Vandals defaced the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in Australia on June 22, 2025. Photo: Screenshot

A historic synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, was defaced twice in one day over the weekend, the latest in a surge of antisemitic incidents as anti-Israel sentiment grows nationwide amid escalating tensions in the Middle East.

According to local police, an unknown individual spray-painted offensive graffiti on the walls of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation on Sunday afternoon. Despite its removal, the building was targeted again later that evening by unidentified offenders.

Vandals defaced the heritage-listed synagogue with graffiti reading “Iran is da bomb” and “Free Palestine,” less than 12 hours after the United States joined Israel in a coordinated airstrike operation targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, including the heavily fortified Fordow site.

Iran has also been the chief backer of Hamas for years, providing the Palestinian terrorist group with weapons, funding, and training.

“There is absolutely no place at all in our society for antisemitic or hate-based symbols and behavior,” Melbourne’s police spokesperson said in a statement.

Local law enforcement has launched an investigation into the incident and is urging anyone with information to come forward.

Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) condemned the disturbing attack, calling it the latest in a rising wave of anti-Jewish incidents targeting the local Jewish community since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — an escalation that has continued amid the ongoing war between the Jewish state and Iran.

“This was not random. It was a calculated attempt to intimidate Jewish Australians,” Dvir Abramovich, Chair of the ADC, said in a statement.

“An attack on a synagogue is an attack on every church, mosque, and temple. It’s an assault on religious freedom and the right to live without fear,” he continued.

Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan also condemned the attack, describing it as “disgraceful” and urging residents to stay united, cautioning against letting international conflicts fuel division within Australian communities.

In a press release, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) denounced the incident as a “vile antisemitic attack” and a “direct assault on the Jewish community.”

“This shocking act of hate reminds us that no community is immune to antisemitism,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman said in a statement. “We commend the mayor of Melbourne and the city’s leadership for their swift response and unwavering commitment to standing with the Jewish community.”

“But goodwill alone is not enough — we need a unified, coordinated response from mayors across the country. Every local leader has a duty to act with courage and clarity,” he continued. “We must equip cities with the resources they need to confront hate, not just react to it. What happened in Melbourne must not be normalized.”

Antisemitism spiked to record levels in Australia — especially in Sydney and Melbourne, which are home to some 85 percent of the country’s Jewish population — following Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities.

According to a report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the country’s Jewish community experienced over 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, a significant increase from 495 in the prior 12 months.

The number of antisemitic physical assaults in Australia rose from 11 in 2023 to 65 in 2024. The level of antisemitism for the past year was six times the average of the preceding 10 years.

The post Historic Australia Synagogue Vandalized Twice Amid Rising Antisemitism Fueled by Mideast Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US on Oct. 14, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Attorneys general representing 16 US states have together filed an amicus brief in support of the Trump administration, which is being sued by Harvard University for confiscating some $2.26 billion of its federal contracts and research grants.

On Monday, the attorneys general of Iowa, Kansas, Georgia, Florida, and others said in their amicus brief that the Trump administration took appropriate action to quell what they described as Harvard University’s flagrant violation of civil rights laws concerning its handling of the campus antisemitism crisis as well as its past history of violating the Constitution’s equal protection clause by practicing racial preferences in admissions.

“Harvard both admits that it has a problem with antisemitism and acknowledges that problem as the reason it needs a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. Yet when the federal government acted to rectify that acknowledged violation of federal law through a negotiated practice, Harvard cried retaliation,” the brief says. “Its characterization of its refusal to follow federal nondiscrimination law as First Amendment speech is sheer chutzpah.”

It continued, “There is strong evidence of Harvard’s discriminatory animus, and the First Amendment does not shield it from consequences. This court should deny summary judgement and allow the federal government to proceed with enforcing the law. Perhaps if Harvard faces consequences for violating federal antidiscrimination law, it will finally stop violating federal antidiscrimination law.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard alleges that the Trump administration bypassed key procedural steps it must, by law, take before sequestering federal funds. It also said that the Trump administration does not aim, as it has publicly pledged, to combat campus antisemitism at Harvard but to impose “viewpoint-based conditions on Harvard’s funding.”

