In a statement, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the incident in Ripanleo, southeast of the city, was “clearly aimed at creating fear in the community”.
“This violence, intimidation and destruction of a place of worship is an outrage,” he wrote.
“I have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism.”
He added that he had been informed by the Australian Federal Police, which would be providing support to Victorian authorities.
“The people involved should be caught and face the full force of the law.”
Victoria Police said the exact cause of the fire was yet to be determined and an arson chemist would be on the scene.
However, the department’s Chris Murray said a witness told them two masked men appeared to have spread the accelerant inside the building.
He appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the incident, or who has footage from video surveillance cameras or video recorders from the area, to contact the police.
Synagogue councilor Benjamin Klein told The Age newspaper that people inside “heard a knock on the door and a window and some fluids came out which caught fire”.
“Everything unfolded quite quickly,” he said.
A person inside at the time, Yumi Friedman, added that a window had been broken, causing “glass to fly.”
Mr. Friedman told reporters that his hand was burned on the doorknob as he tried to return to the synagogue to put out the fire.
Det Insp Murray – who was confronted by the angry worshiper during the press update – said police would devote significant resources to the investigation and increase patrols around the area.
“We will do everything we can to make sure they can return, as they should, to their local synagogues, doing what is quintessentially Australian – which is to be able to worship without fear.”
Jewish community leaders said they believed the attack was an escalation of a recent documented rise in anti-Semitism in Australia.
“No one in the Jewish community is surprised. We knew this was happening,” said Daniel Oghion, president of the Executive Council of the Jewish Community of Australia.
