Australians honor victims of Bondi Hanukkah attack with candlelight vigil

Jewish and non-Jewish Australians gathered on Sunday to light candles and observe a minute of silence in honor of the 15 Jews killed in a recent Islamist terrorist attack during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, Sydney. Dozens more were injured, with some remaining in critical condition. The antisemitic attack is the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since 1996, when 35 people were killed in Tasmania.

Rabbi Levi Wolff stressed that the attack was not only directed against Jews but against Australia and its fundamental values. 

“Australians appreciate that this is an attack that wasn’t just against the Jewish people – we’re an easy target – but this is an attack on the Australian values and they will come here and they will stand together with us shoulder-to-shoulder as they have over the last week to tell the people in this country that there is no tolerance for hate. Violence has no place in our beautiful country,” Wolff told the crowd at the memorial event. 

Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who represents Australia’s head of state King Charles III, condemned the massacre as “unspeakably, ghastly acts of terror and embraced the Jewish tradition of doing good deeds in society. 

“This is now a national project: mitzvahs, good deeds, care, kindness, compassion to each other, Jewish or otherwise. Everyone in this country belongs,” Mostyn stated.

Millions of people across Australia were expected to embrace “light over darkness” with candles in their homes. 

“Sixty seconds carved out from the noise of daily life, dedicated to 15 Australians who should be with us today,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the Bondi Beach memorial. “It will be a moment of pause to reflect and affirm that hatred and violence will never define us as Australians."

Albanese recently pledged to introduce new anti-hate laws to combat terrorism in Australian society. 

“Australians are shocked and angry. I am angry. It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge,” Albanese said, adding that his government would banish the “evil of antisemitism from our society.”

“The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation,” Albanese said on Sunday. “Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond,” he added.

However, Albanese and his government have been criticized for not doing enough to combat the dramatic rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia. Antisemitic acts in Australia have soared by a whopping 700% since the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre in 2023. 

Many Jewish Australians increasingly feel unsafe in their own country as a result of the rise of antisemitism. 

“Do we feel safe? You know, the answer is ‘not really,’ to be honest,” rabbi Yossi Friedman said at a floral memorial for the Bondi Beach victims. 

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin stressed that the families of the terrorist attack victims feel “tragically, unforgivably let down” by the Albanese government.

“I’ve spent time with the families of the victims. They’re just in a bewildered state. They’re still in shock. They don’t know what to do with themselves, let alone contemplate moving forward and healing,” Ryvchin explained. 

“There’s a lot of anger in the community now as well. I think we’re cycling through the various emotions, the various stages, and there’s a real feeling of having been let down and betrayed. And the community wants answers and we want change."