Almost Heaven
Well-known
Israeli influencer Max Veifer regularly engages with people who hold anti-Israel views. But one encounter he had in February 2025 shocked the Jewish world.
Via an app that randomly pairs users around the globe for video chats, Veifer spoke with Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, both nurses at the time at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in New South Wales, Australia. When Nadir, a 27-year-old Afghani refugee who falsely claimed to be a doctor, learned Veifer was from Israel, he said Veifer would go to hell for serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Lebdeh, a 26-year-old Muslim, joined in, telling Veifer he would suffer in hell because he “killed innocent people” and that “one day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”
When Veifer asked them what they would do if an Israeli needed care at their hospital, Lebdeh answered, “I won’t treat them. I’ll kill them.”
“You have no idea how many Israeli . . . dogs came to this hospital and . . . I sent them to Jahannam [Arabic for ‘hell’]. I literally sent them to Jahannam,” Nadir added.
While footage of the encounter drew immediate condemnation from Australian officials, this exchange is only part of a recurring nightmare for Australia’s Jewish community.
Two days after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Sydney Opera House was lit with the colors of the Israeli flag. Outside, anti-Israel protesters chanted antisemitic slogans, including a threatening cry of “Where’s the Jews?”
In February 2024, a private list of Australian Jewish creatives, members of a WhatsApp group devoted to dealing with antisemitism in the arts community, was released to the public. Among those who circulated the list were anti-Israel author Clementine Ford and then-reporter for The New York Times Natasha Frost, both Australians. Armed with members’ contact information and photos, anti-Israel activists used the leaked information to launch a massive anti-Jewish doxing campaign, sending abusive, menacing messages to the approximately 600 individuals on the list.
In June 2024, anti-Israel activists vandalized Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns’s office. They smashed windows and spray-painted slogans on the building, including one that read “Zionism is Fascism.”
Woollahra, an eastern suburb of Sydney, has suffered multiple violent anti-Israel demonstrations. In November 2024, a car was sprayed with anti-Israel graffiti then set on fire. That same night, nine other cars were vandalized with anti-Israel messages, as were two apartment complexes and a restaurant. The following month, two Woollahra homes were spray-painted with anti-Israel graffiti; and another car was set ablaze.
In December, Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue was firebombed while worshipers were gathered inside for morning prayers. In January 2025, a Sydney synagogue’s entrance was defaced with spray-painted swastikas.
Also in January, the former home of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, was targeted by vandals who evidently assumed he still lived there.
Later that month, Mount Sinai College, a private Orthodox Jewish elementary school and daycare center in Sydney, was plastered with antisemitic graffiti only days after its neighboring, nonreligious childcare center was firebombed.
Australian authorities have denounced these acts of antisemitism and established task forces to police such incidents. Still, many Jewish Australians wonder if they should look for another home.
“The children of Holocaust survivors have told me they’re glad their parents aren’t alive to see what Australia has become,” Ryvchin wrote. “It won’t end with arson. The question before Australians now is: Will someone get killed before it does?”
Via an app that randomly pairs users around the globe for video chats, Veifer spoke with Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, both nurses at the time at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in New South Wales, Australia. When Nadir, a 27-year-old Afghani refugee who falsely claimed to be a doctor, learned Veifer was from Israel, he said Veifer would go to hell for serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Lebdeh, a 26-year-old Muslim, joined in, telling Veifer he would suffer in hell because he “killed innocent people” and that “one day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”
When Veifer asked them what they would do if an Israeli needed care at their hospital, Lebdeh answered, “I won’t treat them. I’ll kill them.”
“You have no idea how many Israeli . . . dogs came to this hospital and . . . I sent them to Jahannam [Arabic for ‘hell’]. I literally sent them to Jahannam,” Nadir added.
While footage of the encounter drew immediate condemnation from Australian officials, this exchange is only part of a recurring nightmare for Australia’s Jewish community.
Two days after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the Sydney Opera House was lit with the colors of the Israeli flag. Outside, anti-Israel protesters chanted antisemitic slogans, including a threatening cry of “Where’s the Jews?”
In February 2024, a private list of Australian Jewish creatives, members of a WhatsApp group devoted to dealing with antisemitism in the arts community, was released to the public. Among those who circulated the list were anti-Israel author Clementine Ford and then-reporter for The New York Times Natasha Frost, both Australians. Armed with members’ contact information and photos, anti-Israel activists used the leaked information to launch a massive anti-Jewish doxing campaign, sending abusive, menacing messages to the approximately 600 individuals on the list.
In June 2024, anti-Israel activists vandalized Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns’s office. They smashed windows and spray-painted slogans on the building, including one that read “Zionism is Fascism.”
Woollahra, an eastern suburb of Sydney, has suffered multiple violent anti-Israel demonstrations. In November 2024, a car was sprayed with anti-Israel graffiti then set on fire. That same night, nine other cars were vandalized with anti-Israel messages, as were two apartment complexes and a restaurant. The following month, two Woollahra homes were spray-painted with anti-Israel graffiti; and another car was set ablaze.
In December, Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue was firebombed while worshipers were gathered inside for morning prayers. In January 2025, a Sydney synagogue’s entrance was defaced with spray-painted swastikas.
Also in January, the former home of Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, was targeted by vandals who evidently assumed he still lived there.
Later that month, Mount Sinai College, a private Orthodox Jewish elementary school and daycare center in Sydney, was plastered with antisemitic graffiti only days after its neighboring, nonreligious childcare center was firebombed.
Australian authorities have denounced these acts of antisemitism and established task forces to police such incidents. Still, many Jewish Australians wonder if they should look for another home.
“The children of Holocaust survivors have told me they’re glad their parents aren’t alive to see what Australia has become,” Ryvchin wrote. “It won’t end with arson. The question before Australians now is: Will someone get killed before it does?”
