Rabbi’s family evacuated after car firebombed on Christmas morning

A rabbi’s car was firebombed in the early hours of Christmas morning, forcing his young family to be evacuated after the pre-dawn incident.

Police are investigating the antisemitic attack in St Kilda East after a silver sedan was set alight on Balaclava Road about 2.50am on Thursday while parked in the driveway of the rabbi’s home.

No one was injured, but the rabbi’s family was evacuated as a precaution, police said.

“Moorabbin crime investigation unit detectives are investigating a suspicious fire in St Kilda East on Thursday, 25 December,” a spokesperson said. “Detectives have identified a person who may be able to assist with their investigation. Inquiries into the incident are ongoing.”

The burnt-out car was removed from the driveway on Thursday morning, but shattered glass from its windows remained in the driveway of the home in the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community.

The home, across a road from a Jewish school, was visited by a neighbour on Thursday morning who laid a candle on the doorstep in a sign of support. A toddler’s bicycle and rows of shoes rested by the front door.

St Kilda Chabad rabbi Effy Block, who has the same menorah on top of his car, said the burnt-out vehicle belonged to a friend.

“It’s traumatising. They are coming off the Bondi massacre. They saw fire outside – they ran out of the house. Mentally, it was very traumatising for them,” he said. “It was an antisemitic attack because they saw the menorah.”

Block, whose family had to leave their house last year after it was targeted with vandalism, said it was time for the government to put words into action and stamp out antisemitism.

“We need action, we need efficiency and enforcement of the law,” he said. “Is this the Australia you want the world to know about? Australia’s image and name has been tarnished dramatically over the last two years.”

He said continuing attacks made Jews afraid to be out in public.

“Walking the street as a Jew with a yarmulke on your head, is this safe?”

“It’s unimaginable, unbelievable. We never in our wildest dreams would have thought that it would reach this extent.”

The firebombing occurred 11 days after two gunmen targeted a Hanukkah festival at Bondi Beach, claiming 15 lives. Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, ended on December 22.

Premier Jacinta Allan said on Thursday afternoon that the firebombing was not what any family deserved to wake up to on Christmas Day.

“This 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,” she said in a statement on X.

She said police were investigating and treating the incident very seriously.

“We 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 antisemitism and hate out of our state,” she said.

Gabi Kaltmann, a rabbi at the Ark Centre in Hawthorn East who visited the firebombing scene on Christmas morning, said attacks such as this proved it was “open season on Jews”, and the destruction of the car was an act of terrorism.

“Eleven days ago, we witnessed the worst terror attack in Australia’s history on the Jewish community celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach,” he said.

“Bondi Beach is now soaked in Jewish blood. Is that what we are waiting for here ... in Melbourne? In the heart of the Jewish community? For cars to be firebombed, children being woken up … having to leave the safety and comfort of their beds because their property is being firebombed?”

Naomi Levin, of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, said: “This 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.”

Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dr Dvir Abramovich said it was a miracle no one was killed in Thursday’s attack.

“If it is not mass murder of 15 people, it’s the firebombing of a car,” he said.

“We should not confuse luck with safety. Things are out of control in this city, and this is the new normal for Jews in Australia and what happens when hatred is allowed to spread. It doesn’t disappear. It looks for another outlet.”

Liberal MP David Southwick labelled the incident an attack on the Jewish community and all Australians, adding that the victims were still processing the firebombing.

“The community is still grieving from the Bondi attack, and this is again another attack on the Jewish community,” Southwick, who is Jewish, told reporters at the scene.

“I’ve spoken to police, and I believe that they have identified the individual and an arrest is forthcoming … nobody should have to deal with this as we wake up on Christmas Day, the day of celebrating with families and friends and loved ones.”

Southwick said that as premier, Allan should urgently recall parliament to “ensure there is decisive action, consequences and leadership right now” and said Melbourne’s Jews felt that Labor had failed them.

Rabbi Kaltmann said the federal and state governments must immediately bring in promised laws to fight antisemitism.

“They must be implemented now. Because Jewish children are not safe when Jewish schools are under attack, Jewish artists are under attack, Jewish kids sleeping are being evacuated because their cars and their property are being firebombed.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australians must root out the evil of antisemitism.

Asked about the firebombing on Thursday, Albanese said: “It’s just beyond comprehension. What sort of evil ideology and thoughts at a time like this would motivate someone [to do that]?

“Christmas is a time of hope. Hope over fear is what we need. Bravery over cowardice, kindness over violence, and togetherness over antisemitism and hate.”

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