The messages “Free Gaza” and “Jews kill babies” were inscribed on the Chabad St Kilda Synagogue and Outreach Center in Melbourne, along with a car belonging to the Chabad rabbi’s wife, the Anti-Defamation Commission reported on Wednesday.
The incident was reported to the police, ADC added.
“This hateful act is a chilling reminder of how far some will go to intimidate and threaten the Jewish community. Today, it’s a synagogue. Tomorrow, it could be another house of worship, another community, another family,” ADC chairman Dvir Abramovich noted.
“This is an attack on people who have devoted their lives to faith, kindness, and unity. To target a house of prayer, a rabbi and his family, is as cowardly and sinister as it gets,” he added.
'Antisemitism pure and simple'
He further noted that targeting a “house of worship” affected the community as a whole, attacking its shared values of “respect, tolerance, and the freedom to practice religion without fear.”
Abramovich qualified the inscription “Jews kill babies” as the “ attempt to resurrect the oldest and most toxic antisemitic blood libels that have fueled persecution and violence against Jewish people for centuries.”
The rabbi’s wife said, “While I felt shaken and shocked, I am also now inspired to continue our work promoting Judaism with pride. This is antisemitism, pure and simple, but we will not back down. To my fellow Jews, I say, ‘We have to be stronger in our faith and to know that we are making a difference.’”