The Trump administration has proposed that Harvard reform in ways that conservatives have long argued will make higher education more meritocratic and less welcoming to anti-Zionists and far-left extremists. Its “demands,” contained in a letter the administration sent to interim Harvard president Alan Garber — who subsequently released it to the public — called for “viewpoint diversity in hiring and admissions,” the “discontinuation of [diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives],” and “reducing forms of governance bloat.” They also implored Harvard to begin “reforming programs with egregious records of antisemitism” and to recalibrate its approach to “student discipline.”

Harvard has its own defenders, including those who are responsible for drawing scrutiny of antisemitism and far-left extremism there.

Earlier this month, the Palestine Solidarity Committee — which blamed Israel for Hamas’s Oct. 7., 2023, massacre mere hours after images and videos of the terrorist organization’s brutality spread online — filed an amicus brief which argued that the school’s alleged neglecting to restrict antisemitic demonstrations did not violate the civil rights of Jewish students.

“The expression of views critical of Israel — even where it personally offends — is not actionable harassment under Title VI [of the US Civil Rights Act],” wrote Palestine Legal attorney Radhika Sainath, who represents the group. “Defendants have not specifically alleged what actions they believe created a severe or pervasive hostile environment for Jewish students in violation of Title VI — or what educational programs or activities were limited or denied by such acts.”

Sainath continued, comparing Jewish Zionists to segregationists who defended white supremacy during Jim Crow, while comparing anti-Zionists — who have been trafficking racial slurs and epithets about African Americans on social media during the Gaza war — to the civil rights activists of the 1960s.

“Many white parents who supported segregation were discomforted — even frightened — by the prospect of Black children attending schools with their children. But advocacy for the rights of Black Americans to live as equal citizens was not anti-white any more than advocacy for the equal rights of Palestinians is anti-Jewish,” Sainath charged. “In fact, it is opposition to equal rights of Black people that is discriminatory, just as opposition to equal rights for Palestinians is discriminatory.”

The Palestine Solidarity Committee triggered a cascade of events in which Harvard was accused of fostering a culture of racial grievance and antisemitism and important donors suspended funding for various programs. Additionally, the school’s first Black president, Claudine Gay, resigned in disgrace after being outed as a serial plagiarist. Her tenure was the shortest in Harvard’s history.

More incidents followed over the next several months. In one notorious episode, a mob of anti-Zionists — including Ibrahim Bharmal, editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — were filmed following, surrounding, and intimidating a Jewish student. A pro-Hamas faculty group also shared an antisemitic image depicting a left-hand tattooed with a Star of David, containing a dollar sign at its center, dangling a Black man and an Arab man from a noose.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon hinted at the possibility of unfreezing billions of dollars the federal government put on ice, telling Bloomberg’s Akayla Gardener, “It would be my goal that if colleges and universities are abiding by the laws of the United States and doing what we’re expecting of them, they could expect to have taxpayer funded programs.”

Responding to an additional question Bloomberg posed regarding President Donald Trump’s saying recently that Harvard University —  which lost over $2.26 billion during the spree of cuts — “is starting to behave” — McMahon agreed with the president, suggesting that Harvard and the administration are drawing near a compromise. She added, however, that taxing Harvard’s $53.2 billion endowment, the value of which exceeds the gross domestic product of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and over 120 other nations, would benefit taxpayers. In April, Trump ordered the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to review Harvard’s tax-exempt status, a measure that was cheered by populists while being regarded as extreme by others who argue that following through on the revocation stands to make American higher education less competitive.

Trump addressed a potential “deal” with Harvard on Friday, writing on his Truth Social platform, saying a “deal will be announced over the next week or so.” He added, “They have acted extremely appropriately during these negotiations, and appear to be committed to doing what is right. If a settlement is made on the basis that is currently being discussed, it will be ‘mindbogglingly’ HISTORIC, and very good for our Country.”

To date, Harvard has held its own against the federal government, building a war chest with a massive bond sale and notching a recent legal victory in the form of an injunction granted by a federal job which halted the administration’s restrictions on its international students — a policy that is being contested in a separate lawsuit.

“The court’s order will continue to allow Harvard to host international students and scholars while this case moves forward,” a Harvard spokesperson told Newsweek on Tuesday. “Harvard will continue to defend its rights — and the rights of its students and scholars.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post 16 States Support Trump Admin Over Harvard in New Amicus Brief as Part of Federal Funding Lawsuit first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on US President Donald Trump’s budget request for the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

The Congressional Jewish Caucus on Tuesday sent a letter to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, demanding explanations for the continued employment of Kingsley Wilson, now serving as the Pentagon’s press secretary, following revelations of her social media postings peddling antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“These statements include promoting the antisemitic and racist ‘Great Replacement’ theory, praising far-right political movements using slogans tied to neo-Nazi groups, and repeating patently false statements commonly circulated in neo-Nazi circles about Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was lynched by an antisemitic mob in Georgia in 1915,” the legislators wrote in the letter, which was first reported by Jewish Insider.

