Bondi Beach — where the light was meant to go out – Latest News
Bondi Beach ought to by no means be a place related to terror.
It represents life, freedom, daylight, households, youngsters, and coexistence.
But on the first night time of Hanukkah, as Australia grew to become one of the first locations in the world to welcome the pageant of light, Bondi Beach grew to become the web site of a horrific terror assault in opposition to more than 2,000 Jews who gathered to light a menorah.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the native Chabad-Lubavitch emissary whose occasion was designed to “fill Bondi with joy and light” was murdered, together with no less than 10 others.
That ought to stop us cold: Jews have been shot for celebrating Hanukkah.
Australia can really feel a world away from the Middle East, from Europe, from the facilities of international battle.
But in some ways, as my native rabbi Berel Gurevitch of Chabad of West Village has defined, Australia is the canary in the coal mine.
This was not random: A public menorah lighting can’t be hid.
It was a seen and unapologetically Jewish occasion, and subsequently it was focused.
The message was meant to journey far past Sydney for Jewish communities gathering worldwide to light their menorahs: don’t assemble, don’t show up, don’t shine.
Earlier this 12 months, I visited Bondi Beach to hear instantly from Australia’s Jewish group about their experiences since Oct. 7.
What struck me was not concern, however resolve.
Even as antisemitism surged there, they refused to retreat from public Jewish life.
Jews throughout the world are actually asking themselves questions no one ought to have to ask in a free society: Is it secure to attend a public Jewish occasion, to be visibly Jewish, this Hanukkah?
This assault didn’t come out of nowhere.
For years, segments of the mainstream media have recycled inflammatory speaking factors, sanitized terror and relentlessly portrayed Israel — and by extension Jews — as irredeemably evil.
And this hate inevitably spills into our streets.
Jewish communities warned governments repeatedly about the penalties of this incitement.
They beseeched leaders to draw a clear line: Calls for violence in opposition to Jews don’t represent reputable political expression.
Those warnings have been largely dismissed.
Yet Hamas slaughtered Israelis on Oct. 7 during Simchat Torah.
In the UK, Jews have been murdered in Manchester on Yom Kippur.
In Australia, Jews have now been murdered at Bondi Beach on Hanukkah.
Condemnations comply with. Carefully worded statements are circulated.
And the cycle repeats — bringing the nauseating realization that any Jewish group, wherever, may very well be subsequent.
The Oct. 7 assaults emboldened tens of millions throughout the West to goal Jews far past Israel’s borders.
Since then, Australia has seen a dramatic surge in antisemitism, together with the burning and vandalizing of synagogues, kosher eating places and Jewish faculties.
Slogans resembling “Globalize the Intifada,” “From the River to the Sea,” and “Death to the IDF” are handled as acceptable protest.
They are usually not. They are requires violence, and violence is where they lead.
And those that marched, chanted, justified, excused, or stayed silent should perceive their complicity.
To be Jewish and secure in the West right now is, more and more and devastatingly, a matter of luck.
The Bondi Beach terror got here on Hanukkah, a pageant that has all the time reminded Jews that even in the darkest moments, the response is to shine brighter.
Hanukkah was born in a second when stepping back would have been comprehensible. Instead, Jews stepped ahead and stood proudly as Jews.
That intuition has carried by means of centuries of exile, persecution and violence, and it’s being examined again now.
The most highly effective reply to hatred will not be retreat. It is strengthening Jewish identification, gathering collectively, and including even more light to the world.
That is why Hanukkah occasions going down this week are usually not simply celebrations, however expressions of resilience.
By lighting the menorah collectively, overtly, publicly, and joyfully, Jewish communities are affirming one thing basic: concern won’t silence us, and hate won’t push us apart.
Every candle lit, each music sung, is a declaration that light is stronger than darkness, and that goodness, nonetheless fragile it might appear, will endure.
Jewish communities round the world are usually not cancelling Hanukkah occasions.
They are strengthening security, coordinating with law enforcement — and refusing to retreat from public Jewish life.
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Just weeks in the past, Rabbi Schlanger wrote to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, urging him to stand with the Jewish people, warning that historical past remembers those that abandon fact and justice with contempt.
Today, his voice has been silenced — however Bondi Beach should not develop into a image of concern.
Australia should act decisively to restore its promise as a place where people, together with Jews, can reside overtly, safely, and with out terror.
And the relaxation of the world ought to take word.
The canary has already stopped singing.
Is anybody prepared to hear?
Jonathan Harounoff is Israel’s worldwide spokesperson at the United Nations and the creator of “Unveiled: Inside Iran’s #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt.”
