Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Australian City Bans New Synagogue Over Possible Terror Threats

(JTA) — An Australian court has upheld a municipal council’s decision to ban the construction of a synagogue in suburban Sydney because it could become the target of a terrorist attack.

The group that wants to build the synagogue near Bondi Beach called Wednesday’s ruling by the Land and Environment Court “rewarding terrorism.”

The Waverley Municipal Council had denied the Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe, or FREE, permission to build near the beach, which is popular with residents and visitors. The council in its refusal of the development application said the site was “unsuitable for a synagogue because of the potential risk to users and other members of the general public.”

“The decision is unprecedented,” Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, a spokesman for FREE, told news.com.au. “Its implications are enormous. It basically implies that no Jewish organization should be allowed to exist in residential areas. It stands to stifle Jewish existence and activity in Sydney and indeed, by creating a precedent, the whole of Australia, and by extension rewarding terrorism.”

The CEO of the Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, called the decision a “sad day,” The Australian reported.

“In today’s climate, many communities are required to take security precautions, as are public institutions such as police, emergency departments, government buildings and a range of other facilities,” Alhadeff said. “The ruling sets a very dangerous precedent.”

The court and the council used the proposal’s own risk assessment and security measures included in the proposed design as evidence that the site was too much of a security risk. Among the proposed security measures were set-back buildings and blast wall barriers.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.