According to the members of Congress, on four occasions Wilson had written “Ausländer Raus!,” a term associated with neo-Nazis and banned in Germany.

One August 17, 2024, post on X stated “Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime. The ADL turned off the comments because they want to gaslight you.”

Frank, a Jewish factory manager, was sentenced to death by hanging for the rumored rape and the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in Atlanta in 1913. Phagan was found dead in the basement of the factory in which Frank worked.

The 31-year-old’s sentence was later commuted to life in prison. However, an armed mob, infuriated by the decision to downgrade the sentence, abducted Frank from his jail cell and lynched him.

Frank was officially pardoned in 1986, and historians largely believe that he was wrongly convicted. Historians also believe that Frank’s trial and subsequent conviction were compromised by antisemitism. During his court proceedings, thousands of spectators gathered and yelled chants such as “hang the Jew.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was founded following the lynching of Frank and regularly receives comparable attacks from neo-Nazis and other antisemites today.

In previous testimony before Congress regarding Wilson’s remarks, Hegseth had said he “would need to see precisely what’s being characterized.” He described the questioning as “a mischaracterization attempting to win political points.”

Rep. Laura Friedman (D-CA) led the letter. Cosigners included Reps. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Seth Magaziner (D-RI), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Eugene Vindman (D-VA), Kim Schrier (D-WA), Mike Levin (D-CA), Becca Balint (D-VT), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL).

The congressmembers concluded with four questions for Hegseth, beginning with asking if he could “confirm whether or not the public comments made by Kingsley Wilson are permissible for a civilian employee serving in a senior, public-facing role within the department?”

The letter asked, “When a department employee has been confirmed to have made public statements of this nature, how has the department assessed whether those remarks are relevant or serious enough to warrant action?” It also inquired about “specific steps” taken in response to previous similar instances.

The legislators concluded by asking, “Do you, Secretary Hegseth, find these comments to be acceptable language for an official representing the Department of Defense?”

Following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks across southern Israel, Wilson expressed disinterest, writing that “the images of the babies murdered by Hamas are horrific. I wish images of aborted babies evoked a similar global outcry.” She embraced a conventional position long advocated by the non-interventionist, paleo-conservative right, saying the United States should not “get involved in foreign ethnic conflicts” and that the Israel-Hamas war was “none of our business.”

Wilson also made explicit her support for “the Great Replacement Theory,” the conspiracy theory which insists a cabal of Jews has plotted to replace white Americans with brown immigrants. She wrote, “The Great Replacement isn’t a right-wing conspiracy theory … it’s reality.”

This racist fantasy inspired convicted mass murder Robert Bowers to slaughter 11 Jews on Oct. 27, 2018, at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh. Bowers currently sits on death row at the US Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

In interviews with Jewish Insider, multiple Republican senators expressed their concerns with Wilson’s statements, including Republican Sens. Roger Wicker (MS), Rick Scott (FL), and James Lankford (OK).

Wicker confirmed he was looking into Wilson’s statements while Scott said “obviously I don’t agree with her comments. I trust the Pentagon will address this.”

Lankford called the remarks “weird stuff” and noted an ongoing pattern of defense hires with questionable positions on Israel or hateful statements. “So yes, I have some questions, and I think those are fair questions,” he said.

Wilson’s isolationist sentiments and promotion of antisemitic conspiracies reflect viewpoints in line with a wing of the so-called Make America Great Again movement which now finds itself at odds with President Donald Trump’s decision to drop three 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Far-right provocateur Candace Owens also began a series of antisemitic social media postings in August 2024 which included the promotion of conspiracy theories about Frank.

In response to the recent strikes on Iran, Owens appeared to take Iran’s side on X, writing to her 6.9 million followers on Tuesday that “Iran is alleging that they never violated the ceasefire. Israel has a LONGGGG history of faking ceasefire violations. Iran did not begin this war so no one should believe anything [Israel Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is alleging. He wants this war, badly.”

The post US Jewish Lawmakers Challenge Hegseth Over Pentagon Press Secretary’s Social Media Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.