December 15, 2025
Terrorists on December 14 fired on more than a thousand people celebrating Hanukkah on a sunny beach in Sydney, Australia, killing at least 15. For the Australian Jewish community, which numbers roundly 115,000-120,000, the terror attack was only the latest and deadliest event in a string of antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023.
A recent report by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) documented 1,654 anti‑Jewish incidents across Australia between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, in addition to 2,062 incidents nationwide the year before. That dramatic rise has traumatized a Jewish community that has frequently expressed to Australian politicians its outrage and warnings about future attacks. Finally, in December 2024, following the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced the launch of a dedicated counterterrorism task force, known as Special Operation Avalite, to investigate the torrent of antisemitic threats and violence.
Here is a timeline of how antisemitism has unfolded since October 7, 2023, in a country that takes pride in its cultural value of equality and giving everyone “a fair go.”
2023
‘F*** the Jews’
Two days after the Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people, about 1,000 anti-Israel demonstrators marched through downtown Sydney. Reportedly chanting antisemitic slogans, including “F*** the Jews,” “Where’s the Jews?,” and in some reports, “Gas the Jews,” the demonstrators made their way toward Sydney’s iconic opera house, which were illuminated in blue and white to show solidarity with Israelis.
2024
February 2024: Mass doxxing of Australian Jews
In February 2024, the transcript and contact details of more than 600 Australian Jewish creatives and academics on a private WhatsApp thread were infiltrated and leaked by anti-Zionist activists. The thread had been used to facilitate a letter-writing campaign to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the federal government, pushing for the ouster of journalist Antoinette Lattouf, who had been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Anti-Zionists called the leaked contacts their “Zio600” list. “Zio” is often shorthand for “Jew.”
After the leak, group members received personal threats and attacks on their places of work, which led the Australian government to make changes to Australia’s privacy law regarding doxxing.
May 2024: ‘Jew die’
In May 2024, antisemites vandalized a wall outside Mount Scopus Memorial College campus, a modern Orthodox day school in Melbourne, writing in graffiti the phrase “Jew die.”
May 2024: ‘Zionism is fascism’
In May 2024, Jewish Member of Parliament Josh Burns criticized the Australian government’s decision to support unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state and full membership in the United Nations, a move that risks undermining a negotiated two-state solution and emboldens terror groups like Hamas by legitimizing violence as a means to achieve political goals.
What came next? Violence. A group of people were seen near Burns’ office in Melbourne, where windows had been smashed, fires were set, and walls were defaced with slogans such as “Zionism is fascism.”
July 2024
In July of 2024, AJC welcomed the Australian government’s appointment of its first Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, an antisemitism czar who works with the Jewish and wider communities – independent of government – to stem the rise of anti-Jewish hatred.
October 2024: Jewish-owned bakery targeted
On October 13, 2024, the window of a popular corner bakery in Sydney run by celebrity chef Ed Halmagyi, was vandalized with an inverted red triangle—a symbol used by Hamas terrorists to mark Israeli military targets and by some extremists to mark Jewish targets.
In addition, a handwritten note reading “Be careful” had been slipped under the door. Halmagyi posted a snapshot of the note on social media and titled it “Being Jewish in Sydney, 2024 edition.”
Since then, the shop that is famous for its bagels, matzah balls, and babka has been regularly targeted by vandals and visitors hurling antisemitic slurs. Halmagyi’s response? Heinini, or Here I am.
October and November 2024: Arson attacks in Sydney
On October 20, the front door of a kosher deli near Bondi Beach was torched. Later, in August 2025, Australian authorities announced they had determined the Iranian government to have been behind the attack, a discovery that led Canberra to expel Iran’s ambassador and withdraw its diplomats from Iran. AJC commended Australia’s bold diplomatic response and the message it sent.
Before daybreak on November 21, 2024, a car was set on fire, and multiple vehicles and buildings were vandalized with anti‑Israel graffiti, in a Jewish neighborhood of Sydney.
