Allawah synagogue in southern Sydney vandalised, Jewish community leaders call for swift action

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A synagogue in southern Sydney has been vandalised with several swastikas spray-painted onto exterior walls. Two men dressed in hoodies and masks were captured on CCTV spray-painting what NSW Police have described as "offensive" graffiti.

Transcript

00:00Police believe that it was between just before 4am and 4.30am this morning that two men in

00:08hoodies and masks came to the site here and they believe that several anti-Semitic phrases

00:14including mention of Hitler as well as anti-Semitic comments towards Jews and about Jewish people

00:20as well as separate comments about Palestine and Israel was emblazoned right around the

00:25synagogue.

00:26I've been walking around this morning and there were very few parts of the synagogue

00:29that were left untouched by this.

00:31Now council workers are working actively to remove this graffiti, police obviously investigating

00:37not just with General Duties officers but we've today learned they'll also be involving

00:41counter-terrorism officers.

00:44We have dedicated resources who will be investigating this particular incident, we've had crime

00:49seen out here already, this will be led by a detective response, our counter-terrorism

00:55team will also be looking at this with us.

01:00We're in the early stages of this investigation, we will be reviewing all the CCTV, canvassing

01:06the area and at this early stage we will say that we have got a number of leads to follow

01:13up on and those people who would want to do this sort of thing we would say to you, you

01:19will get caught, you will get prosecuted and you will be put before the courts.

01:26And Miles, what have the synagogue's representatives had to say?

01:31Well Dr George Foster is the president of the Southern Sydney Synagogue, he speaks about

01:35the resilience of this synagogue initially but just how distressing to see things like

01:40this emblazoned on a place of his worship and for many others who come to the Southern

01:44Sydney Synagogue.

01:46He talked as well about how alarming it was given his own connection to the holocaust

01:50through his parents who survived it, here's what he had to say to the ABC a short time

01:54ago.

01:55I guess it's difficult to describe, sort of shock and distress and as I said being the

02:05child of holocaust survivors it brought back images going back to 1933.

02:13So that's Dr George Foster there, he also spoke about the history of this synagogue

02:17and the security precautions they've had to take already for historic incidents.

02:21In 2002 this very site was the subject of graffiti, he did mention it was nothing of

02:26the tone in terms of the severity that we've seen today, in terms of the anti-semitic nature

02:31of it.

02:32As well it was firebombed in 1991 and that's why he told the ABC that neither him nor the

02:37people who attend this synagogue will be deterred, despite how alarming it is and despite how

02:41distressing it is, that people will continue to set up and that the interior of the synagogue

02:46has remained undamaged and that the security detail they usually have at this site will

02:51remain for this place of worship, particularly during services.

02:56Already this site was actually being monitored by police given other incidents at both places

03:01where there are a high number of Jewish people living in Sydney's eastern suburbs relatively

03:05speaking as well as the Adas Israel Synagogue in Melbourne which was firebombed last year.

03:11So already measures were in place and now Dr. George Foster says his community will

03:16not be deterred and they'll continue to come to this place to worship.

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