Defiant moment Jewish leader targeted in horrific attack shares a powerful message with Australia: ‘There is evil at work in this country’
A prominent Jewish leader whose former home was targeted in an anti-Semitic attack has called on his fellow Australians to ‘speak up’, as he condemned ‘an evil at work in this country’.
Multiple cars parked on Military Road in Dover Heights were spray painted with anti-Semitic slogans and two were set alight set alight around 4am on Friday.
A home in the exclusive eastern suburbs neighbourhood, where the average house price is over $5million, was also splashed with red paint.
It was subsequently revealed that the property was the former family home of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
‘There is an evil at work in this country and we have to recognise that,’ Mr Ryvchin told reporters on Friday afternoon.
‘There are people who are so consumed by hatred that they would seek to burn people because they disagree with their words.
‘How we respond to things like this will determine the future of our country.’
Mr Ryvchin said the attack ‘meets a modern standard of terrorism’.
A home in the exclusive eastern suburbs neighbourhood, where the average house price is over $5million, was splashed with red paint (pictured)
It was subsequently revealed that the property was the former family home of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (pictured)
‘To my fellow Australians I want to say, “Don’t be silent, find your voice, speak up. We are not a nation of bystanders.
‘What defines our national ethos is that we stand up for each other, we speak up for each other: we are upstanders, not bystanders.
‘And in this critical time we need each of you to stand up and condemn this wickedness”.’
Mr Ryvchin vowed not to remain silent.
‘Advocating for my people and my community these past 15 months has been the highest privilege I could imagine and i can tell you that no fire, no vandalism, no paint, no threats, no intimidation will stop me,’ he said.
‘I will continue to fulfil my duty to my country, my community and my people.’
Mr Rychin said the property had been their home for ‘many years’ and was where his family ‘hunkered down during the covid pandemic’.
‘My family came to this country from the Soviet Union to escape anti-Semitism,’ he said.
‘This is the greatest and most fortunate country on earth – I honestly believe that.
‘But if we allow these things to keep happening they slowly define our national character and they change who we are as people.’
A crime scene has been established and police are calling on any witnesses to come forward.
Police said there were no reports of injuries.
‘The NSW Police Force takes hate crimes seriously,’ a police spokesperson said.
Anthony Albanese labelled the Dover Heights incident ‘another anti-Semitic attack that is against everything that we stand for’.
‘This is an outrage,’ he told ABC radio.
Multiple cars parked on Military Road in Dover Heights were spray painted with anti-Semitic slogans and two were set alight set alight around 4am (pictured)
The Prime Minister welcomed the Australian Federal Police charging a man on Thursday with making death threats to members of a Jewish organisation.
‘This is the first charges that have arisen from Special Operation Avalite that I established last month that continues to work to identify prolific anti-Semites causing high harm in the community,’ Mr Albanese said.
‘That is why we set it up and it is good that these charges have been laid.’
NSW Premier Chris Minns says everything is being done to catch the perpetrators.
‘This is a disgusting and dangerous act of violence that is the latest example of a rising level of anti-Semitic attacks in our community,’ he said.
‘Civil society stands united in condemning this flagrant racism.’
President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies David Ossip said he was ‘profoundly disturbed and sickened to wake up to news of yet another anti-Semitic attack’.
‘Criminal acts like these, perpetrated by masked cowards and thugs in the dead of night, are intended to menace and intimidate the Jewish community and further fragment our social cohesion,’ he said.
‘The hate-filled criminals who are perpetrating these crimes need to know that their campaign of domestic terrorism will not succeed, the Jewish community is resilient, strong and unbowed and will continue to be so.’
Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said the latest attack was a ‘nightmare turned into reality’
‘The revelation that the targeted home belonged to a high-profile Jewish leader takes this frontal assault to an even more sinister level,’ he said.
‘This was not random—it was a deliberate and chilling attempt to threaten a prominent figure of our Jewish community.
Mr Abramovich called for a ‘national cabinet must be convened immediately to address this escalating crisis with the urgency it deserves’.
‘We need robust laws and a unified front to root out this menace before it spirals further out of control,’ he added.
It is the latest suspected anti-Semitic attack to hit Sydney in recent days.
On Monday a wall near Sydenham Train Station in the city’s inner-west was spray-painted with the words ‘gas the Jews’.
Swastikas were also daubed on the nearby Newtown Synagogue before masked vandals attempted to burn it down.
Last Friday, the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah was also targeted by anti-Semitic vandals who daubed a number of large red Swastikas at the entrance to the place of worship.
It is the latest suspected anti-Semitic attack to hit Sydney in recent days (Pictured: anti-Semitic graffiti spray painted on a wall behind a burnt out car in Woollahra, in Sydney’s east last year)
Pictured: is the southern Sydney synagogue in Allawah after it was targeted last Friday
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned on the Newtown incident and said that those who committed the act ‘should face the full force of the law’.
‘The vile graffiti we’ve seen overnight, including at the Newtown Synagogue, is abhorrent and needs to stop immediately,’ Mr Albanese said.
‘We made it illegal to use Nazi and other hate symbols because there’s no place in Australia for anti-Semitism.’
A shocking new poll carried out by the Anti-Defamation League found that one in five Australian adults hold strong anti-Semitic beliefs.
Around 20 per cent of Australians – equivalent to 4.2million people – hold anti-Semitic beliefs, with an alarming number of young people believing the Holocaust was a myth.
Globally, less than half (48 per cent) recognise the Holocaust’s historical accuracy, which falls to 39 per cent in the 18-34 age group.
While three in five (61 per cent) of Australian respondents believe the Holocaust is described accurately, fewer younger respondents agree.
Those 18-49 aged are more likely to think the death toll was exaggerated (18 per cent), never heard of the Holocaust (nine per cent), or believed it was a myth (8 per cent).
