Multiple alleged anti-Semitic incidents in Sydney as state attacks on Jewish community escalate

Two new shocking events have rocked Sydney’s Jewish community as Australia battles an alarming rise in anti-Semitism and alleged anti-Semitic incidents.

A man was arrested in the port suburb of Balmain on Monday morning after police were alerted to a man allegedly making an offensive gesture near a shopping center.

Police arrived at the shopping center near the intersection of Darling and Beattie streets, where they found a 54-year-old man allegedly giving a Nazi salute.

The man was arrested and taken to Newtown Police Station, where he was charged with “knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol in public without justification, making a gesture constituting a Nazi salute in a public place, obstructing or resisting a police officer in the performance of his duties and behaving inappropriately” in an offensive manner. in/near a public place/school,” a police spokesman said.

He was refused bail and is due to appear before Downing Center Local Court on Monday.

Later on Monday, police were alerted to graffiti in Sydenham in Sydney’s inner west that allegedly read “gas the Jews”.

“On Monday, January 13, 2025, officers from Inner West Police District Command began an investigation following reports that there was graffiti on a wall in Sydenham with offensive symbols and phrases,” a police spokesman said.

Police do not believe the incidents in Balmain and Sydenham are linked.

This is just one of the latest attacks in a wave of anti-Semitic hate crimes to hit Sydney. A synagogue in the western part of the city and a house in the eastern part of the city were decorated with disgusting graffiti over the weekend.

Police were alerted to graffiti being spray-painted on a house in Henry Street, Queens Park, at around 6.30am on Saturday.

At approximately 7.30am, officers from the Inner West Police District Command were alerted to graffiti being spray-painted on the synagogue on Georgina Street, Newtown.

A separate incident in which offensive comments written on a poster on Marrickville Road in Marrickville are also being investigated.

The Allaway Synagogue in the city’s south was covered with at least a dozen swastikas in the early morning hours before it was discovered Friday morning.

New South Wales police on Monday tried to offer comfort to the Jewish community as it grapples with a wave of continuing attacks.

“New South Wales Police takes hate crime seriously and encourages anyone who is a victim of or witnesses a hate crime to report the matter to police via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or in an emergency via Triple Zero ( 000)” said the spokesman.