Dover Heights: Cars torched, house doused with red paint in latest anti-Semitic attack in Sydney

Anthony Albanese has decried the latest hateful anti-Semitic attack on Australia’s Jewish community as an “outrage”, after cars were firebombed, others graffitied with vile words, and a house vandalised on Friday morning.

The affluent eastern Sydney suburb of Dover Heights is the latest target of a string of attacks in Sydney involving cars, homes and a synagogue that have caused immense pain within the Jewish community.

Police were called to Military Road after 4am on Friday following reports of the attacks.

On arrival, police located at least two vehicles that had been torched, both featuring vile anti-Semitic hate speech on them.

One vehicle, a van, had completely burnt out through its front, while a nearby Mercedes sedan had its boot torched.

Red paint was seen splattered over the front of a home, while “f**k Jews” was seen sprayed across the side of one of the targeted vehicles.

Residents believe the attack to be a case of mistaken identity as Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin used to live there.

Mr Ryvchin has been contacted for comment.

The Prime Minister denounced the attack as “against everything that we stand for”, and reiterated his call for the temperature to be lowered.

“This is causing harm for unity of the community. It’s causing fear, which is what it is aimed at. And it needs to be stamped out,” he said.

Dover Heights residents reportedly saw a car do laps of the street before the incident, and multiple people emerging from the vehicle.

Police are investigating.

“The NSW Police Force takes hate crimes seriously and encourages anyone who is the victim of a hate crime or witnesses a hate crime to report the matter to police through Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or through Triple Zero (000).”

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, currently on a visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories this week, said he was hopeful the upcoming ceasefire deal in the Middle East might reduce tensions in Australia.

“The recent rise in anti-Semitism that we’ve seen over the last year has been the worst that I’ve seen in my lifetime, and it’s been shocking,” he said.

“The Albanese government has pulled all of the levers it can to combat this scourge in Australia, but it’s rightly called the world’s oldest hatred. It’s hard to stamp it out,” he said.

He called on all politicians to stop “divisive and damaging rhetoric”.

“Now more than ever, we need unity, and political point-scoring has only fueled more social discord,” he said.

“We’ve seen unacceptable and abhorrent anti-Semitic attacks - something that should cause all Australians to stand together and say, ‘no more’.”

Premier Chris Minns labelled the attack a “disgusting and dangerous act of violence” that signals rising levels of anti-Semitism in the community.

“Civil society stands united in condemning this flagrant racism,” he said in a statement.

“I’ll be getting an update from police this morning and we’ll be doing everything we can to catch these thugs.”

The Dover Heights attack follows a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in recent weeks, the latest just days ago in the inner west Sydney suburb of Sydenham where a wall was graffitied with the words “Gas the Jews”.

Just days earlier, two synagogues in Newtown and Allawah were defaced with Nazi swastikas.

There have also been multiple incidents of vandalism in eastern Sydney, including vandalism to homes and businesses and multiple incidents of car fires.

Mr Albanese welcomed news the AFP had charged a man on Thursday for allegedly making death threats to a member of a Jewish organisation, in what marks the first charges from Special Operation Avalite established last month.

“That is why we set it up and it is good that these charges have been laid,” he said.

- With AAP