One week after the terror attack at the Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration in Sydney that claimed the lives of 15 and wounded dozens more, a ceremony was held Sunday marking the lighting of the eighth Hanukkah candle at the National Institutions Building in Jerusalem.
In attendance were President Isaac Herzog; his wife, Michal Herzog; Chairman of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel; philanthropist and business leader Sir Frank Lowy; Mark Sofer, Israel’s former ambassador to Australia; members of bereaved families; Australian immigrants; and other prominent attendees.
Also attending was Alexander Kogan, the father of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who, while employed by Chabad emissaries in the UAE, was abducted and murdered in November 2024.
Speaking to The Media Line, Kogan declined to comment directly on the massacre but described the spiritual impact of one Hanukkah candle lit at the Bondi Beach event last week: “Now, the whole world knows what Hanukkah is.”
Addressing the audience, Hagoel declared, “Long live the people of Israel!” and warned that when governments “in Australia, in England and in many places around the world allow for freedom of expression” to go unchecked, “the goal is not a political protest, but an attack on the Jews because they are Jews.”
President Herzog spoke of the need to prevent the next terror attack by taking active steps to combat antisemitism.
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He said, “The rise of Jew-hatred across the world is a global emergency. The battle against antisemitism must be everyone’s battle against antisemitism.”
“This is an urgent call to action to prevent the next catastrophe. In each nation, combating antisemitism requires very strong and tough measures and strong leadership,” he added.
Absent was Australia’s ambassador to Israel, Dr. Ralph King. In his place, Acting Ambassador Lyndall Sachs and her deputy, Dylan Letcher, attended but did not address the audience.
Israeli officials have criticized the Australian government for not doing enough to protect the Jewish community against antisemitic violence and, following the attack last week, repeated the criticisms.
When the Albanese government decided to recognize a Palestinian state in August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was “pouring fuel on an antisemitic fire” and would reward terrorism.
After the Bondi terror attack, Netanyahu again called out Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: “Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia. You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread, and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today.”
At a press conference the next day, Albanese did not respond to the Israeli leader’s remarks when asked by reporters and said, “This is a moment for national unity.”
The crowd booed and cried “Shame” when Albanese arrived at an event at Bondi Beach on Sunday commemorating the attack and honoring the victims.
A makeshift memorial was built at Bondi Pavilion, with a ceremony memorializing the incident. Local Jewish leader David Ossip delivered a message to the Jewish community from Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Muslim shopkeeper who tried to disarm the attacker and is being treated in the hospital for gunshot wounds.
“Ahmed has asked me to pass on the following message to us all: ‘The Lord is close to the brokenhearted. Today, I stand with you, my brothers and sisters,’” Ossip said.