‘Greatest threat’: dire warning on antisemitic attacks
A spate of antisemitic firebombings and graffiti attacks has prompted a judge to warn that shadowy overseas actors are seeking to fracture Australian society.
A man behind a series of antisemitic attacks has lost his appeal, as a judge issued an ominous warning about overseas figures trying to divide Australian society.
Police at Newtown Synagogue after graffiti attack
Nicholas James Alexander, 33, was jailed for five years in March after he admitted hiring others to carry out a spate of firebombings and graffiti attacks across Sydney in January 2025.
They included arson attacks on a childcare centre and cars outside the former home of Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin.
Alexander appealed against the severity of his sentence in the NSW District Court, arguing he had been acting as a conduit under the direction of unknown people overseas.
But Acting Judge Paul Conlon dismissed the petition on Tuesday, noting shadowy figures had placed a lot of trust in the 33-year-old to do whatever was necessary to achieve their objectives.
Alexander occupied a senior and important role in the offending, which was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community and generate fear for their safety, the judge found.
He had organised for stolen cars to be used in the attacks, explained how to create and use Molotov cocktails, and arranged for handguns to be passed on, the court was told.
Before an attack on a synagogue in Sydney’s Newtown, Alexander instructed a co-offender to tell police, if he was caught, that Muslims made him do it to pay off a drug debt.
The facts reveal a deliberate tactic to divide Arab and Jewish communities to further the aims of the overseas criminal group, Judge Conlon told the court.
“This was also an attack on our Australian way of life, which has always been to detest the vilification or intimidation of any particular religious, ethnic or minority group,” he said.
Arson attack on the former home of Jewish leader, Alex Ryvchin
Recent cases and the Bondi Beach massacre in December make it “abundantly clear” that there are overseas organisations determined to attack, destabilise and fracture Australian society, the judge said.
“These same overseas organisations are also involved in backing various activist groups who, under the guise of ‘peaceful protests’, are also seeking to cause division with the ultimate aim of inciting violence and terrorism,” he said.
“The courts need to be on notice and aware that these overseas influences are potentially the greatest threat to our civilised and peaceful way of life.”
An individual’s rights are “not limitless”. Judge Conlon noted in his emphatic remarks.
The judge said arguments that Alexander had merely been transmitting instructions from overseas actors ignored the extent of his involvement in the antisemitic attacks and his influence over those he hired.
He accepted Alexander had been motivated by financial reward and a desire to win the favour of those in control of the overseas criminal group, rather than racial hatred.
Judge Conlon dismissed Alexander’s appeal and upheld the jail term imposed in March.
With time served, Alexander will be eligible for parole in July 2028.
By Adelaide Lang/AAP
