An explosive-laden caravan was found on a roadside in Sydney's semi-rural outskirts and reported on January 19 to police, who kept the find secret until the news broke on Wednesday afternoon.
Also discovered in the vehicle was a list of possible targets including what was later reported to be the Great Synagogue, in the city centre, and Darlinghurst's Sydney Jewish Museum, although investigators have refused to publicly disclose the cited locations.
The synagogue's chief minister, Rabbi Benjamin Elton, said authorities never informed him the Jewish place of worship was a potential target and he only learned of the development through the media.
"It is very distressing, but we are determined to carry on - all services will continue as normal," he told AAP on Friday.
"We're cautious and we're careful, but we are undeterred from living our lives as free Jews and free Australians."
Strong security arrangements had been put in place, including police patrols around the clock and CCTV to allay the congregation's fears, he added.
Dr Elton's comments came as police charged a 61-year-old woman from the NSW mid-north coast with making a harassing call to the synagogue.
Police have charged a woman in her 60s with making a threatening call to the Great Synagogue. (Steven Markham/AAP PHOTOS)
Multiple synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne have been targeted in a spate of escalating anti-Semitic incidents since October, which include the targeting of a childcare centre and schools.
Dr Elton said he believed the crimes were being carried out by low-level criminals, but they were being ideologically driven and masterminded by other nefarious actors.
"They seem to be hired hands which are just carrying out instructions from some other person," he said.
The Australian Federal Police previously went public with the possibility that organised crime bosses or other offshore figures could be orchestrating the attacks, using "criminals for hire" to carry out the work.
State police have disclosed that the caravan's registered owner was already in custody on unrelated charges that were "peripheral" to existing investigations into anti-Semitic offences.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has described the find as a "potential terrorist event".
Dr Elton described the thwarted apparent bomb plot as pathological and stemming out of an "epidemic of anti-Semitism".
"Having had so many incidents in the last few weeks, it's a disease of hate and has to be treated with very firm remedies," he said.
The Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed in December. (Yumi Rosenbaum/AAP PHOTOS)
Security has been ramped up further in areas with large Jewish populations, including in Melbourne where Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said there had been a huge rise in anti-Semitic incidents.
"Since October in 2023, we've had over 160 specific anti-Semitic incidents reported to us," he said.
Police were also making progress in their investigation into December's firebombing attack on the Adass Israel synagogue, he added.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin, whose former home in Sydney was the target of an arson and graffiti attack in mid-January, believes the perpetrators are sophisticated criminals.
"The way they doused the street with gasoline, the way they lit it, creating a fuse - these weren't amateurs," he said.
Alex Ryvchin fears Australia's reputation for peace and harmony has been shredded. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
All of the events had served to mar the nation's reputation, the organisation's co-head Peter Wertheim said.
"We used to think of ourselves as a peaceful, harmonious society in which people of any background are welcome ... that's axiomatic to Australia," he said.
"The one thing that gives me hope ... is the fact that we have such strong support from the Australian public, who rightly say that this later spate of incidents does not represent what Australia is and who Australians are."
Former coalition treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is Jewish, said he was personally "cautious and extra vigilant" after receiving "very serious threats" that he had referred to federal police. Â
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his priority was to keep Australians safe and he wanted the perpetrators of anti-Semitism to be hunted down and locked up.
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