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Australian billboard advertising synagogue event torched

The Melbourne ad promoted an event with the president and founder of United Hatzalah of Israel at a local synagogue.

A billboard in Australia promoting an event with an Israeli volunteer emergency medical service was torched on Tuesday night. Credit: Australian Jewish Association, April 29, 2026.
A billboard in Australia promoting an event with an Israeli volunteer emergency medical service was torched on Tuesday night. Credit: Australian Jewish Association, April 29, 2026.

A billboard in Australia promoting an event involving an Israeli volunteer emergency medical service was torched on Tuesday night.

The Melbourne sign advertised an event with the president and founder of United Hatzalah of Israel at a local synagogue.

“This is the reality for Jews in Melbourne in 2026,” the Australian Jewish Association posted on X.

The Jewish group had partnered with both organizations.

The vandalism was the latest in a rash of antisemitic incidents that have shaken Australia since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

Last week, a joint Jewish-Greek choral concert in Australia, intended to raise money for the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre, was abruptly canceled after Greek choir members voted against performing with Jews.

About 110,000 Jews live in Australia, primarily in Melbourne and Sydney.

Abdulkadir Al-Jelani, 58, is due in court on July 1 and faces charges of making the threats and three counts of assault with a weapon.
The designations include Hezbollah-linked institutions that “threaten regional stability, international security, mutual interests and global trade,” the U.S. Treasury Department stated.
Gerard Filitti, of the Lawfare Project, told JNS that “lax immigration policy” has always been the main driver of importing “terrorist ideology” into the United States.
“The teachers we have, we don’t respect and support in the way that they deserve,” Paul Bernstein told JNS. “If we’re successful and we grow enrollment, that problem only gets bigger.”
“The message being sent is that you can get away with attacking someone in broad daylight because you disagree with their opinions, especially if it involves feelings about Israel,” Joshua Burt, of the Anti-Defamation League, told JNS.
“Not identifying Hamas as a terrorist organization is, I think, a failure, Marc Miller told the Canadian Press. “And not clearly stating that, for example, Hamas intended to kill Jews is, I think, an unfortunate error in curation and should be rectified.”