They gathered to celebrate Hannukah, the Jewish festival of light—a family event in a park by the beach on a Sunday.
The exact details of what occurred remain murky. What’s known is that two men, Naveed Akram and his father Sajid Akram, took out guns and began shooting at the Jewish families. At least 15 are dead, and 42 have been hospitalized.
A friend’s cousin is dead. A ten-year-old girl. A rabbi. The father of our boy’s classmate has been shot. Most Sydney Jewish families will know of someone. Sydney’s Jewish community is small—like most Jewish communities.
How could this happen?
On October 9, 2023, New South Wales police asked Jews to leave the Sydney central business district because they couldn’t guarantee their safety. All that was known at the time was that there was a massacre of Jews in Israel. One Sydney imam was “elated” by the massacre. An Australian senator hailed the Palestinian cause. Hundreds of men wound their way to the Opera House to light flares, threaten and chant against the Jews.
On October 13, 2023, I wrote about Australian Jewry’s deep history and proud service to the nation. That included, among many other figures, the meticulous and understated Sir John Monash, perhaps the greatest general of World War I, whom King George knighted in France, the first battlefield knighthood in nearly two centuries. I wrote about how my wife asked me if it was safe for our boy to wear a kippah outside. Yes, I said immediately, thinking the question ridiculous. What am I to tell her now?
Since then, a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney Jewish café have been firebombed. Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador after intelligence services linked his country to the attacks. A former New South Wales premier, Sydney’s Lord Mayor, and other politicians marched against Israel beneath a banner showing gun-toting Ayatollah. (They said they didn’t notice it.)
Nevertheless, on October 11, 2025, I wrote: “I remain optimistic about Australia. But the future is up to us and Australians have a choice to make about what kind of society they want to become, and the kinds of evil they let fester here.”
How optimistic should I be now?
Such evil is not native to this land. Australia’s first Australian-born governor-general, Isaac Isaacs, was Jewish. He was not the last. We can quibble about historic anti-Semitism in Australia, but nothing like this evil has plagued Australian Jewry before. This murderous Jew hatred is an imported scourge.
This evil is not general but specific. It is the same evil that shot up the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016 and attacked San Bernardino in 2015. That rams cars into a Christmas market in Germany. That massacred a kindergarten in Toulouse. That blew up kids at a music concert in Manchester.
Ghouls will blame Israel. Did Sydney’s Jews attack Sydney’s Arabs following the October 7 massacre? Did we prowl their neighborhoods? No. It would be unthinkable. Preposterous. This has nothing to do with Israel, and nothing to do with general intolerance in Australia.
My parents came to this country with two young boys and a suitcase. Australia gave us every opportunity. It did not have to admit us, but it did, and for that I’ll always be grateful. This nation is a kind of paradise—a boundless land with enduring institutions and a generous and industrious people. Australia has been incredibly successful at assimilating large numbers of immigrants. We have one of the world’s largest foreign-born populations.
But we can be more selective. To avoid importing ethnic or religious hatreds is not to disparage immigrants or immigration generally.
After the Port Arthur mass shooting in 1996, Prime Minister John Howard implemented gun reform in Australia. Australians are pragmatic. They expect their government to solve problems, heavy-handed or not. Just ask illegal boat arrivals who find themselves in offshore detention centers.
It would be catastrophic for Australia, and out of keeping with its pragmatism, if these attacks were to become the background noise of everyday life, as they already are in parts of Europe. French politicians make eloquent speeches in parliament as Parisian Jews live behind barbed wire and pray in synagogues behind army barricades. This is no way to live—not just for Jews but for all Australians.
Australia does not want its most iconic symbols—the Opera House and Bondi Beach—to become emblems of hatred and violence. But it is fitting that these quintessentially Aussie icons are the settings for these acts of barbarism, because they are attacks against all Australia.
Jewish community security, never light in my lifetime, has tightened significantly over the past few years. Increased security may be necessary, but it is not nearly enough. Following 9/11, the logic of intensifying airport security was understandable but ultimately absurd. If they can’t bomb a plane, they’ll bomb the airport security queue. If they can’t bomb the airport security queue, they can bomb a nightclub. If they can’t bomb a nightclub, they will shoot at families gathering in a park. We cannot fortify our way out of this threat. The solution is not better barricades; it is to prevent the enemies of civilization from entering the gates.
We will not cower. We are not Jews with trembling knees. We are Australians. We love the Australian nation and believe in the Australian project. All we want is to send our kids to school, to contribute to this country, to pray in our synagogues, and to enjoy the natural gifts that God has so richly bestowed upon this nation.
Australia is an island nation. We should have total control over our destiny.
The brave bloke who disarmed one of the attackers will never have to buy another beer in his life. He’s a hero Australians will rightly love to get behind. But it would have been even better if his heroism had been unnecessary—if he could have just continued to enjoy his Sunday at the beach.
Australians have a choice to make about what kind of society we want to have, and that starts with determining whether we will permit such evil to come and fester here.
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