Anger, shock and mercy as Australia looks for answers after Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his cabinet have pledged to eradicate the “evil scourge” of anti-Semitism and consider further strengthening gun control measures. But for many who witnessed the attack or knew the victims, these promises come too late.

Levi Silva arrived right after the shooting, running on his motorcycle when he heard sirens throughout the area.

“Honestly, it looked like a war zone,” he said. “There was blood everywhere.”

Among those killed was Silva’s Rabbi, Eli Schlanger, 41, a father of five and assistant rabbi of Chabad Bondi, a global Hasidic Jewish group that organized the event Sunday.

“He used to teach me in school,” said Silva, 18, who described Schlanger as “nice to everyone.”

Even though Schlanger was still alive when he arrived, Silva was powerless to help him.

“There’s not much you can do when someone is bleeding like that,” said Silva, who also knew other victims.

Many mourners cited a quote from Schlanger, who Chabad said had recently said that in the face of darkness, the way forward is to “be more Jewish, act more Jewish, and appear more Jewish.”

For Mark Rotenstein, that meant putting on tefillin, placing a black leather box containing scrolls of Hebrew parchment on his arm and another on his head, and wrapping the attached strap around his arm to channel his prayers to God.

“I don’t do it very often, but today I really feel the need,” he says.

Rotenstein said what affected him most about the shooting was the death of Alexander Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor and Ukrainian immigrant who Chabad said died while protecting his wife, Larisa Kleytman, also a Holocaust survivor.

“It’s as if what Hitler didn’t achieve with this gentleman, now an Australian has achieved it,” Rotenstein said. One of the suspects, Naveed Akram, was born in Australia.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said this month there were 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents across Australia between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025 – almost five times the average annual number before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to around 117,000 Jews, most of whom live in Sydney and Melbourne.