Major breakthrough in wave of terrifying Sydney attacks

5 days ago 6

Police have charged two men after a wave of antisemitic attacks targeting a synagogue, a Maroubra day care centre and school, and the former home of a prominent Jewish Sydneysider, marking a major break in the cases which have hung over the city for months.

Police say one of the men is the alleged criminal mastermind behind the string of incidents, the most high profile being the January arson attack on a Dover Heights home once owned by Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

Police have arrested two men over an attack on a synagogue in Allawah, including a man they claim masterminded three other high-profile attacks in Sydney.Credit: NSW Police

The four attacks were part of a spate of antisemitic incidents which struck terror into the city’s Jewish community. Some of the attacks are now allegedly linked to Iran and others to underworld bosses.

The two men wearing black hoodies were caught on CCTV allegedly vandalising the Southern Sydney Synagogue, in the suburb of Allawah, in the early hours of January 10. A swastika and the message “Hitler on top”, along with references to Allah and “Free Palestine”, were sprayed in red paint on the white bricks of the Jewish church.

A court document provided to the Herald this month revealed police from Strikeforce Pearl, set up in response to the spate of antisemitic attacks, soon set their sights on 26-year-old Kye Pickering from the Central Coast suburb of San Remo. On June 26, he was charged with displaying a Nazi symbol, damaging property and participating in a criminal group.

Ryvchin visiting his former home, vandalised with an antisemitic message, in January.

Police then swooped on 27-year-old Tarek Zahabe in mid-July.

Zahabe was charged with directing Pickering to carry out the attack in Allawah. He was also charged with directing three other incidents in Sydney’s east in January.

The first was on January 17, when four cars were set alight outside the Military Road address formerly owned by Ryvchin, with the home splashed with red paint and the word “JEWS” was sprayed on one burnt-out car.

Then on January 21, Only About Children on Storey Street in Maroubra was set alight and sprayed with anti-Jewish messages. Premier Chris Minns called it a “vicious hate crime”.

One week later, Mount Sinai, a Jewish primary school on Runic Lane in Maroubra, was also graffitied.

The Only About Children childcare centre on Storey Street in Maroubra which was damaged in an antisemitic attack in mid-January.

Both men will front Downing Centre Local Court next month, Pickering on October 21 and Zahabe on October 30.

The development comes a month after Australia’s spy agency, ASIO, claimed a firebombing at Lewis Continental Kitchen, a Jewish business in Bondi Beach, in October 2024, and a second at Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue, weeks later, were the work of Iran.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had allegedly enlisted bikie Sayed Moosawi, who had in turn allegedly enlisted other men to carry out the attack in Sydney.

Moosawi denies the allegations, and ASIO said other attacks may be linked to Iran.

Police do not allege the attacks allegedly attributed to Zahabe were carried out on behalf of Iran.

The former home of prominent Jewish Australian Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin was targeted.

Police would also not confirm if Zahabe was allegedly acting on behalf of an offshore criminal mastermind – alleged drug runner Sayet Akca.

It was during the wave of attacks now allegedly attributed to Zahabe that police found a caravan packed with explosives on a roadside in Dural, along with directions to Sydney’s Great Synagogue.

Pearl’s investigators accused Akca of orchestrating more than a dozen of the antisemitic attacks – including the caravan – from a hideout in Turkey.

Police claim Akca planned to turn in the caravan to influence his own prosecution for drug running, sources said in March.

In an interview with ABC’s Four Corners, Akca admitted to the caravan plot, but denied involvement in the other attacks.

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