{"id":813106,"date":"2026-07-20T22:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T22:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813106\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T22:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T22:32:18","slug":"adass-israel-synagogue-community-to-address-royal-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/813106\/","title":{"rendered":"Adass Israel Synagogue community to address royal commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion will today hear evidence from the community of a Melbourne synagogue gutted in a firebombing that Australia’s spy agency alleges was orchestrated by the Iranian government.<\/p>\n

Early-morning worshippers fled the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s inner-south-east when the deliberately lit fire tore through the building in December 2024.<\/p>\n

Three people have since been charged over the fire, which the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) alleges<\/a> was ordered by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.<\/p>\n

This week, the royal commission hearings in Melbourne have primarily focused on security arrangements for the Jewish community.<\/p>\n

Today, the Adass Israel Synagogue community is expected to give evidence to the commission on the impact of the firebombing on the community.<\/p>\n

The synagogue is not expected to reopen for years as a result of the significant damage done to the building by the fire, which also damaged priceless Torah scrolls.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Torah scrolls were damaged in the arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne’s south-east in December 2024. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

The scrolls were contained in a fireproof safe, which was installed after an arson attack on the same synagogue in 1995.<\/p>\n

While the safe offered some protection during the 2024 blaze,<\/a> radiant heat and water from dousing the fire caused damage to the delicate parchment.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the royal commission in January following Australia’s worst terror attack in which 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in December 2025.<\/p>\n

More on the royal commissionSecurity arrangements in the spotlight<\/p>\n

This week, the royal commission is focusing on security arrangements for the Jewish community, the role of law enforcement agencies and emergency preparedness.<\/p>\n

Much of yesterday’s hearing focused on Jewish security organisation Community Security Group, which told the commission the cost of its operations had tripled amid a rise in antisemitic incidents after October 2023.<\/p>\n

A representative of the group said he had major concerns about the sustainability of the operation<\/a>, which works closely with police but was funded mainly through philanthropic and community support.<\/p>\n

“The pressure has been immense on all our staff and our volunteers,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We ask more of them now than we ever have.”<\/p>\n

Jason Steinberg from the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies told the inquiry that identifying what did and did not count as antisemitism had been a challenge for police in his state before recent changes around hate speech laws<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It’s easy to understand right-wing extremism: it’s a Nazi salute, it’s a swastika,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jason Steinberg is on the Jewish Board of Deputies and established the Queensland Holocaust Museum. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n

“But without that, the other levels of antisemitism of attacking Queenslanders as being genocidal terrorists, for example, in public, is not so easy to identify for police.<\/p>\n

“Our community has felt vulnerable because the police haven’t been acting on that.”<\/p>\n

The inquiry is expected to hear from police agencies in several states, a counterterrorism expert and a senior bureaucrat from the Department of Home Affairs as hearings continue this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion will today hear evidence from the community of a Melbourne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[29620,64,63,26763,44,214098],"class_list":["post-813106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adass-israel-synagogue","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-jewish-community","tag-news","tag-royal-commission-on-antisemitism-and-social-cohesion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}