Australian Jews react to attack with grief and anger

Bondi Beach is almost unrecognizable. The sun is out but the waves are empty. The main street, usually bustling, is silent.

Helicopters fly overhead. Forensic investigators – bright blue figures in the distance – are combing the crime scene Sunday afternoon when two gunmen opened fire during an event marking the Jewish holiday of Hannukah, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 40 others.

Beach chairs, crumpled towels, bundles of clothes, a pair of children’s sandals lie in piles at the edge of the sand: everything people left behind fleeing what police are calling Australia’s deadliest terrorist attack.

Nearby, a wall of floral tributes began to stretch across the trail. Shocked residents crowd around. Hands cover trembling lips. Sunglasses do their best to hide puffy eyes.

“I grew up in fear my whole life,” Jess, 22, told the BBC. As a Jew, it seemed inevitable, she adds.

This is the prevailing sentiment here today – it is shocking for such a “safe” country and yet predictable for a country struggling with rising anti-Semitism.

“Our innocence is over, you know?” said Yvonne Haber who was in Bondi on Monday to mourn the horror of the day before.

“I think we will be changed forever, a bit like Port Arthur,” she adds, referring to the 1996 massacre – Australia’s worst ever – which sparked radical and pioneering gun reform.

More than 24 hours later, the Jewish community continues to locate the missing and count the dead.

Among them is a prominent local rabbi, Eli Schlanger, who only a month ago welcomed his fifth child.

“The family is broken. 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] both lost their husbands. »

The youngest victim was a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, whose only crime was being Jewish, said Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the peak body of Australia’s Jewish community.

“A man I knew well, aged 90, survived the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, only to be massacred alongside his wife at a Hannukah event on Bondi Beach.”

Mr. Ryvchin says he is both numb and distraught. “It’s our biggest fear, but it’s also something that was out of the realm of possibility.”

His organization warns of an increase in anti-Semitic incidents recorded since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent war in Gaza. But, Mr. Ryvchin said, the authorities ignored the alarm.

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

As soon as the attack was announced, leaders including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and state Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon responded to questions along the lines of: Why was this not prevented?

There has been a recent spate of antisemitism-related offenses in Australia. A synagogue was burned down in Melbourne last year, a Jewish MP’s office was vandalized and a car was set on fire in Sydney. A daycare center in Sydney was also set on fire and covered in anti-Jewish graffiti in January.

Two Australian nurses were suspended and charged this year after a video surfaced showing them threatening to kill Israeli patients and bragging about refusing to treat them. There was also an anti-Jewish protest outside the New South Wales (NSW) parliament in November, organized by a neo-Nazi group.

As people began to gather quietly on a grassy slope Monday in front of the iconic Bondi Pavilion, reflecting on the terror of the previous night, Prime Minister Albanese came to pay his respects.

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil – an act of terror and an act of anti-Semitism,” he said later on Monday, before rattling off a list of measures he said his government had taken to stamp it out.

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

But Albanese’s words were far from enough to console Nadine Saachs.

Alongside her sister, both draped in Israeli flags, she says the government set the tone in October 2023, the day after Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel. It highlights the official response to a demonstration in front of the Opera, where some members of the crowd launched offensive chants.

“If they had set foot immediately, this would not have happened. For me, the Albanian government is a disgrace.”

“They have blood on their hands,” adds his sister Karen Sher.

At the bottom of the beach, a young woman kneels, eyes closed, palms up, praying.

Katherine Pierce, 26, tell me she drove from Tahmoor, about an hour and a half away, to commemorate those who died.

“I just feel concerned for our country… I think Australia needs to wake up to be honest,” she said.

While the Bondi community and Australian Jews were in shock on Monday, hospital staff were still desperately trying to treat many of the injured.

Among them, Syrian Ahmed al Ahmed, who was filmed valiantly disarming one of the attackers. He was shot several times, his parents told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Police were searching the house where the attackers – who are now revealed to be a father-son duo, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed, 24, lived. They also searched a rental property where they allegedly planned the attack.

Other community leaders have tried to heal divisions. It’s unclear what links the attackers might have had, but police admitted they were concerned about retaliation.

Authorities have made it clear that there has also been a drastic increase in Islamophobia since October 7.

Leaders from all states and territories have come together to weigh tougher gun control measures, a lever they pulled the last time Australia experienced anything even remotely like this.

“Do we need an armed crackdown like that led by John Howard after Port Arthur? He has taken leadership on this. Will you do it?” Albanese was interviewed by a reporter on Monday.

There was also an outpouring of support.

When the agency that oversees Australia’s blood banks revealed stocks had fallen dangerously, thousands answered their call.

The overwhelming demand crashed the booking site, so people like Jim simply showed up and joined a queue estimated to be six hours long at some locations.

He says he barely slept and woke up determined to help.

“I don’t necessarily agree with what’s happening overseas, but that doesn’t mean you open fire on innocent people here… They can’t justify [it] saying there are dead children there, so a… little girl should die here on the beach,” he said.

Gesturing to the queue stretching into the sun behind him, Alex Gilders, 21, said he hoped the city’s response would be a comfort to the Jewish community.

“Australia supports you.”

Additional reporting by Katy Watson.