Second Sydney synagogue sprayed with antisemitic graffiti in latest attack on Australian Jews

The latest attack on a Sydney suburban synagogue comes only one day after a separate synagogue was sprayed with "Hitler on top."

By REUTERS JANUARY 11, 2025 03:11 Updated: JANUARY 11, 2025 03:17

Australian police patrol the area where a driver on Thursday deliberately ploughed into pedestrians in central Melbourne, Australia, December 22, 2017. (photo credit: REUTERS/Sonali Paul)

A synagogue in Sydney was daubed in antisemitic graffiti, police said on Saturday, 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 Saturday.

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 Friday, 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 Friday morning.

View of the synagogue in Sydney daubed in antisemitic graffiti. January 10, 2025. (credit: SCREENSHOT/X/VIA SECTION 27A OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT)

No place for hate

"(There is) no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, referring to the Southern Sydney Synagogue incident.

Australia has seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since the October 7 massacre. Some Jewish organizations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.