On July 4, men poured a flammable liquid in front of the door of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in Melbourne, Australia, setting fire to the synagogue’s front entrance. This occurred during Shabbat dinner with approximately 20 people inside the building at the time, who successfully evacuated. A Sydney resident, Angelo Loras, has been charged with arson, endangering life, property damage, and with possessing a “controlled weapon.”
Synagogue arson has (once again) become the modus operandi of anti-Semites, as the Melbourne attack follows at least twenty similar arsons or attempted arsons since Hamas’ genocidal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
On Oct 17, 2023, in El Hamma, Tunisia, a mob of hundreds of people were filmed setting fire to a historic synagogue housing the tomb of Rabbi Yosef Ma’aravi, a 16th-century Kabbalist. Some of the perpetrators were also filmed chipping the stones away from the synagogue, and planting Palestinian flags. [This was eerily reminiscent of a Palestinian mob’s destruction of Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem/Nablus in October 2000.]
Earlier in the year, a gunman attacked a synagogue on the island of Djerba in Tunisia, killing five people.
On October 18, 2023, in Berlin, Germany, two masked terrorists threw Molotov cocktails at a synagogue, hitting a nearby sidewalk and failing to hit the synagogue. They were able to escape. Hours later, a man approached the synagogue on scooter, and then ran towards the synagogue on foot, at which point German police detained him. While being detained, he shouted anti-Israel slogans.
On November 7, 2023, In Montreal, Canada, “remnants of a Molotov cocktail” were found at Congregation Beth Tikvah.
On November 15, 2023, terrorists poured fuel on the door of Mordechai Navi, the last synagogue in Armenia [in Yerevan], setting the synagogue on fire. The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) claimed responsibility for the attack. This was the second attack on the synagogue, the first attack having taken place on October 3, 2023, also by ASALA. According to ASALA, the first attack was motivated by Azerbaijani-Israeli ties, while the second “was carried out in solidarity with the Palestinian Arab and Lebanese resistance movements against Zionism.”
On November 19, 2023 in Lakewood, New Jersey, firefighters found an “inert and non-explosive” grenade attached to a utility pole near a Hasidic synagogue.
On February 28, 2024, in Sfax, Tunisia, a mob set fire to a synagogue, damaging parts of the synagogue and its courtyard.
On March 7, 2024, Russian authorities claimed to have thwarted an Islamic State attack on worshippers in a synagogue in Moscow. According to the Russian authorities, Russian forces killed the terrorists when they resisted arrest, and Russian authorities had seized “[f]irearms, ammunition, as well as components for the manufacture of an improvised explosive device.”
On April 5, 2024, a terrorist threw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in Oldenburg, Germany, damaging its door.
On May 1, 2024, one or more terrorists threw three Molotov cocktails at the Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw, Poland, causing slight damage. The Nozyk Synagogue is the only synagogue in Warsaw that survived World War Two.
On May 17, 2024, in Rouen, France, a terrorist entered a synagogue an threw a Molotov cocktail. After the terrorist tried to attack security forces on the scene, he was shot dead.
On May 30, 2024, in Vancouver, Canada, at least one terrorist set the Schara Tzedeck synagogue’s door on fire with an “incendiary device” while congregants were in close proximity outside. A congregant was able to extinguish the fire, but the fire had reached the second story of the building. Investigators believe that accelerant was used in the attack.
On June 10, 2024, a perpetrator either threw rocks or a brick into the Mordechai Navi synagogue in Yerevan, Armenia, marking what reports stated was the fourth time the synagogue had been attacked in a year. [The author could not find the third time the synagogue was attacked].
On June 18, 2024, a Greek man and an Afghan man threw flammable liquid on the door of a synagogue in Athens, Greece via a motorcycle drive-by attack, causing fire to the synagogue. These two men were later arrested as well as an Iranian accomplice.
On June 24, 2024, terrorists killed 20 people after attacks on a police station, the Kele-Numaz synagogue, and a Russian Orthodox church in Derbent and Makhachkala in Dagestan, Russia. The 20 dead included a Russian Orthodox priest and 18 Muslims, according to reports.
On August 24, 2024, a terrorist with a Palestinian flag on his waist set fire to several doors of the Beth Yaacov synagogue in La Grande-Motte, France, as well as two cars near the synagogue. One of the cars contained a “hidden gas canister.”
On December 6, 2024, a terrorist set fire to the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia. Two masked men entered the synagogue, spread accelerant on the floor, and set it alight, injuring one person.
On December 18, 2024, a terrorist threw an incendiary device into Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal, Canada. The synagogue suffered smoke damage, a smashed window and a damaged door. This marked the second time the synagogue was targeted since November 2023. Authorities later charged Mohamed Ilyess Akodad for “two arson-related charges, two counts of attempted arson, one count of destruction of property and one count of possession of incendiary material.”
On December 30, 2024, a terrorist threw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, during Hannukah celebrations, damaging its door.
On January 10-11, 2025, two synagogues in Sydney, Australia were defaced with swastikas and a terrorist/terrorists attempted to set one of the synagogues on fire.
On January 24, 2025, a man set fire to himself in front of the historic Great Synagogue in Tunis, Tunisia. He was killed by a police officer on the scene after the perpetrator approached another police officer. The fire caused injury to a bystander and a police officer.
On April 21, 2025, a terrorist threw a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog), Ukraine, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, on the last night of Passover. Significant shielding of the synagogue funded by Chabad “avert[ed] what could have been a catastrophic event,” according to reports.
The recent Melbourne arson attack on a synagogue is just the latest in a string of similar attacks. Burning synagogues is once again in vogue as an expression of “the oldest hatred, forever young.”
Steve Postal(e-mail: hebraicmosaic@gmail.com) has been previously published on Arutz Sheva as well as in The American Spectator, American Thinker, The Christian Post, The Federalist, The Times of Israel, and The Washington Post.