TV star Ed Halmagyi receives chilling two-word threat at his bakery – but he has a very blunt message for the mystery cowards

A popular inner-city bakery has been defaced with shocking anti-Semitic graffiti, with a threatening note reading ‘be careful’ – but the owner has defiantly left the graffiti there.

Avner’s Bakery in Surry Hills, Sydney, was hit with the menacing attack sometime between 10pm Saturday and 1.30am Sunday, with an upside down red triangle painted onto the bakery’s window and the note shoved under the door.

The triangle is a Nazi symbol that was used to mark out individuals in concentration camps and it has been used by terror group Hamas to identify Jewish targets.

Former TV chef and Better Homes and Gardens star Ed Halmagyi, the owner of the bakery, revealed the shocking attack on his social media channels.

‘Being Jewish in Sydney, 2024 edition,’ his Sunday morning post read.

‘This note was shoved under the door of our bakery overnight.

‘But the fact is, it’s hard to be intimidated by inner-city middle-class Cosplay Radicals who graduated primary school without their pen license.’

But Mr Halmagyi decided not to wash graffiti off the bakery window on Sunday morning because ‘people need to know’ that it happened. 

A threatening note (pictured) was shoved under the door of the bakery overnight

The bakery was open for business on Sunday, with customers drinking coffees in the sun with the triangle symbol still on display.

The former Better Homes and Gardens star continued to serve customers on Sunday afternoon.

‘The only reason I didn’t take it down this morning … I thought about it, but I thought, that’s a very silly thing to do because people should know that this stuff happens,’ he told The Australian. 

‘The reaction of wanting to scrub it off immediately and pretend like it’s not there. That implies two things. One, that it was effective, and made me feel somehow vulnerable. 

‘And it simultaneously says you’re a victim of your circumstances. I’m not a victim,’ he said. 

Mr Halmagyi said many people have come to his shop on Sunday to ask if he is OK. 

‘I am OK but the fact they wanted to find out is really representative of the community that we’re building,’ he said.

The bakery, on Bourke Street close to the CBD, opened earlier this year and sells Eastern European and Jewish products.

Avner’s Bakery (pictured) in Surry Hills, Sydney, was hit with the menacing attack sometime between 10pm Saturday and 1.30am Sunday

It is the latest anti-Semitic attack to hit Australia following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel, in which terrorists crossed from Gaza slaughtered 1,139 Israeli civilians and took 251 hostages.

Of the people taken hostage during the attacks, 97 are still missing – 105 were released in exchange for prisoners, four were unilaterally released by Hamas and eight were rescued by the Israel Defence Forces. 

One year on from the attacks, Israel’s response in Gaza has seen more than 41,000 Palestinians killed. 

NSW Police has been contacted for comment.