Haredi Jewish teenagers narrowly escaped serious injury after a driver attempted to ram them in an apparent antisemitic attack in Melbourne, with the assailants reportedly shouting Nazi slogans and chasing the boys through the streets. The incident has intensified concerns over the safety of visibly Jewish communities in the city, reports Israel National News.
The attack occurred in the St Kilda East area, close to the Adat Israel synagogue, which was firebombed with a Molotov cocktail just over a year ago. According to security camera footage shared by local media, a white SUV stopped near a group of teenage boys as they waited to cross the road. When the boys noticed the vehicle, they ran across the street to get away.
Footage shows the vehicle making a sharp U-turn and driving towards the teenagers, narrowly missing one of them. The driver then continued to pursue the group through nearby streets. One of the boys managed to record the vehicle’s licence plate, which members of the Jewish community later said belonged to a stolen car.
Haim Klein, the father of one of the boys and a member of the Adat Israel community, said his son told him that two people in the vehicle shouted “Heil Hitler,” made Nazi salutes, and threatened to stab the teenagers. He said the car chased the boys for approximately five minutes as they ran and hid in an effort to escape.
“They were forced to run and hide while the passengers chased them in the car, searched for them, and tried to drive towards them,” Klein told the Herald Sun. “This was a deliberate and targeted act of intimidation and hatred that put young lives in immediate danger and left the community shaken.”
The incident has further heightened anxiety among Melbourne’s Jewish residents, particularly in areas with a visible Orthodox presence, amid a broader rise in antisemitic incidents across Australia.
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