A children’s daycare center in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, was torched on Tuesday and antisemitic graffiti was scrawled on a nearby wall, in the latest antisemitic attack in Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
CCTV footage captured the moment the daycare center was engulfed in flames, according to the report.
The Only About Children childcare center on Storey Street in Maroubra caught fire shortly before 1:00 a.m. local on Tuesday. When emergency responders arrived, they discovered graffiti reading “f--- the Jews” sprayed in black paint on a wall.
Firefighters from Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the blaze, but the building sustained significant damage. It was unoccupied at the time, and no injuries were reported.
Although the daycare center has no direct affiliation with the Jewish community, it is located near Maroubra Synagogue and Mt Sinai College, an Orthodox Jewish school and preschool, noted The Sydney Morning Herald.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns condemned the incident, as well as the esacalation in antisemitic attacks in Australia, which he described as becoming increasingly sophisticated and dangerous.
“I don’t believe antisemitism, antisemitic attacks, begin and end with a firebombing or a graffiti attack. I think it begins with language,” Minns said. “It is completely disgusting, and these bastards will be rounded up by NSW Police. It breaks your heart that we have animals in our city that are prepared to burn down a childcare center to make this point.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also addressed the incident during a visit to the site alongside the premier on Tuesday morning, where he strongly denounced the attack.
“Childcare centers are places of joy and harmony … what we saw overnight, in the middle of the night, with this attack, is the latest in a series of antisemitic hate crimes,” Albanese said. “This is a place for children and families, and it should never have been denigrated by this despicable and horrifying crime.”
Rabbi Goldstein of Maroubra Synagogue expressed sadness over the attack but emphasized the resilience of the community.
“We’re not terrified, we’re just saddened that this can happen in such a peaceful and beautiful part of Sydney. Many people ... have young families here and young children to go to the schools here, and it’s just so shocking that it would happen in such a peaceful area,” he said. The synagogue plans to unite the community to support the daycare center.
“We as Jewish people ... show strength and courage in the face of darkness and hatred, we bring light, peace and love, and we join together as a community,” he added.
Simone Abel, head of legal at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, believes the attack on the multi-faith daycare was likely a case of mistaken identity, calling it “a wake-up call” for Australians.
“Unfortunately, antisemitism is a disease, and it spreads,” Abel said. “[These attacks] are a prelude of what’s to come.”
While welcoming Prime Minister Albanese’s announcement of a national cabinet to address such incidents, she criticized the delayed response, saying, “Unfortunately, we haven’t seen the kind of response that we’ve needed to see earlier on.”
The incident is the latest in a series of disturbing antisemitic attacks in Australia, which has seen a surge in antisemitic incidents since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
In early December, the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed, in an incident that is being treated as an act of terrorism.
Days later, a car was set on fire, and two properties were vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, which has a substantial Jewish population.
In another incident, the words "F— the Jews" were spray-painted on a car in Sydney.
Last Friday, the Southern Sydney Synagogue in Allawah, a suburb of the city, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.
A day later, the Newtown synagogue, located in Sydney’s inner west, was vandalized with red swastikas that were spray-painted across the building’s front wall.
Only several days ago, a home in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, previously owned by Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, was vandalized.