The media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his wife, Elena Zhukova, toured the ruins of Melbourne, Australia’s Adass Israel Synagogue that was firebombed last week in what investigators are calling a terrorist act. Mr. Murdoch said he was there to “show solidarity” with the Jewish community. 

Mr. Murdoch, who was born at Melbourne and whose wife is Jewish,  told reporters the attack was “evil” and “extremely disturbing.”

“We felt it was important to pay our respects and show solidarity with the Jewish community after such an appalling terror attack on a place of worship,” he said. 

The Victorian Rabbinal Council president, Rabbi Moshe Kahn, said Mr. Murdoch’s visit and the interest he showed during the tour of the ruins was “deeply heartening.”

“It showed that he’s a man of action and not just words,” Mr. Kahn added.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald that “I thought it was incredible … It was a really important statement. Even though he’s 93 years old, he took the time to come down and see what happened. He really took a genuine interest.”

Mr. Murdoch spent about 30 minutes meeting Jewish leaders and touring the synagogue.

Police say masked assailants targeted the Adass Israel Synagogue, which serves the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community at Melbourne’s Ripponlea suburb, in the pre-dawn hours last Friday, gutting much of the building. Some congregants were in the synagogue at the time of the attack, and one person suffered minor injuries. Melbourne has a large Jewish population, including one of the largest groups of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel.

On Tuesday, the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was heckled by a crowd of Jewish community members when he visited the site of the firebombing. The prime minister, who was criticized for playing tennis at Perth just after the attack, met with Jewish leaders and pledged to help rebuild from what he called an “evil crime.” That was not enough for some of the crowd, who called out denunciations such as “you let this happen” and “go back to Gaza.” As the scene became chaotic, Mr. Albanese was rushed to his car by his security detail.

Last week, Mr. Albanese’s government supported an anti-Israel UN resolution condemning what it called Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Following the firebombing, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that, “This heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government.”

The firebombing comes as Australia has seen a sharp uptick of antisemetic incidents in the year following the October 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.  Jews have faced assaults, boycotts, and verbal and online threats. Some members of the Jewish community have accused the government of not doing enough to protect them.

In the matter of the Adass Israel Synagogue, investigators say they have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing.”