Illustrative. Car in New South Wales, Australia graffitied with antisemitic message. The word “F***” has been removed from this image. Photo: Screenshot

On Monday, law enforcement in Australia arrested an unnamed 25-year-old man, charging him with involvement in antisemitic graffiti and arson targeting a residence in the Sydney suburb of Dover Heights previously inhabited by Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

The Jan. 17 attack saw two cars defaced with expletives targeting Jews and then set on fire with the flames soon engulfing a third. The vandals also threw red paint onto the house.

Police charged their suspect with participating in a criminal group and destroying property using fire with damage exceeding $5,000, saying that he assisted in the planning of the attack but did not participate in the vandalism himself. A judge released him on bail and set May 29 as the date of his next court appearance.

The New South Wales Police’s Strike Force Pearl, a taskforce created to counter a recent surge in antisemitic hate crimes, has already apprehended two other unidentified men—a 28-year-old from Bondi and a 23-year-old from Sydney’s Inner West—suspected of direct involvement in the violence. The team has not ruled out arresting further suspects.

Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism released a report last month revealing a 320 percent increase in antisemitic incidents in Australia last year as well as a 260 percent jump in antisemitic violence.

A second report released last month, from Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry and the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights and Justice, also documents the surge of antisemitism in Australia.

Drawing from the findings of the ECAJ, researchers tallied 1,713 antisemitic incidents last year, an increase from the 1,200 counted in 2023 which had jumped almost three times as the number found in 2022.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network in April, Ryvchin described how Australia’s Jews had seen “incidents on university campuses, in schools, firebombings, including a synagogue which was incinerated, a childcare center, private homes, cars. This is what we’ve been dealing with in Australia for the past 16 months.”

Ryvchin said “it’s kind of crazy to contemplate that people in Australia in our time feel less safe here than they would in a war zone, fighting on multiple fronts. But the more that these incidents take place and become normalized and happen in every sector, in the hospital sector now, in the universities, the schools and professions, it makes people really question their future in this country.”

On April 6 in Melbourne, Ryvchin delivered an address on the enduring nature of antisemitism at the B’nai B’rith annual Human Rights Oration following receiving the 2025 B’nai B’rith Human Rights Award.

“After thousands of years, it can no longer be characterized as a defect in reasoning that can be untaught,” Ryvchin said in his speech. “We are not ordinary. And we therefore have to accept the feelings this invokes in others.”