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News.com.au
6 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Melbourne man accused of sending death threats, anti-Semitic remarks to Australian politicians
A Melbourne man accused of sending death threats to a federal lawmaker is working with authorities on a support plan to address his underlying issues, a court has been told. The 33-year-old from Reservoir, in the city's north, was arrested on February 6 as part of an investigation by the AFP-led Special Operation Avalite – set up in the wake of the Adass Israel Synagogue firebombing late last year to probe anti-Semitic threats and violence to Australia's Jewish community and parliamentarians. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was charged with four counts of using a carriage service to menace and one count of using a carriage service to threaten to kill. According to the AFP, it's alleged he used social media and email to make death threats and anti-Semitic comments towards a NSW-based federal MP between January 16 and 18 this year. The man is also alleged to have made threats to a Victorian state MP the same month over social media. He appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Tuesday for a short hearing after his case was referred to the Assessment and Referral Court (ARC). According to the Magistrates' Court of Victoria website, the ARC aims to assist people with complex mental health conditions receive support for up to 12 months before sentencing. 'ARC's therapeutic approach increases participants' engagement with the court process while providing treatment and support tailored to their needs and to address the underlying causes of their offending,' the website states. During the hearing, Magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano left the bench to sit around a large oval-shaped desk with the accused man, his lawyer Jackson McLeod, a police prosecutor and court support services in a less formal setting. The court was told the man was engaging with support services to develop an individual support plan and access treatment needs. 'A lot of this stuff I've needed for years; its kind of irritating it's come this far,' he said. The accused man complained about his support worker, saying he'd avoided her recently because 'all she wants to do is drug me' and repeatedly mentioned an ex-boyfriend who, he said, had thrown his life into disarray. Mr Caltabiano said he was not going to pretend the ARC process would make things 'rosy' for the accused man, but the hope was his personal situation would improve. 'What I see in here is a number of things that hopefully if they can come together means some of these challenges become less significant,' the magistrate said after reviewing case notes. The accused man will return to court in a month for another case management check-in.
CBC
30-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Montreal Jewish museum reopens century-old sewing shop as a pop-up exhibit
Social Sharing For 100 years, H. Fisher & Fils was a fixture of Montreal's garment industry, serving up orders of buttons, bolts of cloth and sewing supplies from its storefront on St-Laurent Boulevard in the city's Plateau neighbourhood. As the area transformed and other garment stores moved away, H. Fisher & Fils remained, operated until 2022 by Esther Fisher, the widow of the original owner's son. Earlier this month, the store reopened, but this time with a transformation of its own: as a pop-up museum exhibit and heritage space paying tribute to Montreal's garment industry and its role in the city's Jewish community. The space appears largely unchanged from its working days. Fisher and her husband Mitch seem to have rarely thrown anything away, from vintage sewing machines and old cash registers on the counters to old newspaper clippings on the wall. "There's been so much change in this neighbourhood and you can't necessarily feel that anymore, and this is a really tactile and physical way to understand what once was," said Taryn Fleischmann, cultural programming and exhibitions co-ordinator for the Museum of Jewish Montreal, which opened the space earlier this month. "I think it's a really accessible way to comprehend our history, and it would be like a shame to let that go." When it opened in 1922, the store was one of many garment businesses on and around St-Laurent Boulevard — known as the Main. They were often owned and staffed by Jewish tailors and seamstresses who had arrived from eastern Europe. While it originally opened a few blocks away, it soon moved to the modest storefront where the exhibit now resides, with the Fisher family living in the apartment above. It was a notions supply store, meaning it didn't make garments but rather provided the supplies to customers including the Cirque du Soleil, opera productions, suit-makers and fashion schools. Guests who step into the museum are greeted by rolls of cloth running from floor to ceiling, while shelves and boxes are packed with zippers, snaps and other supplies. A screen plays a brief interview with Esther Fisher, filmed when she was in her 90s. In the clip, she described taking over the store after her husband's death, with little formal work experience outside of raising her children. Fisher, who died shortly after the store closed in 2022, is a presence throughout the space. Her handwriting and that of her husband, Mitch, is scrawled on the walls, the order sheets, the ledger that sits on the counter, and on the labels affixed to bolts of cloth. Guests who book a tour with the museum are encouraged to touch the cloth swatches, spools of thread and button and zipper samples. "I think it's a very sensory experience as well as a learning experience," said Austin Henderson, the museum's arts programming and communications manager. "I think it's a great way for people to feel history, to touch it, to see it with their own eyes as opposed to behind a display case or perhaps in a more conventional museum space." While the museum plans to eventually add more exhibit features, including stories collected from people who knew the Fisher family, Henderson says he enjoys the personal touches. His favourite object has nothing to do with sewing: it's a coffee mug stuffed with tools and utensils customers left behind. Fleischmann said the store is part of the shmata industry — Yiddish for rag or cloth — and which was an important source of jobs and security for Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century. "I think that a lot of individuals who are not so tied to the community don't realize that a huge reason why Jewish immigrants came to Montreal was for the garment industry history," she said. "A lot of seamstresses in eastern Europe, they had to flee, and came here and took up jobs in a similar way." In the 19th and 20th centuries, St-Laurent Boulevard was home to successive waves of immigrants who lived, worked and set up shop in the dense, bustling neighbourhood. Over time, Jewish immigrants spread out to different parts of the city, while the garment industry moved northwest, to an area above Highway 40. Today, the street is lined with trendy restaurants, boutiques and cafés rather than sewing shops.
