A massive blaze has torn through the Adass Israel synagogue at Ripponlea in Melbourne. Political leaders across Australia have condemned the attack on a synagogue built by Holocaust survivors as an "act of hate" and clear anti-Semitism, as police hunt for two suspected arsonists. Religious leader Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann said "two thugs" broke the synagogue's windows, threw fuel on the floor and set it alight as people were preparing to pray early Friday morning.
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00:00From the ample calls that I've been getting since about 6.30 in the morning,
00:04as a community leader, I can tell you that people are anxious, they're scared, they're frightened.
00:11You've got a message to the British people, you've got a message to the people of Newcastle.
00:15You're just a fool, you're an utter anti-Semite, you're a disgrace.
00:22What you have done is anti-Australian, it's un-Australian frankly.
00:30It's not what we do here as Victorians.
00:36And your ideology and your hate for the other is despicable.
00:41That what happened this morning to the Adas synagogue is totally and utterly unacceptable.
00:48It has no place in Australia and everybody should work with the police to help them
00:53make sure that they can get to the bottom of this.
00:55We must send a message as a country after the last year that actions like this have consequences,
01:01that people will not get away with this kind of behaviour.
01:05We believe it was deliberate, we believe it has been targeted.
01:09What we don't know is why and we'll get to the why.
01:12I'm here in the capacity as the Officer-in-Charge of the Arts and Spaces Squad
01:16to give that reassurance to the community that we will do everything we can
01:20to bring these individuals before the courts.