as it should have.

The Hon. David Davis, MP
Mem­ber for South­ern Met­ro­pol­i­tan Region

Hindu Council of Australia

Con­dem­na­tion of the Attack on the Syn­a­gogue in Mel­bourne and Action against Hate Crimes

The Hin­du Coun­cil of Aus­tralia unequiv­o­ca­bly con­demns the recent arson attack on the Adass Israel Syn­a­gogue in Mel­bourne. This heinous anti­se­mit­ic act is an assault not only on the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty but also on the very fab­ric of Aus­tralian soci­ety, built on respect, haromo­ny, and shared val­ues of coex­is­tence.

This inci­dent is not an iso­lat­ed one but a dis­turb­ing esca­la­tion in hate crimes tar­get­ing reli­gious and cul­tur­al com­mu­ni­ties across Aus­tralia. It is a wake-up call that demands tougher gov­ern­ment action and a zero-tol­er­ance approach to such vio­lent extrem­ism.

We urge the gov­ern­ment to pri­ori­tise the secu­ri­ty of all Aus­tralians by adopt­ing robust, enforce­able mea­sures against hate-moti­vat­ed crimes.

The Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty believes that deci­sive imme­di­ate action is the need of the hour. Every Aus­tralian deserves to feel safe and respect­ed, regard­less of their faith or cul­tur­al back­ground­ed indi­vid­u­al­ly and at our places of wor­ship. Inci­dents like the syn­a­gogue attack chal­lenge our core val­ues as a nation, and we can­not afford to be com­pla­cent.

We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and all oth­ers who have suf­fered the impacts of hate. The Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty firm­ly believes in “Dhar­ma” the path of right­eous­ness and we sup­port any mea­sures that uphold jus­tice and har­mo­ny in our shared soci­ety.

We urge the gov­ern­ment to act now, not only to bring the per­pe­tra­tors of this heinous crime to jus­tice but also to pre­vent future atroc­i­ties. The time for dia­logue has passed; we need strong and deci­sive lead­er­ship to pro­tect the rights and safe­ty of all Aus­tralians.

Sai Par­avas­tu
Nation­al Pres­i­dent

South African Jewish Board of Deputies

We send our sup­port to the mem­bers of the Adass Israel Shul and the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty of Mel­bourne fol­low­ing the arson attack on the shul.

The SA Jew­ish Board of Deputies, on behalf of SA Jew­ry stand with you at this very dis­turb­ing and fright­ing time and join with the con­dem­na­tions of this appalling attack.

Our prayers are with the injured con­gre­gant and our thoughts are with Aus­tralian Jew­ry.

Victorian Council of Churches

“Say to them that are of a fear­ful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come… he will come and save you.” Isa­iah 35:4

“When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the syn­a­gogue on the sab­bath day, as was his cus­tom.” Luke 4:16

Beloved Broth­ers and sis­ters of the Jew­ish Com­mu­ni­ty,

This morn­ing, we woke to hear of the shock­ing news of the arson attack on the Adass Israel Syn­a­gogue in Rip­pon­lea. We can only con­demn this appalling act of vio­lence. To attack a place of wor­ship is to strike at the very heart of the peo­ple who wor­ship there. To attack a syn­a­gogue is to attack the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty.

As the gath­ered Chris­t­ian Church­es, we stand opposed to anti­semitism in all its forms, but most vehe­ment­ly when it takes the form of vio­lence. Such acts of hatred can­not be tol­er­at­ed, not against the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty nor against any oth­er com­mu­ni­ty of faith. The free­dom to wor­ship in peace, with­out any threat or intim­i­da­tion, is fun­da­men­tal to our Aus­tralian way of life.

As they face the emo­tion­al trau­ma of this event, we stand with our Jew­ish broth­ers and sis­ters and assure them of our sup­port and prayers.

Believ­ing in the pow­er of the one, true and liv­ing God, in whom we all place our trust.