A Chanukah attack in Sydney sends shockwaves across the Jewish world

Photo: AP Images

After years of unchecked anti-Semitism on their streets, Australia’s Jews are angry but unsurprised by a horrific assault at a Chanukah gathering

Sunday should have been a day of celebration. For the organizers of the event known as Chanukah by the Sea, at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, it meant moving from one festive moment to the next; after the intense days surrounding the 19th of Kislev, the long-anticipated communal lighting of the chanukiah was about to begin.

And, as in much of the world, the event carried significance well beyond the immediate circle of the local Beit Chabad. It was an opportunity for thousands of local Jews of all types to celebrate. More than a thousand people attended the gathering organized for the lighting of the first candle. Yet what followed was the opposite of a celebration.

At press time, 16 people are confirmed dead and more than 40 wounded, seven of them in critical condition, in what has been described as the deadliest attack against the Jewish People since the tragic events of October 7, 2023. It came against a backdrop of other frightening eruptions of anti-Jewish hate around the world. A Chanukah event in Amsterdam was mobbed by angry masked protesters, a Jewish family in California had a gun fired at their home, and there were online reports that a shooting at Brown University may have targeted a Jewish professor.

The Bondi Beach perpetrators were identified as a Muslim father and son. The father, 50, was shot dead, while the son, 24 — a man known to local security services for his Islamist affiliations — was arrested by police.

“I had just finished praying Minchah when I started hearing what sounded like explosions, but since there were balloons around, it never occurred to me that they were gunshots,” Dylan Trenchanski told Mishpacha. “At most, I thought they were firecrackers set off by some of the kids who were there. But soon everyone started running and shouting that it was gunfire. I had been separated from my wife and I tried to find her. We bumped into each other and started running toward a large wall near the beach where the celebration was taking place. We were with a woman who had hosted us in her home for Shabbat, and we hid in a kind of cave nearby. This woman was constantly calling her son, who must be around twelve years old and was also there. Later we found out that her son had been shot in the elbow. He was injured, but baruch Hashem it wasn’t serious.”

Trenchanski lives in Israel and was on vacation in Australia with his new wife. They chose the destination because, as they understood it, it was a friendly tourist environment amenable for Jews who wanted keep to a daily routine without having to hide their religious identity.

“Clearly it was a tragedy, and I know it sounds wrong to say this, but in some sense, I can say that I witnessed miracles,” he said. “The shooting lasted at least ten or fifteen minutes, and I heard no fewer than 60 shots.”

Trenchanski’s contention that it took far too long for the police to assert control are backed up by videos of the attack, captured by security cameras, that quickly circulated around the world. They show what appeared to be a striking degree of freedom of movement on the part of the attackers. On social media, a post by a man named Moshe Gutnick went viral, echoing the criticisms that followed:

“There were police officers lying on the ground with everyone else doing nothing,” Gutnick says in the video. “My son-in-law saw Shmuli Skuri yelling at the police to shoot back. When they wouldn’t, he said, ‘Give me your gun, I will shoot.’ Of course that did not happen. The shooters were in the open, on the bridge. Why didn’t the police do anything? Police shooting and advancing on the bridge would have slowed down the shooters. They didn’t even try. Who tried? Reuven Morrison and a Muslim shopkeeper.”

Alongside the criticism of the police response, there were also accounts pointing to delays in the arrival of ambulances. Speaking with local media, a man identified as Vlad, a member of Sydney’s Jewish community and a chaplain with the State Emergency Services, showed reporters his hand, stained with dried blood, and said that he “did everything possible to save the wounded because the ambulances took too long to arrive.”

But beyond the specific alleged failures of first-responders in this tragedy, the Australian government now faces broader questions from the Jewish community in the wake of a distressing series of anti-Semitic attacks.

 Writing on the Wall

“We all know someone who has died or who has been injured, and now we are angry,” Daniel Aghion, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Mishpacha. “We’re angry because we’ve been warning the government for the last two years about the escalation in anti-Semitism and the risk. And yet here we are. We have an attack.”

Speaking with Aghion, one senses a fatigue that feels earned. Five months ago, I interviewed leaders of the Australian Jewish community after the arson attack on the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation. Seven months before that, I had already spoken with other members of the same community following the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue, also in Melbourne. This time, however, a line has been crossed that is impossible to ignore.

“Surely when you spoke with community leaders in July 2025, we thought that the government had finally understood and had set up mechanisms to listen,” Aghion said. “Not long after that, we had an anti-Semitism envoy — many countries do. One was appointed after October 7. She presented her report on July 5, 2025, and we haven’t heard anything since, even now. So I think we were hopeful that there would be change, but unfortunately it was just better talk, and still not enough action.”

Historically, Australia has presented itself as a kind of haven for Jews: a country largely free of deep political or religious conflict, where Jews could practice their faith without major obstacles. Many Holocaust survivors were able to rebuild their lives there. Since October 7, however, Australia has become one of the countries where anti-Semitic attacks have risen most sharply, increasing by more than 400 percent.

Aghion outlined what he sees as the main factors behind the deterioration. “I think there are four things. One is the extreme left, the pro-Palestinian movement, who talk about how Zionism is terrorism and say Israel is committing genocide. And the second is the component that sees Jews as legitimate targets.

“The third component is that we know Iran is active here. Not long after the July incidents, the Australian government closed the Iranian embassy and expelled the ambassador because a number of attacks were traced back to the IRGC.

