Antisemitic attack in Dover Heights: Former home of Jewish leader targeted
The Dover Heights home targeted in an antisemitic attack early Friday morning was previously owned by Alex Ryvchin, a prominent Jewish leader and co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
While the current residents are not Jewish, police are investigating whether the attack, which involved arson, graffiti, and vandalism, was intended to send a message to Ryvchin, who sold the house in 2022.
Ryvchin, a prominent voice against antisemitism, has been a staunch advocate for Jewish Australians and has spoken out strongly against the rise of antisemitism following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Residents on Military Road awoke shortly before 4am to loud explosions and discovered two cars engulfed in flames, other vehicles defaced with antisemitic slurs, and a nearby house splashed with red paint. Emergency services extinguished the fires, which destroyed a van and a Mercedes-Benz sedan. Several other vehicles were spray-painted with hateful messages, including “f*** Jews,” while red paint was thrown across the house’s exterior.
NSW Police stated: “The NSW Police Force takes hate crimes seriously.” Officers from the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command have established a crime scene, are reviewing CCTV footage, and are conducting door-to-door inquiries.
Video: AAP
The attack has drawn widespread condemnation from leaders and community organisations. David Ossip, President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, called the incident a deliberate attempt to terrorise the Jewish community and undermine social harmony.
“We are profoundly disturbed and sickened to wake up to news of yet another antisemitic attack, this time in Dover Heights. Criminal acts like these, perpetrated by masked cowards and thugs in the dead of night, are intended to menace and intimidate the Jewish community and further fragment our social cohesion.
“All Australians should be outraged by what we are seeing on our streets. Images of cars being firebombed and houses being attacked are scenes which we should never see in Sydney. We simply cannot accept this as the new normal and must not become desensitised to these crimes.
“The hate-filled criminals who are perpetrating these crimes need to know that their campaign of domestic terrorism will not succeed. The Jewish community is resilient, strong, and unbowed and will continue to be so. We are closely liaising with law enforcement and the NSW Government in relation to this incident and previous antisemitic hate crimes.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also condemned the attack, describing it as “another antisemitic attack that is against everything we stand for.” Speaking on ABC Radio, he called the incident “an outrage” and praised the recent arrest of a man charged under Special Operation Avalite, a federal task force targeting “prolific antisemites causing high harm in the community.”
But he welcomed the Australian Federal Police charging a man on Thursday with making death threats to members of a Jewish organisation, the first charges laid by a new task force targeting anti-Semitic incidents.
NSW Premier Chris Minns strongly denounced the attack, stating: “This is a disgusting and dangerous act of violence that is the latest example of a rising level of antisemitic attacks in our community. Civil society stands united in condemning this flagrant racism. We’ll be doing everything we can to catch these thugs.”
The attack “isn’t just an assault on Jews, it’s an attack on all Australians,” said Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto. “The October 7 terrorist attack and the subsequent war have unleashed unprecedented antisemitism in Australia which has fractured our social cohesion. A ceasefire on the other side of the world won’t stop this; our governments must act decisively at home to ensure Jewish Australians are safe.”
But Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who is Jewish, said he was hopeful the scheduled ceasefire in Gaza could reduce community tensions in Australia.
“The recent rise in anti-Semitism we’ve seen over the last year has been the worst that I’ve seen in my lifetime and it’s been shocking,” he told ABC radio.
“The Albanese government has pulled all of the levers it can to combat this scourge in Australia but it’s rightly called the world’s oldest hatred, it’s hard to stamp it out.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton branded the perpetrators terrorists.
“These people are terrorists and they are targeting people to intimidate them, to scare them,” he told Nine’s Today show.
Alex Ryvchin fronted a media conference at the site. He thanked the premier, the prime minister, the minister for Home Affairs and the deputy opposition leader and “many ordinary Australians who convey their shock and horror and outrage of what transpired”.
He thanked the police and members of the counterterrorism squad.
Ryvchin said: “I can’t say with certainty whether the people who did this deliberately targeted me and my family, but as the Premier said this morning, for them to hit this house, my former house of all the houses and all the streets in this neighbourhood would be one hell of a coincidence.
To target someone’s home, someone sanctuary, someone’s family to endanger the lives of the good and decent Australians who live around here to light a fire when people were sleeping in their homes.
To my own community, I want to say, don’t be afraid, don’t look upon this and feel intimidated.
Don’t allow the cowards who did this to win, be strong and of good courage and everything will be okay.”
He labelled the escalation of acts of intimidation against the Jewish community in Australia since the October 7 attacks by Hamas as “terrorism”.
“One local resident, Laura Taitz, said the Jewish community was waking up every morning with “their heart in their mouth” as they waited to learn about the latest incidents that had unfolded overnight.
“It’s becoming untenable – it’s relentless, we feel exhausted,” she said.
Another resident, Shannon Lancour, said the incident was scary and she was “absolutely heartbroken” to learn it was another anti-Semitic attack.
“(We’re) just hoping that this hate can go away,” she said.
The state’s police minister called it a “disgusting act of hatred that will not be tolerated”.
“There is no place for hatred or anti-Semitism in our society,” Yasmin Catley said.
This incident follows a series of antisemitic attacks in recent months, including the vandalism and attempted firebombing of Newtown Synagogue and graffiti attacks on Southern Sydney Synagogue in Allawah, graffiti and arson in Queens Park, and the firebombing of Addass Synagogue in Melbourne.
Authorities have urged the public to remain vigilant and to report any hate crimes or suspicious behaviour. Anyone with information about the Dover Heights attack is encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Triple Zero (000) in an emergency.
AAP/J-Wire
We can expect nothing concrete from Albanese and Labor.
All they are capable of are words, words and more words.
Nothing will change until the outward manifestations of antisemitism displayed in the Australia wide demonstrations each week supporting Hamas and other terrorist groups are stopped, some arrests are made followed by stiff penalties and federal and state governments unite in a stand against this abrogation of our belief in multiculturalism.
None of this is possible with Labor in power.
It’ll be worse if we are left with a minority Labor government supported by the abhorrent Greens.
It’ll charge with a change of government – the sooner the better.