The Darkness Jews Warned About: Bondi Beach Terror Attack

On December 14, a father-son duo descended on Bondi Beach, where hundreds of Jews had gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. The two Islamic extremists would open fire on the crowd, murdering 15 and injuring dozens more. This attack marked the deadliest terror incident in Australia’s history and the deadliest day for Jews since October 7, 2023. Sydney’s Jewish community, celebrating the festival of light, was plunged into darkness.

Many people, both inside and outside Australia, were shocked that such a tragedy could occur on Australian soil. Yet Australia’s Jewish community had been sounding the alarm for some time. As in much of Europe, Antisemitism exploded in Australia after October 7. In the decade prior to October 7, there were an average of 342 antisemitic incidents a year, a worrying yet stable figure. In the two years following October 7, these figures exploded, averaging 1,858 antisemitic incidents per year. 

Some of the most dangerous attacks include an arson attack on a kosher catering business and the firebombing of Adass Israel Synagogue, burning it to the ground. A childcare centre was also torched and sprayed with antisemitic graffiti. Neighbourhoods with high Jewish populations have been repeatedly targeted with antisemitic graffiti and vehicles set on fire. There has also been a rise in the amount of graffiti and statements calling for direct violence against Jews and Zionists. 

On December 3, 2025, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry published an annual report on Anti-Jewish Incidents. The report warned that in the current environment, where antisemitism has permeated Australian society and become normalised, “Jews have legitimate concerns for their physical safety and future in Australia”. In a chilling foretelling of what was to come, Alexander Ryvchin, Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, warned earlier in the year that the current atmosphere would inevitably lead to death. Speaking to The Australian after the attack, Ryvchin lamented, “We said this would end in death”. 

For many in Australia’s Jewish community, and Jewish communities across the West, while the barbarity of the attack was shocking, it was not entirely surprising. Such an attack felt inevitable to a community living in a state of fear. This sentiment was echoed by Jews in Manchester after an Islamic extremist targeted a synagogue months earlier, leading to the deaths of two worshippers on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Members of the local community stated that they had almost been waiting for it to happen. When Jewish communities are expecting violent attacks and are not surprised when death enters their communities at the hands of terrorists, society has fundamentally ruptured. 

Governments have failed to protect their Jewish minorities, and societies have normalised hatred toward their Jewish compatriots. Jewish communities no longer feel safe in the countries they call home, and many contemplate their future elsewhere, usually in Israel. Following the Bondi Beach attack, Avners Bakery in Sydney announced it would be closing its doors, citing an inability to keep staff and customers safe after two years of “ceaseless antisemitic harassment, vandalism and intimidation directed at our little bakery”, culminating in the terror attack. In a statement reflecting the mood of the wider Jewish community, the bakery wrote, “The world has changed. Our world has changed”. 

For the last two years, Jewish communities have watched in anguish as pro-Palestinian protests across Europe have been infiltrated by placards comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, recycling age-old antisemitic conspiracies, and calling to ‘globalise the intifada’. They have endured their neighbourhoods being defaced with antisemitic graffiti and stickers, their friends and families verbally abused and threatened, and university campuses transformed into spaces where being openly Jewish no longer feels safe or welcome. The far-left, far-right and Islamist extremists have converged in their Jew hatred. For the far-right, the Jew is the ultimate ‘other’ of society, for the far-left, Jews are denied recognition as a people and Zionism is condemned as the source of the world’s gravest sins, and for the Islamist, the Jew is deemed inherently inferior. Violence does not begin with force; it begins with words. Words are the kindling, carefully stacked, waiting for the spark. This year, the spark has been struck

The response to the attack further highlighted how Jews are marginalised within societies. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that “an attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian”. Similarly, the Australian National Imams Council declared that “while this attack has targeted the Jewish community, it is in reality an attack on all of us, including the Muslim community”. While these statements are designed to instil unity and a sense of collectiveness, they miss the point entirely. The victims were not targeted for being Australian, nor was an Islamic place of worship attacked because Muslims would be present. A Jewish gathering was targeted because Jews would be there. When this reality is obscured, Jews are denied recognition as the specific victims of a crime directed at them alone. When Jewish suffering is universalised, it becomes harder to confront and combat the antisemitism that produces it. To allow antisemitism to fester unchecked, only to claim that a terrorist attack on Jews is an attack on everyone, is an affront to the Jewish community. It reflects a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the threat Jewish communities are facing.

While Christians and Muslims across the West can attend their religious buildings with little to no security measures, Jews, particularly in Europe, do not share this ability. Synagogues and Jewish institutions have become fortresses, surrounded by looming walls and gates and guarded by security guards or armed police. In Copenhagen, the synagogue is protected by armed officers; in Oslo, armed police patrol alongside concrete barriers at its entrance. Vienna’s Jewish Museum is under permanent armed guard, while armed French police routinely protect Jewish schools, synagogues, and communal buildings. In the UK, the locations of many Jewish events are not disclosed until 24 hours beforehand, and even then, only to confirmed attendees. Jewish synagogues, businesses and schools often employ private security and volunteer security, and it is now virtually impossible to enter a synagogue without prior contact and proof of identity. These are signs of a community under threat, in a state of constant vigilance. These measures ostracise and isolate communities, instilling fear and suspicion of outsiders.

This year alone, the Capital Jewish Museum shooting claimed the lives of two Jews. The Manchester synagogue terror attack claimed two more. The Colorado firebombing attack claimed the life of one Jew and injured over a dozen more. The Bondi Beach terror attack claimed the lives of 15 people, the vast majority of them Jewish, and wounded dozens more. These represent only the deadliest antisemitic incidents, all occurring within a span of just seven months. In each of the countries where these attacks occurred, Jews constitute a small minority of the population, yet are disproportionately represented among recorded hate crime victims. Jews have once again become the most targeted minority in Europe, no longer persecuted primarily by the state, but by society itself.

Antisemitism cannot be entirely defeated; there is a reason it is referred to as the oldest form of hatred. It is a disease that mutates and evolves but can never be cured. The attack in Sydney only reinforced this grave reality. One of the victims, Alexander Kleytman, had survived the Holocaust, only to be killed decades later in Australia. The identity of the perpetrator had changed, from Nazi to Islamist extremist, but the motive had not. He was killed for the same reason: because he was a Jew. He would escape the greatest enemy of the Jewish people only to be killed by another. 

I thought it fitting to insert my own personal narrative into this piece. One of my friends is a member of Sydney's Jewish community. When I woke up to the news of the Bondi Beach attack, one of the first things I did was reach out to them to make sure they were safe. Opening our messages, I noticed that the last time we had spoken was when they had reached out to me after the Manchester synagogue attack, checking if I was okay, as I had been living in the city for the last few years. It dawned on me that the last two times we had communicated were not to wish each other well on the Jewish festivals, but to ensure each other’s safety when our communities were targeted during them. The sanctity and joy of Jewish festivals had been replaced by anguish, an all too familiar occurrence for the Jewish people in recent years.

Jewish communities have been ignored until now, and for some Jews, it is already too late. But the very real threat of antisemitism can no longer be overlooked, for what happened in Sydney can and will happen to Jewish communities in any Western city if left unchecked.

Matilda,

Boris and Sofia Gurman, 

Boris Tetleroyd, 

Edith Brutman, 

Alex Kleytman,

Peter Meagher,

Reuven Morrison,

Eli Schlanger,

Yaakov Levitan,

Marika Pogany,

Tibor Weitzen,

Dan Elkayam,

Adam Smyth,

Tania Tretiak,

May their memories be a blessing.