RESIDENTS are in shock and frightened after "a coward under the cover of night" maliciously damaged a Newcastle home with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Neighbours rallied to clean what the Newcastle Herald understands was a symbol and message off the fence of a property at The Hill, as detectives launched an investigation into the confronting hate crime on the weekend.
A nearby resident and member of the Jewish community, who asked not to be identified out of concern for their safety, told the Herald the graffiti was discovered by passersby on Saturday morning.
"My family is Jewish, so I'm a bit scared as well to be honest, and I just wouldn't have expected that to happen in Newcastle," they said.
"The detail is horrible ... it's pretty unsettling for us all."
Word spread quickly through the close-knit community, who rallied to support the residents of the affected address.
"About an hour later there were lots of neighbours in the area that had seen it and were scrubbing it clean," the nearby resident said.
"I'm glad it was removed but ... I feel like that behaviour needs to be called out, that that is happening in our community."
They said while incidents of anti-Semitism were being reported across the world, and common sense told them it could happen locally, they were gobsmacked and shocked to see it in Newcastle.
"It was obviously a coward under the cover of night," they said.
Newcastle police were called and launched an investigation.
A police spokesperson confirmed officers were alerted on Saturday, November 11, that a property at The Hill had been maliciously damaged.
Police were told "unknown persons had graffitied the exterior fence" of a home sometime between 7.15pm and 9pm on Friday, November 10.
"An investigation is now under way," the spokesperson said.
The incident has sent ripples through Newcastle's Jewish community and residents of The Hill, the same suburb the the Tyrrell Street synagogue is in.
Anyone with information should contact Newcastle police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The investigation comes after police were called in February to reports of a separate suspected hate crime at a Hunter cemetery which saw 10 headstones desecrated.
Port Stephens-Hunter officers responded to reports grave markers at the Maitland Jewish Cemetery on Louth Park Road had been "sprat-painted with a Nazi symbol".
At the time, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark said the vandalism went beyond defacing memorials.
"Those that commit such cowardly acts should expect the full force of the law to come down on them," he said.
Weeks earlier than that incident, there had been a report of graffiti at the Tyrrell Street synagogue.
Tensions have flared since the Hamas invasion of Israel last month, which sparked a strong response from Israel. Thousands of people in both Gaza and Israel have been killed.
Jewish communities have been on alert since a cluster of anti-Israeli protests and reports of anti-Semitic threats in Sydney and Melbourne.
On the same night as Newcastle's latest graffiti incident, pro-Palestine supporters rallied at Caulfield South in Melbourne, and were greeted on the other side of the road by pro-Israel demonstrators, sparking a police response.
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; beyondblue 1300 224 636.
