In the Wake of Australia’s Hanukkah Beach Massacre

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. Australia, like a number of countries, has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years, particularly since the October 7, 2src23, Hamas attacks, and the ensuing war in Gaza.

I spoke by phone on Sunday with Michael Visontay, the commissioning editor of the Jewish Independent, which is based in Australia, and the author of the book “Noble Fragments.” Our conversation about the attack, the history of the Australian Jewish community, and the rise of antisemitism in Australia, is below.

I read this morning that Australia had a higher proportion of Holocaust survivors than any other country except Israel. What can you tell us about the Jewish community in Australia?

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. In America, there is a much more diverse array of Jews and of affiliations—there’s a large contingent of Reform Jews, and Jews of all sorts of different backgrounds. Whereas, in Australia, we are largely Holocaust-survivor stock, my own family included, and that has shaped our cultural and religious antennas very, very strongly.

Melbourne has the biggest community, bigger than in Sydney. Melbourne’s Jewish community is largely Polish, and more insular and inward-looking than the Sydney population, which has a lot more Hungarian Jews, which is my own background. The Hungarian Jewish community was—I don’t know if “integrated” is the right word, but slightly more secular or outward-looking. There are parts of Melbourne where you could think you were in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There’s lots and lots of ultra-Orthodox Jews down in Melbourne.

You said that many Australian Jews come from families that survived the Holocaust, and that that has had a profound effect on the Jewish community there. Can you talk more about that?

Well, there are not necessarily pronounced religious components, and I am not sure you would call the community conservative, but certainly it is much more responsive to changes in society. The community-leadership groups are very outspoken, pressing for more legal and regulatory responses to racial vilification and religious vilification. And there’s been a history of even low-level incidents of antisemitism getting very strong responses from the Jewish community. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a very strong underlying ethos that we’ve always got to be very, very vigilant about antisemitism. Personally, I felt, as I was growing up in Australia, that this was perhaps being overstated and a bit of crying wolf. But after October 7th I felt that I was mistaken and proved wrong.

I read that antisemitic incidents in Australia were already starting to tick up in the years prior to October 7th, but that they got much worse after October 7th. Is that accurate?

Yeah. So, after October 7th, there was an eruption, really, of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli sentiment and behavior. It was both low-level and individual, but also expressed at sort of societal levels, with marches by pro-Palestinian groups into Jewish suburbs, and an indifference to Jewish solidarity with what had happened to Israel. There were a couple of particular incidents that I think really made a difference to people here. The first was on October 9th, after the New South Wales government lit up the Sydney Opera House with the colors of the Israeli flag, in solidarity—there was a pro-Palestinian march that took place, which ended up going to the opera house. Some of them seemed to shout, “Gas the Jews,” which was then subject to a police investigation to corroborate whether they actually said it. According to expert analysis, some people actually said, “Where’s the Jews?,” which, in a sense, was even worse. I’ve never heard that expression. Anyway, that sent a message of hostility, and made people feel that they were a target.

And there were other incidents, too. There was just this great outpouring of hostility, which was felt very strongly by the community. And then there were all sorts of incidents that became higher profile, particularly in the past six to twelve months, with firebombings of synagogues, attacks on Jewish property, and so on. And some of those were shown to have been sponsored by Iran. [The Australian government claimed that Iran was behind attacks, last year, on a kosher deli and on a synagogue. Iran denied the accusation, and Australia expelled the Iranian Ambassador.] A climate of fear and anxiety had been sown by all of these incidents.

I’ve read some of your past work, and I know you’re someone who believes that criticism of Israel, which you have lodged yourself, is not in itself antisemitic, even if sometimes criticism of Israel does take an antisemitic form. And I know the Israeli government has said that the Australian government’s recognition of a Palestinian state is part of what caused these incidents. What did you make of the Israeli government’s criticism?

Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks were just sort of a predictable lash-out, trying to, I guess, denigrate the Australian government because it had recognized Palestinian statehood. And my personal view is that the Australian government had done that as a result of the reports of starvation in Gaza earlier this year, and a number of other countries were doing the same at the time. I think the recognition was probably premature and not necessarily helpful, but I think that was the reason it occurred when it did. That is what triggered Netanyahu to lash out at the Australian government and accuse it of fostering antisemitism—a connection that was tenuous at best.

In terms of criticizing the Israeli government, there’s still a place for it, and it needs to be done when it is appropriate, but it has become very difficult for people, certainly for Jewish people, to receive and digest legitimate criticism on its merit, because there’s been so much toxic bile levelled at Jews and Israelis. It’s become almost impossible to separate the arguments of legitimate criticism from the toxic messaging. And so many Jews have not seen the criticism as legitimate because they’ve got this view of, “Well, they just hate us, and this criticism is indistinguishable from hatred.” That is really one of the biggest casualties of what’s happened. The Israeli government needs to be called out for its bad behavior and policy and the things it says and does, but that criticism needs to be expressed in very precise terms. And, nevertheless, even when that does happen, many people just can’t accept it. And that’s very unfortunate because we need to be able to speak what’s on our minds fairly and precisely and not in a malicious way.