‘It's un-Australian': Rabbi says the hate must stop after graffiti attack on heritage-listed synagogue
Vandals used red paint to scrawl 'Free Palestine' and 'Iran is Da Bomb', set inside the outline of a nuclear mushroom cloud, on the heritage-listed synagogue in the early afternoon. There were no religious services or activities at the synagogue at the time.
The attacks were reported to police, and cleaners using special chemicals were able to remove most of the graffiti from the building near the corner of Toorak and St Kilda roads just south of the inner city.
The attack came only hours after news broke that the US had dropped bombs on three Iranian nuclear facilities, but Nathanson urged those people angry about the current situation in the Middle East to not take it out on fellow Australians like those of his Melbourne Hebrew Congregation.
'Tensions are understandably very high today, but an act like this on the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation is just unacceptable,' Nathanson told this masthead on Sunday evening.
'It's the place of worship and it has been since 1841. It's one of the oldest congregations in mainland Australia. Over which time, it has welcomed people from all faiths.'
Nathanson said police were called and security footage was passed on to them. He stressed that the synagogue would continue to serve its broad community of worshippers.
'There's going to be a wide variety of opinions as to the politics in the Middle East and where things stand from one extreme to the other, but to translate that into violent acts and antisemitism and criminal activity here in Australia is un-Australian,' Nathanson said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Canberra Times
15 minutes ago
- Canberra Times
The four-day work week would benefit you, me and the rest of the country
Now, there is absolutely no question that the four-day week will benefit all Australians. It will benefit those of us who work. It will benefit people who look after kids. It will be an extra day for less childcare (groaning under demand). It will be another moment to do all those things which make our lives run: batch cooking, GP appointments, bill paying, breathing, walking, cuddling, cleaning. I reckon it will even cut down on Australian levels of anxiety. Nothing would make us more productive than having lower levels of stress. Same for working from home. Do we need to be under our bosses' noses? Surveillance capitalism at its worst.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
NDIS costs will still need to be reined in, but this autism plan is a good start
The National Disability Insurance Scheme we have today is not the one envisaged when the world-leading scheme was introduced in 2013. It has grown too big too fast. The NDIS cost more than $46 billion last year and is projected to cost more than $58 billion by 2028. At the current rate, it will exceed 2.1 per cent of Australia's GDP by 2033-34, with only support to seniors and revenue assistance to the states and territories costing the federal budget more. These burgeoning costs need to be reined in, and this week's reform announcements by Health Minister Mark Butler are a step in the right direction. Beyond the budgetary imperatives, NDIS reform is also vital because the scheme as currently designed is ill equipped to meet the needs of some of the 740,000 Australians who rely on it. In particular, the NDIS has become what Butler described on Wednesday as the only port in the storm for hundreds of thousands of families of children with developmental delay and autism. Nearly half of all NDIS participants today are children with developmental delay or autism. One in nine 6-year-olds – and one in seven 6-year-old boys – are now in the scheme. Most were expected to need only short-term help, yet in practice many stay for the long haul. Each child who remains in the scheme for life could cost the NDIS $2 million or more. But the NDIS design is not well suited to delivering timely and evidence-based early intervention. Loosely allocating money to families, who must then differentiate between therapies in the marketplace under pressure from providers, is not the optimal approach. Loading We have spent too long admiring this problem and almost as long prevaricating over the solution, so Butler's National Press Club speech about correcting course and introducing a 'Thriving Kids' program is welcome. Thriving Kids is the new name for the foundational supports – disability-specific supports outside of individual NDIS packages – that the 2023 NDIS Review called for as an alternative for many children aged up to nine.
Sydney Morning Herald
an hour ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
NDIS costs will still need to be reined in, but this autism plan is a good start
The National Disability Insurance Scheme we have today is not the one envisaged when the world-leading scheme was introduced in 2013. It has grown too big too fast. The NDIS cost more than $46 billion last year and is projected to cost more than $58 billion by 2028. At the current rate, it will exceed 2.1 per cent of Australia's GDP by 2033-34, with only support to seniors and revenue assistance to the states and territories costing the federal budget more. These burgeoning costs need to be reined in, and this week's reform announcements by Health Minister Mark Butler are a step in the right direction. Beyond the budgetary imperatives, NDIS reform is also vital because the scheme as currently designed is ill equipped to meet the needs of some of the 740,000 Australians who rely on it. In particular, the NDIS has become what Butler described on Wednesday as the only port in the storm for hundreds of thousands of families of children with developmental delay and autism. Nearly half of all NDIS participants today are children with developmental delay or autism. One in nine 6-year-olds – and one in seven 6-year-old boys – are now in the scheme. Most were expected to need only short-term help, yet in practice many stay for the long haul. Each child who remains in the scheme for life could cost the NDIS $2 million or more. But the NDIS design is not well suited to delivering timely and evidence-based early intervention. Loosely allocating money to families, who must then differentiate between therapies in the marketplace under pressure from providers, is not the optimal approach. Loading We have spent too long admiring this problem and almost as long prevaricating over the solution, so Butler's National Press Club speech about correcting course and introducing a 'Thriving Kids' program is welcome. Thriving Kids is the new name for the foundational supports – disability-specific supports outside of individual NDIS packages – that the 2023 NDIS Review called for as an alternative for many children aged up to nine.
