{"id":203429,"date":"2025-12-25T15:22:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T15:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/203429\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T15:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T15:22:17","slug":"car-with-happy-chanukah-sign-firebombed-in-suspected-antisemitic-attack-in-melbourne-crime-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/203429\/","title":{"rendered":"Car with \u2018Happy Chanukah\u2019 sign firebombed in suspected antisemitic attack in Melbourne | Crime – Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

A car with a \u201cHappy Chanukah\u201d sign has been firebombed in a Melbourne<\/a> suburb in the early hours of Christmas morning.<\/p>\n

The suspected antisemitic incident comes less than two weeks after the terror attack that targeted Jews celebrating the holiday of Hanukah at Sydney\u2019s Bondi beach and claimed 15 lives.<\/p>\n

Police said emergency services were called to a vehicle displaying a mobile billboard that had been set alight in the driveway of a property in St Kilda East about 2.50am.<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Guardian Australia has seen images of the damaged car with a sign which said \u201cHappy Chanukah!\u201d<\/p>\n

No one was inside the car at the time of the incident but the occupants of the house were evacuated as a precaution, police said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetectives have identified a person who may be able to assist with their investigation and they are actively searching for and making inquiries into their whereabouts,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n

The Jewish protection group CSG Victoria noted the presence on the car of the chanukiah symbol, a nine-branched candelabrum associated with Hanukah celebrations.<\/p>\n

It confirmed no community members had been hurt in the incident and it remained in close contact with police.<\/p>\n

\u201cCSG has already been operating at a heightened level with increased patrols and will continue to do so,\u201d the group said in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n

Naomi Levin, CEO of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, said \u201cthe Australian Jewish community remains on edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a continuation of the daily fear the Jewish community has had to live in for the past two years, and even more so after Bondi,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n

Victorian premier Jacinta Allen said in a statement posted online that she had been briefed by police about what \u201cthe community rightly fear is an anti-Semitic incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not what any family, street or community deserves to wake up to on Christmas Day in Australia,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis little car has been driving around town spreading the Hanukkah and holiday cheer. I even saw one drive past when I was in Caulfield on Monday afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the police were working closely with community leadership to investigate the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a duty to this community: to ensure their families are safe and feel safe right now, and to work long-term in a serious effort to drive anti-Semitism and hate out of our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Aghion, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said: \u201cThe ECAJ understands that the firebombing in Melbourne this morning is an isolated incident, and that the Melbourne Jewish community is not at further risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister, in a statement posted online said \u201cAustralia\u2019s Jewish community is in mourning after the Bondi terrorist attack. The firebombing of a car in Melbourne is another terrible act of suspected antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFederal authorities stand ready to assist. There is no place in Australia for this kind of hatred and it has to stop,\u201d Albanese said.<\/p>\n

It is a common practice of Jewish organisations such as Chabad<\/a> during this period to put a Chanukiah or signs on top of cars.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack a video of one of the victims<\/a>, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was widely shared of him dancing as he put a Chanukiah on top of his van in a video captioned \u201cHere\u2019s the best response to combat antisemitism\u201d.<\/p>\n