Adass Israel Synagogue fire leaves Melbourne's Jewish community reeling
Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann and his father Joseph Kaltmann, who survived the Holocaust. (Supplied)
The horrors of the old world, with its painful personal memories of persecution, were stirred up for Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann when he learnt a Melbourne synagogue had been torched.
"We're shaken to the core. Myself, my community," Mr Kaltmann said.
"This is our worst nightmare."
His grandfather, Joseph Kaltmann, was a Holocaust survivor and an early member of the Adass Israel congregation prior to his death in 2016.
The synagogue in Ripponlea in Melbourne's south-east was left gutted after a suspicious blaze tore through it on Friday morning, forcing early morning worshippers to flee for safety.
The Adass Israel Synagogue, pictured on Friday morning, was built by Holocaust survivors. (AAP: Con Chronis )
After enduring six concentration camps, as well as the deaths of almost his entire family — including his parents, sister and two brothers — Joseph Kaltmann moved to Melbourne to start a new life.
Joseph Kaltmann was a Holocaust survivor and an early member of the Adass Israel congregation. (Supplied)
Rabbi Kaltmann, who is a rabbi at a synagogue near the Adass Israel Synagogue, says his grandfather would have been horrified by the attack.
"He would have looked around and he would have said to himself, in utter disbelief, 'I can't believe what happened to my family … is potentially happening on the streets of Melbourne,'" Mr Kaltmann said.
"This is a synagogue, a sanctuary, and a house of worship."
Melbourne is home to the highest proportion of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel. An estimated 17,000 Jewish refugees arrived between 1945 and 1951.
For many within the community, images of a burning synagogue have stirred painful memories of the atrocities their loved ones witnessed and endured, and have sparked fears of growing anti-Semitism in Australia.
A gathering of Holocaust survivors in Melbourne in 1960. (Supplied: Melbourne Holocaust Museum)
Breann Fallon, head of exhibitions and programming at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, drew parallels between Friday's firebombing and Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, which resulted in the burning of more than 250 synagogues in Germany and elsewhere in 1938.
She said the attack was "deeply triggering" for Melbourne's Jewish community.
"It feels as though this is history repeating itself," Dr Fallon said.
"Attacking a synagogue, a place of worship and a symbol of the Jewish community, it carries with it significant weight.
"[Kristallnacht] is often seen as a watershed moment."
The Melbourne Holocaust Museum in Elsternwick, in Melbourne's south-east. (Supplied: Melbourne Holocaust Museum)
Dr Fallon noted that Friday marked 86 years since Aboriginal elder and activist William Cooper stood up to the Nazi regime.
The Yorta Yorta elder led a march from Footscray to the German consulate in Melbourne to protest against the treatment of Jewish people during Kristallnacht on December 6, 1938.
"When we look at the actions of William Cooper, there's a really important lesson there about standing up for your fellow humans," Dr Fallon said.
"We are not that many generations away from that part of history.
"It is living history. It is something that is tangible in our community, and it's important not to forget that."
Loading...Friday's firebombing was not the first time the Adass Israel synagogue has been targeted. In 1995, the building was severely damaged in an arson attack.
A focal point of Melbourne's ultra-orthodox Jewish community, the synagogue was founded by Holocaust survivors, and it broadly avoids weighing in on political matters.
Rabbi Kaltmann said that made Friday's attack particularly "mind-boggling".
"Members of that community and its founders came to Australia in search of a life free of anti-Semitism, a life free of hatred," he said.
"They're not interested in really anything but just serving God, doing charitable deeds and contributing to society."
On Friday, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Daniel Aghion mourned the loss of Torah scrolls in the blaze, many of them irreplaceable and painstakingly produced over the course of more than a year.
He estimated some held significant value, having been passed down between generations.
"It's not an attack on a building. It's an attack upon our faith, it's an attack upon our people, it's an attack upon who we are," Mr Aghion said.
"The perpetrators of this attack … wanted to strike at the heart of the very heart of who the Jewish people are, and that's what they have done."
Police are still investigating the motive of the attack.
With Hanukkah just weeks away, Rabbi Kaltman said the focus now was on rebuilding, and grieving, what was lost.
"Mark my words, the synagogue will be grander and more magnificent than what it was," he said.
"They will be prouder, they will be more united … that's who they are."