a statement Tuesday<\/a>, the head of Australia\u2019s federal police said that his agency was investigating whether \u201coverseas actors or individuals\u201d had paid locals in Australia to carry out some of these acts. But he did not give evidence or further details.<\/p>\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated that investigators were looking into the possibility that some of the perpetrators had acted out of financial incentives rather than ideological motivations.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, it\u2019s unclear who or where the payments are coming from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The specter of foreign involvement has added a new dimension to the anxiety that has been brewing in Australia\u2019s small but deep-rooted Jewish community. The police have not said whether, or how, the more than half a dozen attacks since October are related.<\/p>\n
In December, the Australian Federal Police set up a task force to investigate violence and threats against the Jewish community. The state police in New South Wales, where most of the attacks have taken place in the greater Sydney area, said they have arrested and charged nine individuals in relation to the crimes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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On Wednesday, officials announced the most recent arrest, that of a 33-year-old man in a case of attempted arson and graffiti on Jan. 11, when red swastikas were spray painted on the fence of a synagogue in the Newtown neighborhood of Sydney.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The state\u2019s premier, Chris Minns, said officials were cracking down on what he called \u201crampant antisemitism and violence in our community.\u201d The crimes, he added, were a \u201cdeliberate attempt to strike terror into the hearts of people that live in this state.\u201d<\/p>\n
What made the recent attacks different was their frequency and severity, said Julie Nathan, the research director at the Sydney-based Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella organization for Jewish groups in Australia that has been tracking and documenting reports of antisemitism since 1990.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had terrible graffiti, vandalism of cars and buildings, but nothing consistently at this level,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is every few days.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The former home of Alex Ryvchin, the co-chief executive of the E.C.A.J., was vandalized last week.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ryvchin said it was apparent that the home \u2014 which his family had recently moved out of \u2014 had been specifically targeted. Part of a duplex, it was only his former residence that had been splashed with red paint, he said. The other half of the building was left untouched. Cars in the driveway and in front were vandalized with anti-Jewish slurs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite harrowing, to go there and see the walls I\u2019d painted myself, the home that we loved, formed such memories in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n