Arson in Melbourne, fire all around

Tomorrow morning, as on every Shabbat morning, Jews around the world will go to synagogue to pray, chat, eat and feel part of their community - except at Melbourne's Adass Yisroel Synagogue, which was gutted by fire overnight in a shocking arson attack.

I say shocking, but it shouldn't shock anyone. Anti-Jewish hatred has swept around the world since the October 7 attack, as quickly and destructively as that fire swept through the synagogue building last night. There have been other fire bombings, plus shootings and stabbings in many countries, and less visibly, a daily drumbeat of anti-Jewish harassment and abuse, snide comments and silent exclusions.

We don't yet know who did the arson in Melbourne, or why they did it, other than that it was a deliberate and determined attempt to do as much damage as possible, and it is luck that nobody was killed or seriously injured. But we can be forgiven for assuming that it is likely to be just the latest attempt to, as the slogan goes, "globalise the Intifada".

Jews around the world are fed up of being told that support for "intifada" and "resistance" are just calls for liberation, or that smashing up banks and factories and offices linked to Israel counts as "non-violent direct action". We are fed up of having to put up with so much hatred, all the old myths and lies being reworked to fit with the latest political fashions. We know antisemitism when we see it, and we smell it all around us today.

Some people say this is all about Israel, and there is no doubt there is much to protest against there. But if someone’s answer to the enormous suffering in Gaza is to attack Jews in your own country, or to demand that Jews in the diaspora to cut all ties, however non-political they are, with the Jewish homeland, the world's only majority Jewish country where the world's largest Jewish community resides - they aren't a campaigner for justice. They are an anti-Jewish racist.

To my friends in Melbourne and Australia as a whole: we are with you. You are not alone. To everyone else, Jewish and not: it's time to act against this hatred. Antisemitism poisons society for all. Synagogues can be rebuilt, and the Melbourne Jewish community, as strong and resilient as I have met anywhere, will recover. But what will society become, if this is allowed to stand?