![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f7a9e25fc97af37580439665d362648f.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nPolice have charged a third person over a fire that destroyed the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea in Melbourne’s south-east.<\/p>\n
The fire, which police believe was deliberately lit, tore through the synagogue shortly after 4am on December 6, 2024.<\/p>\n
Early-morning worshippers inside the building were forced to flee.<\/p>\n
Victoria Police, along with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), on Friday charged a 20-year-old Airport West man with arson, endangering life and theft of a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n
Last year police charged a 20-year-old Meadow Heights man and a 21-year-old man from Werribee with the same charges.<\/p>\n
A 20-year-old Melton South man was also charged last year with stealing what police allege was a “communal crime car” which was used to drive to the synagogue on the day of the attack.<\/p>\n
Police said the Airport West man was charged over the fire while in custody for unrelated offences and will appear in court next Tuesday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The fire took hold just after 4am while worshippers were inside. (Supplied: Sally Westwood)<\/p>\n
AFP Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier said it had been a “highly complex” investigation and it was not finished.<\/p>\n
He alleged members of the community had deliberately lied to police during the investigation.<\/p>\n
He called on them to cooperate.<\/p>\n
“You will not obstruct justice. Now is the time for you to come forward and to do the right thing,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said police believe the attack was politically motivated and had links overseas.<\/p>\n
“You would be aware that this investigation does have international connections and we will continue to work collaboratively with our international partners to assist, and also draw information from them,” he said.<\/p>\n
Assistant Commissioner Crozier thanked the Jewish community for their patience and ongoing support.<\/p>\n
“There is no understating the fear and genuine sense of unease this crime has created across our society,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said over 200 members of the AFP and Victoria Police had been involved in the investigation.<\/p>\n
Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul O’Halloran from Victoria Police said the synagogue community had been told of the latest arrest.<\/p>\n
“Our heart goes out to them. Again, this brings back this terrible incident but we certainly have engaged with people appropriately,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m sure it brings a sense of comfort that Victoria Police, the AFP and security agencies are doing all they can.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police have charged a third person over a fire that destroyed the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30101,3340,2034,22,21,844,6063],"class_list":["post-34351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-adass-synagogue","tag-arrest","tag-arson","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-fire","tag-jewish-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}