Shortly after 4am on Friday, the quiet hush of a synagogue in inner Melbourne was broken by what sounded like a sledgehammer, ripping through the place of worship.

Glass flew, and one congregant, who was inside the building at the time studying religious texts, was injured.

Police have now declared what was an attack that left much of the inside of the building gutted, with twisted steel littering the floor, was likely a terrorist act.

Today, regional editor Benjamin Preiss, on how he felt about attending synagogue the day following this attack, and how it’s impacted his community.

And later, senior writer Michael Bachelard, on how Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has weighed in on the incident, saying that Labor is partially to blame.

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