Community in Shock: Australia Faces Rising Antisemitism After Bondi Beach Attack

Sat Dec 20 2025 15:41:02 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

The Jewish community in Australia grapples with the implications of rising antisemitism following a tragic attack at Bondi Beach during a Hannukah celebration, which left at least 15 dead.

As the Australian Jewish community mourns the victims of a deadly shooting at Bondi Beach, many express that the violence felt inevitable amid rising antisemitism in the country. The attack during a Hannukah event has sparked questions on safety and preventive measures, while leaders vow to act against hate crimes.

Bondi Beach is almost unrecognizable. The sun is out but the surf is empty. The usually heaving main street is hushed.

Helicopters track overhead. Forensic investigators - bright blue figures in the distance - comb over the crime scene from Sunday afternoon when two gunmen opened fire at an event marking the Jewish festival of Hannukah, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 40 others.

Beach chairs, crumpled towels, wads of clothing, a pair of children's sandals lie in a neat pile at the edge of the sand - all the things people left behind as they fled what police are calling Australia's deadliest terror attack.

Nearby, a wall of floral tributes has begun to grow over the footpath. Milling around are shocked locals. Hands cover trembling lips. Sunglasses do their best to hide puffy eyes.

I've grown up in fear my whole life, 22-year-old Jess tells the BBC. As a Jew, this felt inevitable, she adds.

That is the overriding sentiment here today – this is shocking for such a safe country and yet predictable for one that has been grappling with rising antisemitism.

Our innocence is over, you know? says Yvonne Harber who was at Bondi on Monday to mourn the previous day's horror.

I think we will be forever changed, a bit like Port Arthur, she adds, referring to the massacre in 1996 – Australia's worst – which prompted sweeping, pioneering gun reform.

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

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

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

Mr. Ryvchin speaks of the youngest victim, a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, whose only crime was being Jewish. He also reflects on a Holocaust survivor, slaughtered while attending the Hannukah event.

The Jewish leaders express both numbness and distress as they confront this tragedy. Warnings about a spike in antisemitic incidents had gone unheeded, they lament.

Prime Minister Albanese visited Bondi to pay his respects, asserting that the attack was an act of pure evil.

As the Bondi community and Jewish Australians reeled, hospital workers continued to care for the injured, while police investigated the attacks, raising concerns of potential repercussions across communities.

In a remarkable act of unity, hundreds lined up to donate blood, offering support to those struck by the violence.