This past week, the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, a sanctuary built from the ashes of the Holocaust, was set on fire by hatred. This was not just an attack on bricks and mortar; it was an attack on my family’s legacy, my community’s future, and the soul of Australia itself. The Adass Israel Synagogue, built in 1965 by hands that survived the Holocaust, now stands blackened and broken, a haunting monument to the return of an ancient evil we thought we’d buried in the ashes of history.
I am the proud great-granddaughter of six Holocaust survivors. My great-grandparents escaped the living hell of Nazi Germany. They saw their families, their friends, and their entire world destroyed by the very same hatred that lit those flames today. One of my great-grandfathers, Mr. Max Stern, my beloved Opi, built that synagogue with his own hands, believing that in Australia we would be safe.
Born in what was then Czechoslovakia, Opi began his journey as a philatelist while still a student, selling stamps to support his family. During the Nazi occupation, when Jews in Bratislava were prohibited from owning businesses, he transferred his stamp business to a non-Jewish friend who secured forged papers for him in exchange. Despite these efforts, he was sent to a labor camp in Zilina in 1943 and narrowly escaped transport to Auschwitz.
Opi endured unimaginable trials, including hiding during the Yom Kippur 1944 roundup of Bratislava’s Jews, imprisonment in Sachsenhausen concentration camp, and a harrowing death march toward Berlin near the war's end.
While he and four siblings survived, his parents, two younger brothers, and most of his extended family were murdered in the Holocaust. In March of 1948, Opi married fellow survivor, my Big Omi, Eva Rosenthal, and together they built a new life in Australia.
He founded Max Stern & Co. in Melbourne’s central business district, establishing a legacy as a successful businessman and a proud builder of the Melbourne Jewish community. His story, immortalized in his autobiography My Stamp On Life, is one of resilience, faith, and hope.
Opi poured that same indomitable spirit into constructing the Adass Israel Synagogue—which stood as a beacon of survival and community for Holocaust survivors like himself. Deeply rooted in his faith, being closely related to the Chatam Sofer with only four generations between them, he wanted a synagogue that would feel like home, resembling the warmth and devotion that he remembered of his father and the shul from his memories of pre-war Europe.
He served as a board member for many years, held membership until late in his life, and maintained long friendships with fellow members. Bound by their mutual previous heartbreak and an idealistic vision for a brighter future, they created something remarkable together.
They dared to dream that their children and grandchildren would never again live in fear.
Waking up on Friday morning to what once was a quiet, innocent suburb in the heart of Melbourne's Jewish community, seeing the synagogue—a 10-minute walk from my house—up in flames, was a shock that hit me like a ton of bricks.
Deep down, we knew something was going to happen, it was just a matter of time.
When synagogues are set on fire in Melbourne, we cannot pretend this is about the Middle East. Firebombing a house of worship on a busy Friday morning does nothing to alleviate suffering in Gaza. It is hatred for hatred’s sake. It is terrorism on Australian soil.
This is not just a Jewish issue. This is an Australian issue. It is a world issue. This is a test of who we are as a society. Will we stand up against this vile hatred? Or will we look away until the flames reach all of us?
This moment demands more than condemnation. It demands action with the urgency and gravity it deserves.
I will not let my daughters grow up in a country where we live in fear. I will not stand by as the hard lessons of history are blatantly ignored.
We must denounce evil with unwavering clarity and condemn it in the strongest possible terms.
But condemnation alone is not enough. We must respond with light—through the power of education, the strength of compassion, and the impenetrable force of truth.
The members of Adass will undoubtedly rebuild the synagogue greater and grander than before. And we, the members of the Melbourne Jewish community, will continue to live as proud Jews, following the path paved by my Opi and his generation.
Dear Reader, wherever you are in the world, you can be part of the grand rebuilding project. Do you attend synagogue regularly? Invite a friend to join you. Has it been a while since you last attended? Attend this week in honor of our dear brothers and sisters in Australia. Support synagogues (you can contribute toward the rebuilding of the Adass here), attend synagogues, and let the world know that we, the Jewish people, are alive and well!
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