Police said about 10 cars, including one torched vehicle, were spray‑painted with slogans such as “f*** Israel,” while properties and a nearby restaurant were also defaced. A similar attack terrorized the same neighbors again weeks later.
December 2024: Synagogue arson
In the early hours of December 6, 2024, masked men broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and set it on fire, gutting its sanctuary and injuring someone inside.
Six months later, Australian authorities pointed to the Iranian regime. AJC CEO Ted Deutch toured what was left of the synagogue during a trip to Australia in September of 2025.
“I’m here to remind the world that this was not only an attack on Australian Jews, but global Jewry and all of Australia,” he said.
The firebombing prompted a Joint Counter‑Terrorism Team, involving Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, and national security agencies. In August 2025, intelligence assessments showed the Iranian regime had directed the attack.
2025
January 2025: Synagogues, homes, cars, and a child care center vandalized
In January 2025, two synagogues in Sydney were targeted and spray-painted with red swastikas and graffiti that glorified Hitler and the Nazis. “F*** the Jews” was the message sprayed across a child care center that was set on fire near an Orthodox shul.
More cars were set on fire and vandalized, as well as property once owned by Alex Ryvchin, the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ). Investigators have determined that the attacker thought he still lived there.
Also, in January, the nation’s antisemitism task force made its first arrests in Sydney when a 44‑year‑old man was charged with allegedly posting death threats to members of a Jewish organization on social media, and a woman was charged with antisemitic vandalism.
Lawmakers also proposed a more stringent slate of hate crime and anti-protest laws that addressed harassment, intimidation or blocking of people entering or leaving places of worship, penalties for displaying Nazi symbols near sacred sites, and expanded police powers to give “move‑on” directions to protesters in or near worship spaces.
February 2025: Threats to Jewish patients
Two nurses at a Sydney hospital had their licenses suspended in February of 2025 and currently face criminal charges after they appeared in a TikTok video, threatening to kill Jewish or Israeli patients or refuse to treat them.
In the viral video – a conversation between the man and woman and the Israeli social media user who later posted it – the woman said: "It's Palestine's country, not your country" and used an obscenity.” She also said she would not treat any Jewish patients and would instead kill them. The man claimed that he had already sent many Israeli patients to hell.
July 2025: Jewish children targeted again
More than a year after the walls of Mount Scopus Memorial College in Melbourne were vandalized, 5th graders on a field trip to the Melbourne Museum were targeted by students from another school touring the exhibit, with antisemitic slurs. The older students called the younger children a variety of names, including "dirty Jews” and “baby killers," and chanted "Free, free Palestine.”
July 2025: Arson attack on Shabbat
Another fire was set at the front of a synagogue on July 7, 2025, this time at an East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation on Shabbat when worshippers were inside. Everyone escaped through the rear exit without injury. A 34-year-old Sydney man was arrested in connection with the attack.
That same night, protesters descended on diners at a nearby Israeli-owned restaurant, allegedly throwing chairs, damaging a glass door, and hurling antisemitic slurs. The restaurant’s owner is an Israeli businessman who was then involved with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an American organization established to distribute aid in Gaza.
Also in July of 2025, Australia’s antisemitism envoy, Jillian Segal, published 49 recommendations for federal and local governments, the special envoy’s office, and civil society to curb the rise of Jew-hatred in Australia, including implementation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism and “ensuring regulatory settings for the online world keep up with those in the real world.”
At the same time, the government committed $30 million to rebuild and restore synagogues and another $32 million to boost security for Jewish community institutions. As of December 14, 2025, the Australian government has not implemented any of Segal’s recommendations.
August 2025: Calling a terror group a terror group
Australia’s government passed a law enabling the nation to join the U.S. and Canada in designating the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization under Australia’s Criminal Code, a measure AJC, and its Australian partner agency, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), have urged for years.
December 2025: 'Go to the gas chamber'
Just days before the attack on Bondi Beach, a woman carrying a keffiyeh bag decorated with a Palestinian flag told a rabbi and his two children on a city bus in Melbourne to go to the gas chambers. The rabbi tried to film the woman, but she covered her face, denied she said it, and accused him of being a bully.
