When Chanukah Light Meets Australian Darkness

At 6:47pm on the first night of Chanukah, Bondi Beach felt unrecognizable. For a moment, it recalled something far darker, a modern-day Port Arthur. A day off the eleven year anniversary since the Lindt Café siege at Martin Place, something fundamental in Australia has broken. Will Australia ever be the same again or has it lost its soul for good?

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess had warned an attack was probable. One of the suspects was already known to authorities. Yet the warning went unheeded, and nothing was done. This was not an isolated failure. It sits within a broader climate emboldened by political appeasement.

Barely 48 hours after the October 7 attacks in Israel, when 1,200 were murdered and 250 taken hostage in Gaza, mobs openly chanted “gas the Jews” and “f*** the Jews” outside the Sydney Opera House with no consequences. The entire world was shocked. The Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, travelled to Israel to reinstate funding to UNRWA, even after Israel presented evidence of UNRWA staff involvement in the atrocities, yet did not visit the massacre sites. The IRGC has been linked to the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue, and one alleged perpetrator is out on bail. Calls to “globalize the intifada” echo in Australian streets as if they were harmless slogans. Hate speech is not free speech. Tolerating it invites terror.

Indeed, the government has done more than tolerate it. At every opportunity, Wong has criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza to rescue hostages and defeat Hamas.

Chanukah by the Sea at Bondi Beach was meant to celebrate Jewish resilience. Chanukah commemorates the Maccabees’ victory over a vastly superior Seleucid empire more than 2,000 years ago. When the Temple in Jerusalem was reclaimed, only one day’s supply of oil remained, yet it burned for eight. That miracle lies at the heart of the festival. This year, the first candle was lit after sundown on December 14.

Chanukah represents light over darkness, freedom over oppression, and hope in humanity’s bleakest moments. Its public celebration is meant to unite communities. Instead, this year, a peaceful gathering was overshadowed by violence and fear.

Meanwhile, some Australians who travelled to Islamic State territory posted extremist content online before leaving. Why are they allowed to return? Gazans are admitted with inadequate vetting, many educated in martyrdom and Jew-hatred, while other so called Israeli “controversial figures” are denied visas to appease the antisemitic mobs. The standards are selective, and the cost is borne by Jewish Australians.

Official statements from the Governor-General and the Prime Minister failed to name the Jewish community, despite the attack occurring at a Chanukah event. This was not abstract violence. It was targeted. To avoid saying so is to obscure the truth. To politicize it is repugnant.

The Prime Minister has said, “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on all Australians.” Fine words. Leadership is measured in deeds, not slogans. He claims to be “devastated.” He should be ashamed that his government’s actions, or rather inaction, created this vulnerability. Albanese promised to “eradicate” antisemitism. How can he, when he has emboldened it through appeasement and lack of consequences? Former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke understood the stakes: “If the bells toll for Israel, it won’t just toll for Israel, it will toll for all mankind.” That wisdom appears forgotten.

Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory called the attack “entirely foreseeable”. “The Albanese government was warned repeatedly but failed to act adequately to protect the Jewish community.” From the Sydney Opera House to the hate-filled march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and now to Bondi, it is no coincidence that Sydney icons are targeted.

History shows where antisemitism leads. The Prime Minister has acknowledged this. Yet his government recognized a Palestinian state while doing nothing with Jillian Segal’s antisemitism report, delivered in July and reportedly left untouched for months. Jewish leaders have pleaded for action since October 7 and the explosion of antisemitism that followed. Instead, they are told to be proud. Pride is not protection.

From universities where antisemitism has festered, to schools, to weekly marches through our capital cities, to attacks on Jewish businesses, synagogues, and schools, where are the consequences? Why has no one been prosecuted?

Israelis are contacting Australian Jews to check on their safety. President Isaac Herzog has sent messages of support. Israeli leaders warned this would happen. Their warnings were ignored.

Jews have lit Chanukah candles through history’s darkest chapters. From ghettos, concentration camps, exile, even underground Gaza tunnels, their faith has never been extinguished.

Tonight, we lit the first candle with heavy hearts, yet again pledging to stand proud. My late grandfather, in his Holocaust testimony, urged us always to be proud Jews and never allow anyone to make us feel like second-class citizens. That torch is now in our hands.

The question is whether Australia will finally wake up. Silence and appeasement is complicity. The government is complicit in what happened at Bondi Beach and should hang its head in shame. It is not too late for Australians to acknowledge the danger, call out this behavior, and act. Those who do not are complicit, repeating the silence of those in Germany 80 years ago, when Jews were murdered in gas chambers while the world looked away. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.