EDITORIAL: We cannot forget how the Albanese Government let down the Jewish community

The firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne in December was an act of savagery.

It was also an act that carried with it symbolism that could have been lost on nobody.

Images that went around the world were terrifyingly similar to the horrific events that took place in Germany as the Nazis took control in the 1930s.

And also terrifying was that it happened here. In Australia.

As a special report in The Nightly today explains, it was more than what many considered the worst anti-Jewish act in Australian history.

The damage to the synagogue was also deeply significant for the relations between the Jewish community and the Albanese Government.

It marked the outcome of the way Labor had failed that community since Hamas launched its murderous rampage into Israel on October 7, 2023.

The slide into this very dark period for Jewish Australians had built up since that sickening attack.

There was a steady stream of shameful events. A pro-Palestinian mob which gathered at the Sydney Opera House to celebrate the terrorist atrocity.

The hate vented during regular pro-Palestinian marches in city streets and on university campuses.

Cars set on fire and anti-Israel slogans daubed on vehicles and buildings.

The list goes on as Labor’s actions and inactions around the politics of the Middle East took hold.

The loss of trust Jewish Australians felt in the Government of a Western democracy which they thought would ensure they lived in a safe place must have been especially felt by senior members of that community, Mark Leibler and his son, Jeremy.

Mark Leibler had curated Mr Albanese’s shot at historical greatness, the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. It was a role that the Prime Minister had recognised at a dinner for 900 members of Australia’s elite.

Jeremy Leibler had long-standing links with the Labor Party leadership, including Mr Albanese and Defence Minister Richard Marles and came to know Foreign Minister Penny Wong so well he thought of her as a friend.

But time and again as the months went by and the men looked for signs that the Government had their community’s back, they were let down.

Finally their patience ran out.

Jeremy Leibler called out the Government for not assertively repudiating anti-Semitic rhetoric, and tacitly encouraging the demonisation of Israel to protect itself from losing votes to the left.

Writing in The Age, he made it clear what he felt had happened.

The Government had “failed the Jewish community at a moment when leadership was needed most”.

“This is not just weakness. It is cowardice,” he wrote. “History will not forget.”

Australians should not forget either. And we can only but hope we can eventually remove the stain left by this tragedy.