Australian Jews grieved and angry over attacks

Bondi Beach is almost unrecognizable. The sun was out but the waves were empty. The usually bustling main street was now silent.

Helicopters circled overhead. Forensic investigators – bright blue figures in the distance – began combing the crime scene on Sunday afternoon, when two gunmen opened fire at an event marking the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 40 others.

Beach chairs, crumpled towels, clumps of clothes, a pair of children’s sandals were neatly stacked at the edge of the beach – the remnants of people fleeing what police say is Australia’s deadliest terror attack.

Nearby, a wall of flowers has begun to grow on the sidewalk. The locals milling around were shocked. He covered his trembling lips with his hands. Sunglasses will do their best to hide puffy eyes.

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

That’s the overriding sentiment here today — shocking for such a “safe” country, but predictable for one that has been grappling with rising anti-Semitism.

“Our innocence is over, you know?” said Yvonne Harbor, who was in Bondi on Monday to mourn the horrific events of the previous day.

“I think we will be forever changed, a bit like Port Arthur,” she added, referring to Australia’s worst massacre in 1996, which prompted sweeping, groundbreaking gun reforms.

24 hours later, the Jewish community is still searching for the missing and counting the dead.

Among them is Eli Schlanger, a well-known local rabbi who just gave birth to his fifth child a month ago.

“This family is broken. 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) all lost their husbands.”

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jews, the leading body for Australia’s Jewish community, said the youngest victim was a 10-year-old boy named Matilda, whose only crime was being Jewish.

“A man in his 90s who I knew well had survived the Soviet Holocaust only to be massacred standing next to his wife at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach.”

Mr. Revchin said he was somehow both numb and distraught. “That’s what we’re most worried about, but it’s also something that’s unlikely to happen.”

Since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, the organization has warned of a surge in recorded anti-Semitic incidents. However, Mr Levchin said the authorities failed to heed the alert.

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

From the moment news of the attack broke, leaders including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Premier Chris Mings and the state’s Police Commissioner Mal Lanning have asked the question – why wasn’t this prevented?

There have been a number of anti-Semitism-related crimes in Australia recently. Last year, a Melbourne synagogue was set on fire, a Jewish MP’s office was vandalized and a car was burned down in Sydney. In January, a Sydney childcare center was also set on fire and spray-painted with anti-Semitic graffiti.

This year, two Australian nurses were suspended and charged after a video appeared to show them threatening to kill Israeli patients and bragging about refusing to treat them. There were also anti-Semitic protests organized by neo-Nazi groups outside New South Wales (NSW) Parliament in November.

On Monday, as people began to quietly gather on the grassy slope in front of the iconic Bondi Pavilion to reflect on the horrific events of the night before, 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 late Monday, before listing off a list of things his administration has done to stamp out such behavior.

This includes the establishment of a federal police task force to investigate incidents of anti-Semitism, as well as changes to hate crime laws. Symbols of hate, including giving Nazi salutes and horrific crimes, are now punishable by mandatory prison terms. New South Wales has set up its own state task force because many of the recent incidents have occurred in Sydney.

But Albanese’s words weren’t enough to comfort Nadine Sacks.

Standing side by side with her sister draped in an Israeli flag, she said the government set the tone the day after Hamas launched a horrific attack on Israel in October 2023. She pointed to the official response to protests outside the opera house, where some of the crowd began chanting offensive slogans.

“If they had acted immediately, this would not have happened. In my opinion, the Albanian government is a disgrace.”

“They had blood on their hands,” her sister Karen Schell added.

On the beach, a young woman kneels, eyes closed, palms up, praying.

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

“I’m just worried about our country … I think Australia needs to wake up, to be honest with you,” she said.

On Monday, hospital staff were still desperately trying to treat many of the injured as the Bondi community and Jewish Australians were left reeling.

Among them was Syrian Ahmed Ahmed, who was caught on camera bravely disarming an attacker. His parents told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he had been shot multiple times.

Police are searching the house where the attackers lived. It is understood that the attackers are a father and son, 50-year-old Sajid Akram and 24-year-old Naveed. They also searched a rental house where they are believed to have planned the attack.

Other community leaders tried to smooth over the differences. It was unclear what connections the attackers might have had, but police acknowledged they feared reprisals.

Authorities have made it clear that Islamophobia has also risen sharply since October 7.

Leaders from states and territories are meeting to weigh tougher gun control measures, a lever they took the last time Australia experienced a similar situation.

“Do we need a gun crackdown like John Howard did after Port Arthur? He took a leadership role in that. Do you?” a reporter asked Albanese on Monday.

There was also a lot of support.

When Australia’s blood bank regulator revealed stocks had fallen to dangerously low levels, thousands of people heeded their call.

Huge demand crashed reservation sites, so people like Jim showed up and joined queues estimated to be up to six hours long at some locations.

He said 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 can shoot innocent people here… They can’t justify it by saying there are children dying over there, so… a little girl should die on the beach,” he said.

Alex Gilders, 21, pointed to the line stretching in the sun behind him and said he hoped the city’s response would bring comfort to the Jewish community.

“Australia has your back.”

Additional reporting by Katie Watson.