Australian Jews react to attack with grief and anger

Bondi Beach is almost unrecognizable. There is sun but the surf is empty. The usually lively main street is quiet.

Helicopters follow overhead. Forensic investigators — bright blue figures in the distance — combed the scene Sunday afternoon when two gunmen opened fire on an event marking the Jewish Hannukah festival, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 40.

Beach chairs, crumpled towels, wads of clothes, a pair of children’s sandals sit in a neat pile at the edge of the sand; everything people left behind as they fled what police are calling Australia’s deadliest terrorist attack.

Nearby, a wall of floral tributes began to grow over the path. Local people walking around were shocked. Hands covering trembling lips. Sunglasses do their best to hide puffy eyes.

“I grew up in fear my whole life,” Jess, 22, tells the BBC. He adds that as a Jew, he felt this was inevitable.

This is the overriding feeling here today; This is shocking for such a “safe” country, but still predictable for a country grappling with rising antisemitism.

“Our innocence is over, you know?” says Yvonne Harber, who was in Bondi on Tuesday to mourn the horrors of the previous day.

“I think we, like Port Arthur, will be changed forever,” he adds. massacre in 1996 – Australia’s worst – which led to comprehensive and pioneering gun reform.

More than 24 hours later, the Jewish community is still locating the missing and counting the dead.

Among them is prominent local Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who gave birth to his fifth child just a month ago.

“The family is torn apart. They are falling apart,” his brother-in-law, Rabbi Mendel Kastel, told reporters after a sleepless night. “The rabbi’s wife, his best friend, [they] They both lost their husbands.”

The youngest victim was 10-year-old Matilda, whose only crime was being Jewish, says Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jews, the main body of the Jewish community here.

“A man I know well, in his 90s, survived the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, but was murdered while standing next to his wife at a Hannukah event on Bondi Beach.”

Mr Ryvchin says he is somehow both numb and distraught. “This is our biggest fear, but it is also something that is outside the realm of possibility.”

His organization warns that there has been an increase in recorded incidents of antisemitism since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza. But Mr. Ryvchin says authorities ignored the alarm.

“I know these people. They get up every morning to keep Australians safe. That’s all they want to do. But they failed, and they’ll know that better than anyone today.”

From the moment news of this attack broke, leaders including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and the state’s Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon have asked questions to this effect; Why wasn’t this prevented?

There have been a number of crimes linked to antisemitism in Australia recently. Last year, a synagogue was set on fire in Melbourne, a Jewish MP’s office was vandalized and a car was set on fire in Sydney. In January, a childcare center in Sydney was also set on fire and sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti.

This year, two Australian nurses were suspended and charged after a video emerged showing them threatening to kill Israeli patients and bragging about refusing to treat them. In November, an anti-Semitic protest was organized by a neo-Nazi group outside the New South Wales (NSW) parliament.

As people began to quietly gather on the grassy hillside in front of the iconic Bondi Pavilion on Monday, Prime Minister Albanese visited to pay his respects.

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil; an act of terrorism and an act of antisemitism,” he said later Monday, before running through a list of things he said his government had done to eliminate it.

This includes establishing a federal police task force to investigate anti-Semitic incidents and changes to hate crime laws. Hate symbols, including the Nazi salute, and terrorist crimes are now punishable by mandatory prison sentences. NSW has set up its own task force at the state level as many of the recent incidents have occurred in Sydney.

However, Albanese’s words were not enough to console Nadine Saachs.

Standing side by side with her sister, both draped in Israeli flags, the woman says the government set its tone the day after the horrific Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. He notes the official response to the protest outside the Opera House, where some members of the crowd began chanting offensive slogans.

“If they had stepped in immediately, this would not have happened. In my opinion, the Albanian government is a disgrace.”

“There’s blood on his hands,” his sister Karen Sher adds.

Farther down the beach, a young woman kneels, eyes closed, palms up, praying.

Katherine Pierce, 26, said she came from Tahmoor, about an hour and a half away, to pay tribute to those who died.

“I worry about our country… I think Australia needs to wake up to being honest,” he says.

As the community of Bondi and Australian Jews reeled on Monday, hospital staff were still desperately trying to heal many of the injured.

These include Syrian Ahmed al-Ahmad, who was caught on camera heroically neutralizing one of the attackers. His family told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was shot multiple times.

Police were scouring the house where the attackers, who were identified as the father-son duo, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed, 24, lived. They also searched a rental property where they were believed to have planned the attack.

Other community leaders tried to quell divisions. It is unclear what connections the attackers may have had, but police admitted they were concerned about reprisals.

Authorities state that Islamophobia has increased significantly since October 7.

Leaders from every state and territory met to weigh tougher gun control measures; They used that leverage the last time Australia experienced anything remotely like this.

“Do we need an armed raid like the one John Howard carried out after Port Arthur? He took the lead on this. Are you going to do it?” A journalist asked Albanese this question on Monday.

There was also intense support.

Hundreds heeded their calls when the body that oversees Australia’s blood banks revealed stocks were dangerously low.

Mass demand crashed the booking website, so people like Jim showed up and joined a queue estimated to last six hours in some places.

He says he slept very little and woke up determined to help.

“I absolutely do not accept what is happening abroad, but that does not mean that you will open fire on innocent people here… They cannot justify this. [it] “Saying that there were children dying there… a little girl should have died here on the beach,” he said.

Pointing to the line stretching out in the sun behind him, 21-year-old Alex Gilders said he hoped the city’s response would reassure the Jewish community.

“Australia has your back.”

Additional reporting by Katy Watson.