Chief rabbi’s cousin hid for 15 ‘terrifying’ minutes

UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said his cousin and his cousin’s wife “spent fifteen terrifying minutes hiding under the donut stand” when gunmen opened fire during the attack on Bondi Beach.

Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed in an attack by two gunmen targeting a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on a Sydney beach.

Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, Rabbi Mirvis said one of the most important messages of Hanukkah was that Jews around the world declared “we belong and we will not hide who we are”, but in Sunday’s mass murder “this declaration was met with murderous hatred”.

He said the causes of “toxic antisemitism” needed to be addressed.

Rabbi Mirvis called on people to stand together “against normalized discourses that demonize Jews and the one Jewish State.”

He said Jewish people at the Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach were “targeted for the simple act of coming together visibly and peacefully as Jews.”

The right of Jewish communities to assemble safely and publicly is “the test of the moral health of every society.”

“Jews have lived with security concerns for as long as I can remember, but the fact that every public Jewish gathering today must be weighed for risk is a sign of something seriously wrong.”

A society in which a minority group must “calculate whether it is safe to appear together in public” is a society that “lets all its citizens down.”

The clashes began at around 18:47 local time (07:47 GMT) on Sunday, and around a thousand people were said to have attended a public event organized by Bondi Jewish center Chabad.

Verified videos showed hundreds of people fleeing the beach, screaming and running as gunshots rang out.

The victims ranged in age from 10 to 87 and included two rabbis and a Holocaust survivor.

Local media reported that the two armed attackers were 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who died at the scene, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, who was treated in hospital in critical condition.

The Chief Rabbi told the Today program that the Hanukkah festival commemorates the challenge of a small group of Jews who were targeted by Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes about 2,150 years ago. He denied them the right to openly practice their faith, demanding conversion on pain of death.

The festival’s message is about “refusing to be intimidated and erased.”

“Judaism should never be overshadowed,” Rabbi Mirvis said.