Sunday’s deadly terrorist attack on Australian Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney was something the country’s small but historic community has feared since a wave of anti-Semitic incidents began after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.
While Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack, calling it “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah,” his critics say his Labor government has failed to adequately respond to the alarming increase in anti-Semitic incidents across the country.
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Anti-Semitic graffiti in a Jewish neighborhood in Melbourne, Australia. (Executive Council of Australian Jewry)
He said: “The Australian Labor government is unwilling to take decisive action, in part because of its political dependence on the voices of the Muslim community. As a result, many Australian Jews are now faced with a devastating wake-up call that this country is no longer as safe for us as it once was. I believe many will now seriously consider a move to Israel.”
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, center, gestures as he makes his way past a crowd after visiting the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, December 10, 2024. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)
Adding to the anger, Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was criticized for failing to note this in an earlier statement on X that the deadly attack targeted Jewish Australians.
After the attack, a reporter confronted Albanians with concerns about his government’s response to anti-Semitism, citing his government’s recognition of a Palestinian state, labor ministers attacking the Israeli government and refusing to visit the sites of the October 7 massacres, and the simultaneous appointment of special envoys on Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. The reporter asked the Albanian whether his government had taken anti-Semitism seriously.
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Synagogue members retrieve items from the Adass Israel Synagogue on December 6, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. An arson attack at Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue forced congregants to flee as flames engulfed the building early Friday morning. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the incident as an anti-Semitic act and stressed that such violence at a place of worship is unacceptable in Australia. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
“Yes, we took it seriously,” Albanese replied. “And we have continued to act. We have continued to work with leaders of the Jewish community. We have continued to follow all advice from the security services to take special measures, and we will continue to do so.”
The safety vest of an anti-Israel protester during a march against the Jewish state at the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia. August 2025. (Ayush Kumar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) recently documented 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents across Australia between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025, “in addition to the 2,062 incidents across the country the year before.”
It also noted that “anti-Semitic incidents in Australia remain at historically high levels, almost five times the average annual number before October 7, 2023. … While there has been a marginal decline from last year’s record, the most serious categories of incidents, including arsons against synagogues, kindergartens and other Jewish institutions, are higher than in any previous year on record.”
Some of the more shocking incidents that have affected Australia’s Jewish community since October 7, 2023, up until Sunday’s terror attack, include:
Melbourne
Masked individuals set fire to Ripponlea’s Adass Israel Synagogue as congregants said morning prayers. The fire caused extensive damage and injured one worshiper.
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Sydney:
Sydney’s Allawah Synagogue was tagged with swastika graffiti. The next day, the Newtown Synagogue, also in Sydney, was similarly defaced. The week before, a car in Sydney was spray-painted with an anti-Semitic phrase.
An arson attack caused extensive property damage to a childcare center near a Jewish school and synagogue in Sydney. Anti-Semitic graffiti was found inside.
A car was set on fire in a Jewish community in Sydney, and as many as seven homes in the area were vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Two health workers in Sydney who spoke to an Israeli man on the social platform Chatrouletka said they would deny treatment to Israeli patients and had previously killed Israeli patients.
Police escort anti-Israel protesters outside an Israeli Miznon restaurant on Hardware Lane in Melbourne, Friday, July 4, 2025. Families were terrified as one of Australia’s oldest synagogues was targeted by arsonists and protesters shouted chants outside an Israeli restaurant. (AAP Image/Josh Stanyer/via Reuters)
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Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s Foreign Minister, expressed his sadness by telephone to his Australian counterpart Penny Wong. On Sunday on
Populist Australian Senator Pauline Hanson said on Hanson said the Jewish community in Australia has “the same right to live in peace and harmony as all Australians,” and called on authorities to “be honest in revealing the identities and backgrounds of these killers.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