CBC
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Canada denounces ‘unacceptable' killing of Israeli embassy staffers in D.C.
The Canadian government is condemning the murders of two Israeli embassy staff in Washington, D.C., calling the shooting a targeted attack against the Jewish community. The response comes amid increasingly strained ties between Canada and Israel.
BBC News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Suspect charged in Washington killings of two foreign officials
The suspect accused of gunning down two Israeli embassy staff members outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC has been charged with first-degree murder, as well as murder of foreign officials and related firearm night's attack is being investigating as a hate crime, and more charges are expected, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at a news conference."This is a death penalty-eligible case," she said Thursday, adding that it is too early to say whether prosecutors will decide to seek a death Jenson, from the FBI's Washington DC field office, called the killings "an act of terror and directed violence against the Jewish community". Couple Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were shot dead outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC around 21:08 local time (02:08 BST) on Wednesday, police said. The suspect opened fire on a group of four exiting the event, killing the two victims, police identified the suspect as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago. He was arrested at the scene shortly after the said he was seen pacing outside the museum before opening fire. Eyewitnesses told the BBC he initially was mistaken for a traumatised bystander, and given aid inside the museum. Police said the suspect also shouted "free Palestine" before he was taken into suspect landed in the Washington DC area one day earlier, Jenson said, and investigators are still piecing together his whereabouts before the attack. But officials said they believe he travelled to Washington DC for a work media accounts linked to the suspect show he worked at the American Osteopathic Information Association (AOIA) in Chicago as an administrative specialist since his court hearing Thursday, the suspect was charged and ordered to remain in detention. His next hearing was scheduled for 18 June. Israel's ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said shortly after the shooting that Mr Lischinsky planned to propose to Ms Milgrim during an upcoming trip they had planned to Jerusalem."They were a beautiful couple," Leiter said at a news conference.A vigil for Ms Milgrim was expected on Thursday in her hometown of Kansas City. She previously had spoken out about her fears of antisemitism in American public life. In 2017, she was interviewed by a local TV station after her school in Kansas was vandalised with a Nazi swastika. "You know, I worry about going to my synagogue, and now I have to worry about safety at school and that shouldn't be a thing," said Ms Milgrim, who was in her final year of high school at the time. Police said the suspect was not on their radar and has no prior interactions with law enforcement. They said he admitted to the attack and is believed to have acted media accounts linked to the suspect also indicate that he was heavily involved in the pro-Palestinian protest movement. Officials said they are scouring his electronic devices and were also seen searching a home linked to the suspect in Chicago on of his neighbours in Chicago, John Wayne Fry, told reporters that he lived in the same apartment building as the suspect for around a year. The suspect displayed a photo outside his flat of a Palestinian-American child who was killed in Chicago in 2023, Mr Fry man who killed six-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi was convicted of hate crime charges earlier this month. Officials said he was motivated by hatred for Islam and the conflict in is unclear whether the suspect had any direct contact with the boy's family. Jojo Kalin, one of the event's organisers in DC, told the BBC that the event the victims attended was focused on how to build a coalition to help people suffering in Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas added it is "deeply ironic that what we were discussing was bridge building and then we were all hit over the head with such hatred". The attack was condemned by world leaders, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said he "thoroughly" condemns the "antisemitic attack" in Washington Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack "a heinous antisemitic murder" and added that security would be increased for Israeli representatives and diplomatic missions President Donald Trump also decried antisemitism in response to the attack, writing on his social media platform Truth Social that "hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA."Trump and Netanyahu later spoke over the phone about the incident, where the US president expressed sorrow to his Israeli counterpart, according to a readout of the reporting from Mike Wendling in Chicago
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Evening Edition: Israeli Embassy Staffers Killed In D.C. Terror Attack
Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed Wednesday evening in a targeted attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The suspect has been identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago who shouted 'Free, Free Palestine' while being taken into custody by law enforcement. The victims were identified as were identified as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American woman, the young couple were about to be engaged. FOX's John Saucier speaks with Michael Masters, CEO and National Director Of The Secure Community Network, which serves as the official safety and security organization for 'The Jewish Community In North America', who says the threat against the Jewish community is extremely high following this tragedy and the rest of the country needs to listen to what these attackers say, because it does reveal who they truly are. Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
