Jewish aged care homes hire armed guards as police briefing warns of antisemitism

Jewish aged care homes have hired armed guards to protect residents after escalating security fears over antisemitic behaviour in Victoria.

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard that incidents across three homes, which care for 400 residents, included a bomb threat, constant hate mail and a man who stood outside threatening to kill those inside.

Jewish Care Victoria chief executive Gayle Smith said the organisation was facing a $1.8 million bill for the guards and other security measures.

“For our aged care residents, obviously, that’s a very frightening experience to be advised that there’s a bomb threat occurring,” she told the commission last week.

“We have a number of direct Holocaust survivors, and then second and third-generation Holocaust survivors who are using our facilities, who are now walking past a guarded building for their aged loved ones.

“And no other aged care provider in Australia will be needing to do the same thing.

“It’s a really uncomfortable position for us to be, but the choice is not tenable ... if we did not take that action and something happened, I personally would never be able to forgive myself.”

Smith said the escalating threat of antisemitism after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks and Israel’s military response included a man standing in front of a Jewish Care Victoria building telling staff, “if you are going to kill people, I am going to kill you”, and a bomb threat that forced one of their care homes into lockdown.

Smith said Jewish Care Victoria had applied for different rounds of Commonwealth funding to help cover the costs, in September and November 2023, as well as state government funding in May 2024, but was rejected each time.

Jewish Care Victoria was eventually able to gain a small amount of funding in August 2024 under a program administered through the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Smith also used her time before the commission to accuse Premier Jacinta Allan and senior ministers of declining to act over claims a state government-funded multicultural agency refused to work with a Jewish social services organisation due to a “misalignment” of values.

Smith said Jewish Care Victoria had sought out the specialist multicultural youth services organisation in September 2025 because it wanted help in designing a mental health program for young Jewish people.

“They had originally agreed to work with us, and that had commenced,” she said. “We then received that communication that they would no longer work with us, and were advised that the decision had been made due to a misalignment of values.

“They then advised that, and I’m paraphrasing, that they were unable to work with us because their constituents and stakeholders would not approve of them working with a Jewish organisation.

“They also added that Jewish youth didn’t need their services because they weren’t poor.”

Smith said that, in separate responses, the premier and Minister for Multicultural Affairs Ingrid Stitt had deferred responsibility to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

“It looks like people are acting. We get a lot of acknowledgement and sympathy, but we get very little action.

“We came to the conclusion that we had to deal with it again on our own.”

Smith’s evidence comes as a Victoria Police document, released under freedom of information, shows the force outlined mounting concerns about antisemitism, extremist rhetoric and threats against synagogues to Jewish community leaders and the state government in the weeks after October 7.

The briefing included warnings that an Islamic State publication had urged supporters “to target Jewish civilians and synagogues everywhere”.

Victoria Police said it had already “tasked resources to patrol and ensure the safety of persons at Jewish schools and synagogues” and was engaging with Jewish organisations to understand what events might require “a police presence and/or patrols”.

The document detailed incidents that had already unfolded across Melbourne, including Nazi salutes on a suburban train, threats directed at Jewish residents and allegations of antisemitic harassment.

The force established Operation Park that month to investigate offences associated with the Middle East conflict.

It has since received 530 reports of antisemitism, and 60 reports of Islamophobia, leading to 313 arrests. Police have also made 15,500 visits to Jewish community sites, including schools, synagogues and community halls.

While police stressed, there was “no known intelligence for any planned violent activity” at the time the document was prepared, warnings about threats to Jewish institutions would later intensify.

On October 12, 2023, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said the agency was concerned about “the potential for opportunistic violence with little or no warning”.

By August 2024, ASIO had raised Australia’s national terrorism threat level from “possible” to “probable”, and in February 2025, Burgess said he was concerned “attacks have not yet plateaued”.

The Adass Israel synagogue in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Ripponlea was extensively damaged in a December 2024 firebombing. Two men were charged and remain before the courts. In August 2025, the Albanese government expelled Iran’s ambassador, citing “credible intelligence” the attack had been directed by the Iranian regime through local proxies.

Allan said places of worship should be a sanctuary and her government had delivered millions in funding to boost security and support the state’s Jewish community.

“I didn’t need a police briefing to know synagogues were at risk after October 7,” she said. “We all saw Central Shule targeted with disruptive protests almost immediately.

“That’s why we funded extra security for synagogues, introduced Australia’s toughest anti-hate laws, criminalised protests outside places of worship, and implemented every recommendation of the antisemitism envoy.

“There is clearly more to do. This royal commission will tell us where governments and organisations got it wrong, and what must happen next, and I am listening.”

Asked about the briefing, Victoria Police told this masthead it had launched an operation centred on addressing antisemitism and deployed proactive patrols to prominent Jewish locations three weeks before the briefing to community leaders.

“Police resourcing is also regularly bolstered around major cultural and religious periods, including high holy days such as Hanukkah,” it said in a statement.

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