The horrific attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney has left us all in shock. At least 15 people were killed, and many others were injured. Although this attack occurred 24 flight hours away, for many of us these losses feel as if they happened right in our own communities. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.
The Sydney attack feels so close to home because we have witnessed attacks on Jews around the world far too often. This violence, this antisemitic terror, is neither a random misfortune nor an isolated incident. It was meticulously planned and executed. It reminds us of the attack on the synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur 2019, the one on the synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur 2025, and, above all, the massacre on Simchat Torah in Israel, on October 7th, 2023. And now Sydney during Hanukkah.
What is particularly sinister about these attacks is that Jewish holidays are deliberately targeted to harm and kill people. The aim is not only to take Jewish lives but also to demoralize and intimidate us. Every sense of safety is meant to be taken from us.
Explosive Growth
We all feel that antisemitism has grown explosively over the past two years. It has reached a level of unprecedented brazenness. What many previously thought only in private is now spoken openly. Calls for violence have created a climate that produces deadly acts. Those who shout »Globalize the Intifada« summon exactly what we have witnessed this year in Manchester and now in Sydney: the murder of Jews, carried out for no other reason than that they are Jewish.
Attacks like the Sydney massacre bring our Jewish community closer together.
Anyone who believes they can justify this killing by pointing to alleged actions of the Israeli government only exposes their own hatred of Jews. We are not deceived by those who now feign sympathy but until recently fueled the very hatred through their so-called »criticism of Israel« and »anti-Zionism« that has now erupted. They will once again begin to incite against the Jewish state and Jewish life. We must not grow weary in exposing their hypocrisy.
Equally hypocritical are the so-called friends who now claim to have always known how Jew-hatred arises, presenting their fight against immigration and an open society as a solution. For these false friends, combating antisemitism has only instrumental value. They use it to stir prejudice. Protecting Jewish life for its own sake means nothing to them.
Deepest Sympathy
Acts like the Sydney attack strengthen our bonds as a Jewish community. On behalf of all Jews in Germany, I have expressed our deepest sympathy to our brothers and sisters in Australia. The Jewish community there is strong and vibrant. They know they are not alone. Jews around the world stand with them. Yet the Australian state failed the Jewish community. The fact that two terrorists could seize a central bridge and shoot at the celebration’s attendees without hindrance is an egregious failure of the local security authorities.
Our enemies will never succeed in making Jewish life invisible.
In Germany, the 2019 attack on the Halle synagogue alerted politics and security authorities nationwide. Security concepts were critically reviewed, and the security infrastructure of Jewish institutions was modernized and strengthened. Absolute protection is never possible, and we must face this truth. Yet in Germany, all governing parties in recent years have recognized the importance of protecting Jewish life. In this spirit, we expect our security authorities to remain vigilant and to continue safeguarding Jewish institutions and events. No Hanukkah celebration, no Jewish event should ever have to be canceled.
Collective Experience
Attacks on Jewish institutions and events primarily target Jews but, ultimately, are attacks on our way of life, on our values, on democracy itself. Every attack on Jews strikes at the heart of our society. It is our duty, as Jews, yours and mine, to ensure that every upright democrat understands this message and internalizes it.
The Bondi Beach attack shook us at the beginning of Hanukkah, the festival of Jewish self-assertion. These days, lights are burning on Hanukkiyot across the country, one more each day. The Sydney terrorists could not extinguish these candles or prevent them from burning. This is part of our collective experience and our Jewish identity. No matter how much suffering our enemies try to bring upon us, they will always fail in their goal of making Jewish life invisible.
Therefore, despite the threats of antisemitism and the Sydney attack, I wish you joyful and meaningful Hanukkah days. We will not let terror take them from us.
Am Israel Chai!
The author, Josef Schuster, is President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