“And then the fourth one is, of course, Muslim extremism. They have created a social license that meets violent attacks and permits extremism. And what we’ve discovered in Australia is that we’re not immune from that. Another is the extreme right-wing neo-Nazism. We now have neo-Nazis who openly parade in the street — very small numbers, but they do it, and they do it for publicity.”

Beyond the diagnosis, the central question is what the country’s sizeable Jewish community — more than 100,000 people — can expect in the period ahead. What seems clear is that expressions of sympathy and well-chosen words are no longer sufficient.

“The only way to deal with anti-Semitism is to stamp it out promptly and effectively,” Aghion said. “You have to stand strong against it. So we need that strong leadership. The second thing, practically, is that we need the government to implement the many recommendations that our anti-Semitism envoy published in her strategic plan back in July of this year. We need the government to stop talking about the problem and start acting on it in the manner that they’ve been advised to do.”

As for the likelihood of a change in government, Aghion considers it remote. “They’ve got at least another two and a half years to go, possibly more, because they did very well in the last election,” he said.

Chabad in the Crosshairs

While it is clear that the attack was directed at the entire Jewish community, there is little doubt that its primary target was Chabad-Lubavitch, whose visibility has made it a target for jihadists everywhere for years. Two of the shluchim, Rabbi Eli Schlanger and Rabbi Yaakov HaLevi Levitin, were among those murdered. And as is the case in most cities where the majority of Jews are unaffiliated, they were central figures in Sydney’s communal life.

“Rabbi Eli had an enormous amount of energy — he was the lifeblood of the community,” said Rabbi Yaakov Lieder, sent to Sydney 46 years ago by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to be principal of the local Jewish school, and today director of the Jewish Children’s Support Centre in the city. “Eli was in charge of all the activities surrounding the 19th of Kislev, and now he was organizing the entire event in Bondi… everyone loved him, everyone here has some story with him… and now he leaves behind a wife and five children, the youngest just two months old.

“The blow is a hard one, but we will continue,” Rabbi Lieder said. “Obviously, we will have to be more careful and ask for a greater police presence… but despite the immense tragedy, we saw revealed miracles during the attack. Rabbi Eli was killed by a gunshot to the head just as he stood up. He died in the arms of my son-in-law. If my son-in-law had stood up, he, too, would have been shot. My daughter and my granddaughter were there. My granddaughter was wounded, and baruch Hashem it was not fatal. As time goes on, more stories emerge, more miracles. This was a tragedy that could have been far greater.”

Foreign Tension

As soon as news of the attack at Bondi Beach became public, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese issued the following statement: “The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing. Police and emergency responders are on the ground working to save lives. My thoughts are with every person affected.”

Conspicuously, there was not a single word mentioning Jews, anti-Semitism, or Chanukah.

As the hours passed, Albanese realized that the issue could not be avoided, but that initial reaction left space for the revival of the international tension between Australia and Israel.

The fact is that since October 7, 2023, Australia’s position has left much to be desired. Albanese barred Israeli politicians from entering the country, supported rhetoric accusing Israel of “genocide,” backed the creation of a “Palestinian State” even while hostages were still being held by Hamas, and allowed thousands of people to march freely with anti-Semitic slogans, posters of the terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, and chants of “death to Israel.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu himself sent a letter to Albanese on August 17, when Australia moved toward recognizing a “Palestinian State,” and wrote between the lines: “Your call for a Palestinian State pours fuel on the anti-Semitic fire.”

After the attack, Netanyahu publicly recalled that letter and said that Albanese “did nothing to stop the growing anti-Semitism in Australia,” which, he argued, resulted in the horrific attack at Bondi Beach.

Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Gideon Saar, joined the criticism following the attack, stating: “These are the results of the anti-Semitic rampage in the streets of Australia over the past two years, with the anti-Semitic and inciting calls of ‘Globalize the Intifada’ that were realized today.”

Added to this are Mossad investigations into Iranian activity in Australia. According to Israeli media, Israeli intelligence services warned their Australian counterparts about a possible attack by Iranian agents against Jewish targets. The major question is how seriously Australian authorities took those warnings.

While Albanese avoided responding directly to the criticism coming from the Israeli government, what is certain is that he will have to answer on the domestic front. Not only to the demands of the Australian Jewish community, but also to the concerns of ordinary citizens, many of whom have already stated that one thing is symbolic attacks and protest marches, and something very different is a massacre in broad daylight, involving children and the elderly.

“I think the frustrating thing for us is that every time there’s an incident, the government says the right things, and we have the hope that the government will now do what we are pushing them to do. But it turns out to be more talk,” says Daniel Aghion. “Maybe this one is the one. I do know that the general Australian community is now also standing with us, and it’s angry, and maybe that’s enough for the government to finally understand that they have to act — and that the general Australian community expects them to act.”

Aghion’s faith in the Australian public is poignant and hopefully not misplaced. Certainly, Australia’s Jews are keeping the faith — as witnessed by the hundreds who showed up for the second-night hadlakah at Chabad of Bondi Beach.

Meanwhile, politicians around the world continue to meet electoral success by championing the anti-Israel cause. Bret Stephens titled his New York Times column in the wake of the Sydney massacre “Bondi Beach Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like” — a message targeted for incoming New York mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Like clockwork, commenters assailed the Times for “journalistic malpractice” for implying Bondi Beach had anything to do with “the Palestinian struggle.”

To which former Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy posted, “Globalize the Intifada means ‘kill Jews wherever you find them.’ What did you think it means?”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1091)