The firebombing occurred 11 days after two gunmen targeted a Hanukkah festival at Bondi Beach, and killed 15 people. Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, ended on December 22.
Jeremy Weinstein said he wanted to continue living an openly Jewish life despite the antisemitic attacks.
“I feel more Jewish. My kids do too,” he said. “I’m not scared.”
Weinstein, who wears a yarmulke, said recent attacks had given him pause for thought about his public displays of Jewishness, but he would not be deterred from expressing his identity.
“I think about it a lot. I’ve been more emboldened.”
But Weinstein said he turned to the news every day dreading the next act of antisemitism.
“I feel like there’s a lack of protection, lack of care, lack of taking this seriously by those who might have influence and power to make changes.”
He said individuals must be held responsible for the attacks committed against the Jewish community. But he also argued that inflammatory language, particularly in anti-Israel protests, was contributing to the heated environment that was affecting the wellbeing of Australian Jews.
On Friday afternoon, rabbi and school principal Elisha Greenbaum said the Bondi massacre and other recent attacks had strengthened the desire of many people in the community to express their Judaism more strongly. More people were lighting Hanukkah candles and turning to prayer.
“That is the Jewish response,” he said.
Greenbaum said he was focusing on responding with goodness and godliness rather than anger to the acts of antisemitism committed against the Jewish community.
“You’re in control of your own emotions. You can choose how to react.”
Greenbaum, who travelled to Sydney earlier in the week, said he was inspired by the response of the rabbis there and how they were supporting their communities.
“You could see they had made a conscious decision to be there for others rather than allow themselves to be overtaken by emotion.”
Police are searching for John Argento in relation to the firebombing of the car on Christmas morning.Credit: Victoria Police
Speaking to the media on Friday afternoon, Assistant Commissioner Chris Gilbert said police had released Argento’s name in the hope that anyone who might see him, or who knows where he is, would alert police.
“He is wanted on a warrant at this stage, for use of a stolen credit card,” Gilbert said. “We will allege he may have been involved in other property offences as well, including stealing from cars. In fact, we are looking at another incident that occurred after the car fire, which was a theft from a motor car, and we’re looking at links between those two offences.”
Gilbert was unable to confirm whether this was a random attack or was antisemitic in nature, but he said speaking to Argento would clear that up.
“Right now, we’ve got everything on the table. Our responsibility at this stage is to make sure that we don’t take anything off the table. We look at it and, certainly, if it was racially or obviously motivated, we will follow that angle.
“The most important thing at the moment is that we speak to him and we understand what [the motives] are, because we want to make sure the community doesn’t live in fear as a result of this incident.
“We certainly don’t have any specific threats to the community here.”
Gilbert said police had been engaging with victims in the Jewish community for some time.
Assistant Commissioner Chris Gilbert talks to the media.Credit: Eddie Jim
“We’ve been doing this for many, many months, particularly since the end of 2023,” he said. “We are visiting families who’ve been victims. We have sat with grieving families since Bondi, so we are very much out listening and engaging with community, which is why our presence here in Caulfield, in Port Phillip and the broader Melbourne area is so strong at the moment.”
On Thursday, Jewish leaders called the St Kilda East attack antisemitic and that it was “open season on Jews”.
“Bondi Beach is now soaked in Jewish blood. Is that what we are waiting for here … in Melbourne?” said Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann.
St Kilda Chabad Rabbi Effy Block, who has the same menorah on top of his car, said the burnt-out vehicle belonged to a friend.
Police outside a Jewish school in St Kilda East earlier this month.Credit: Jason South
“It’s traumatising. They are coming off the Bondi massacre. They saw fire outside – they ran out of the house. Mentally, it was very traumatising for them,” he said.
“It was an antisemitic attack because they saw the menorah.”
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Premier Jacinta Allan said on Thursday afternoon that the firebombing was not what any family deserved to wake up to on Christmas Day.
“This little car has been driving around town spreading the Hanukkah and holiday cheer. I even saw one drive past when I was in Caulfield on Monday afternoon,” she said in a statement on X.
Police will patrol the area, and the burnt car will undergo forensic analysis by an arson chemist.
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