Two men charged with allegedly starting a fire at a Sydney synagogue have been charged in connection with a separate alleged antisemitic attack at the former home of the prominent Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin.
A Dover Heights home once owned by Ryvchin – the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry – was splashed with red paint in mid-January at about 4am, police allege.
Four cars were also damaged, with two set alight. One of the cars set on fire was graffitied with the words “Fuck Jews”.
Adam Edward Moule, 33, and Leon Sofilas, 37, were arrested at a correctional facility on Wednesday and charged with being accessories before the fact to damaging property by means of fire or explosion.
The pair were in custody on remand after being charged in connection with an earlier incident at a synagogue in Newtown a week before the Dover Heights attack.
Moule and Sofilas allegedly spray-painted 10 swastikas on the synagogue on 11 January. It is also alleged by police that they put an “unknown liquid” on “sticks and branches bundled together” and lit a fire that quickly burnt out.
New South Wales police said on Thursday the pair had additionally been charged in connection with another alleged incident at Queens Park on 11 January when five vehicles and two houses were vandalised with “offensive graffiti”.
Both men were charged with being accessories before the fact to damaging property in company and participating in a criminal group contributing to criminal activity.
Moule and Sofilas were charged under Strike Force Pearl, a police operation set up to investigate acts of hate across Sydney. It is examining a spate of arson attacks and antisemitic and anti-Israel graffiti on streets and synagogues.
Pearl detectives on Tuesday separately made their 13th arrest when charging 36-year-old Scott Marshall.
Det Supt Darren Newman told reporters on Wednesday that NSW police would allege Marshall and his partner, Tammie Farrugia, were “involved in preparing” a car and jerry cans ahead of an anti-Israel arson and graffiti attack in Woollahra in mid-December.
Newman said a number of matters remained under investigation – including whether the incidents were linked to organised crime and whether some of the attacks were conducted by people paid to commit crimes.
“It would appear, from our investigations, there is certainly a level of planning,” he said on Wednesday.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said on Thursday that police inquiries were continuing into the spate of antisemitic attacks.
“I’ve been briefed about it, as has the minister for police, obviously, and I’m hopeful we can say more about the ultimate motive and ideology of it soon but I can’t do that today,” he told reporters.
