"On Sunday, two gunmen killed at least fifteen people at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, in an attack that targeted the country's Jewish community as it began its celebration of Hanukkah. At least forty more were wounded. The gunmen were father and son; the younger man is in custody and in critical condition, and the older man was killed. The gathering at Bondi Beach had been organized by Chabad, a branch of Orthodox Judaism that holds cultural and religious events around the world."
"That's absolutely true, and it is central to the identity and the ethos of the Jewish community in Australia, because it means that, as the generations have gone on, the sensibility and the sensitivity within the community to the threats of antisemitism, of prejudice, and of the echoes of the Holocaust from the Second World War, are much more pronounced here than they are virtually anywhere else."
Two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney, killing at least fifteen people and wounding at least forty. The attackers were a father and son; the younger is in custody in critical condition and the older was killed. The gathering had been organized by Chabad, a branch of Orthodox Judaism. Australia has a higher proportion of Holocaust survivors than any country except Israel, which has shaped the community's identity and heightened sensitivity to antisemitism, prejudice, and the echoes of the Holocaust. Antisemitic incidents in Australia have risen, particularly since October 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza. Melbourne hosts the country's largest Jewish community.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]