The Festival of Lights was tragically and momentarily dimmed in Sydney, Australia, on December 14 when two gunmen opened fire on a Chanukah festival on Bondi Beach, killing 15 people in the bloodiest antisemitic incident in Australian history.
One of the victims, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was a Chabad emissary who organized this festive event.
Arsen Ostrovsky, a human rights lawyer and the director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, was among the wounded.
It was the worst attack against Jews since Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which led to the deaths of roughly 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.
Nearly 30 years earlier, on July 18, 1994, the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires was bombed, causing the deaths of 85 people.
The outrage in Australia, while shocking and appalling, is not entirely surprising. Since October 7, there has been an upsurge of global antisemitism, affecting countries ranging from the United States and Canada to France and Germany.
Australia, which has one of the largest concentrations of Holocaust survivors, has not been immune to this poisonous outbreak of the world’s oldest hatred.
Earlier this month, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry released a report disclosing that 1,654 antisemitic incidents had occurred during the 12-month period from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025.
This is a disconcerting figure. It represents a five-fold increase in the annual average number of anti-Jewish incidents in the past decade.
Synagogues, schools, day care centers, homes and an Israeli restaurant in Sydney and Melbourne have been the objects of arson attacks and acts of vandalism, particularly since October 7, triggering fears that antisemitism has become mainstreamed in Australia.
“We are now at a stage where anti-Jewish racism has left the fringes of society and become … normalized and allowed to fester and spread, gaining ground at universities, in arts and culture spaces … in the workplace and elsewhere,” warned the report issued by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese correctly described today’s assault as “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians” and as “an act of evil antisemitism that has struck the heart of our nation.”
“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian,” he added.
Albanese’s solidarity with the Jewish community is appreciated, but has his government done enough to curb antisemitism?
This past August, Australia severed diplomatic relations with Iran, Israel’s deadliest enemy, and expelled Iranian diplomats after accusing Iran of directing arson attacks against a Jewish business and a synagogue.
Beyond this commendable measure, the Australian government may have been remiss in ensuring the safety of the Jewish community.
The Australian Jewish Association claims that the government had ignored or belittled its warnings of impending attacks. “How many times did we warn the government?” it said in a plaintive Facebook post. “We never felt once that they listened.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged today that Australia had poured fuel “on this antisemitic fire.” In a letter he sent to Albanese last August, he claimed that Australia’s recognition of Palestinian statehood had encouraged “the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets.”
Netanyahu’s claim is self-serving and questionable, given his firm opposition to a two-state solution. Since when is the prospect of Palestinian statehood synonymous with antisemitism? Only a cynical politician like Netanyahu is capable of such a falsehood.
Nonetheless, after today’s vile and vicious attack on Bondi Beach, Australia will have to do a lot more to contain violent antisemitism.
It is a cancer eating away at Australian society.