<\/p>\n
\nThe vehicle was destroyed in the incident in the early hours of Thursday.
\nPhoto: ABC \/ Supplied\n<\/p>\n
Police in Melbourne have named a person of interest as they investigate an arson attack on a vehicle with a Hanukkah decoration in the early hours of Christmas morning.<\/p>\n
A local Rabbi’s car, adorned with a “Happy Chanukah” sign, was destroyed in the incident about 3am on Thursday (local time), with his family fleeing their St Kilda East home as the unoccupied vehicle burned.<\/p>\n
Chanukah, also spelled Hanukkah, is the name for the eight-day Jewish festival of lights.<\/p>\n
The incident in an area with a strong Jewish population has been condemned as a frightening act of antisemitism.<\/p>\n
On Friday, detectives urged John Argento – who is described as being 185 centimetres tall with a thin build, blue eyes and grey hair – to contact police.<\/p>\n
Officers said the 47-year-old lived a transient lifestyle in Melbourne’s inner north and south.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nPolice say they want to speak to John Argento following the car fire.
\nPhoto: Victoria Police\n<\/p>\n
He is the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant for deception-related offending, they said, and investigators would also like to speak with him about a vehicle that was broken into about 20 minutes after the arson.<\/p>\n
While the incident is being treated as a targeted attack, Assistant Commissioner Chris Gilbert said there was no indication Argento posed a specific risk to the Jewish community.<\/p>\n
“We understand the devastating impact this type of offence has on our Jewish community, and we are continuing to prioritise this investigation,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“We won’t fully understand the motives of this arsonist until we get them into custody.<\/p>\n
“At this stage, we do not believe there is a broader threat to the Jewish community.<\/p>\n
“We want to thank people in the area for their assistance in this investigation so far.”<\/p>\n
The incident on Thursday morning was condemned by local Jewish leaders, state politicians from both major parties and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n
Police worked into the night trying to ascertain the whereabouts of a person of interest identified earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
The destroyed vehicle will be forensically examined by an arson chemist.<\/p>\n
– ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The vehicle was destroyed in the incident in the early hours of Thursday. Photo: ABC \/ Supplied Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-202305","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}