The 8th night of Chanukah event at Bondi Beach, one week after the terrorist attack.
“We Will Not Be Intimidated”
Rabbi Shua Solomon on Life After Bondi Beach
On the first night of Chanukah, Islamic terrorists murdered 15 Jews at a Chanukah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia – the deadliest terrorist attack against Diaspora Jews in over 30 years. Rabbi Aron White spoke with Rabbi Shua Solomon, the Rabbi of Mizrachi Bondi and President of the Rabbinical Council of New South Wales, about the tragedy and the community’s path forward.
Global Jewish attention is focused on the terrorist attack in Sydney on Chanukah. Could you tell our readers about yourself and the Sydney Jewish community for those unfamiliar with it?
I’m the Rabbi of Mizrachi Bondi, one of the Mizrachi shuls in Australia. Equally relevant from a communal perspective is my role as President of the Rabbinical Council of New South Wales. The Rabbinical Council represents all the Orthodox shuls and their rabbis to the community. It’s made up of 50 members, and that has been a big part of my role in the community since the horrific terrorist attack on Bondi Beach last Sunday. The community is both in grief and mourning, but at the same time is very resilient. The amount of chesed and community unity that has been shown since that day has really been astounding.
There are about 50,000 Jews in all of Sydney. Most of them are traditional, certainly not religious, but when they go to shul they go to an Orthodox shul. A lot of them make kiddush on Friday night, certainly go to shul on the chagim, maybe a little bit more often than that. So it’s a very traditional community and a community which is very connected to the State of Israel. Since October 7th, we’ve been enormously supportive, both financially and in other ways, to the State of Israel. And within that, of course, the biggest concentration of Jewish people – and not just Jewish people, but with Jewish people come shuls and schools and Jewish community organizations and kosher restaurants and the mikvah and all the institutions of Jewish communal life – is concentrated in East Sydney, in Bondi. There is also a community in other parts of the East and in the North Shore, but the majority of Jewish people, certainly the vast majority of religious Jews, live in the Bondi area.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis paid a solidarity visit after the attack and met with rabbis and rebbetzins in Sydney.
For those unfamiliar with Australia, could you explain the cultural significance of Bondi Beach? Why does an attack at this location carry particular symbolic weight?
Bondi Beach is not just a central meeting point for the Jewish community – it’s a symbol and icon of Australia and Australian culture; the relaxed, happy-go-free nature and attitude of Australians. It’s probably the most well-known beach in Australia and one of the more well-known beaches in the world. Along with places like the Opera House, it’s certainly a symbol and an icon of what Australia is known for throughout the world.
What has been your experience of antisemitism before and after October 7th? What discussions were happening in the community before the attack, and what was the response from local politicians?
Pre-October 7th, of course there were reports of antisemitism, but it certainly wasn’t a main topic of conversation. It’s not something people experienced in their daily lives. Certainly nothing like the scenes we see in Europe, for example. Post-October 7th, like almost everywhere in the Western world, there was a huge uptick in antisemitism. It started with small incidents – the weekly pro-Palestinian rallies in the city that often turned into explicitly antisemitic protests with hate speech that made the Jewish community feel very vulnerable. And then we had a number of incidents of vandalism, graffiti… There was a kosher restaurant just about 100 meters from the Mizrachi shul that was firebombed. There was an acid attack. The Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed. So we went from graffiti to vandalism to firebombing. The vast majority of the Jewish community felt that the government’s response to all these things was weak and not good enough, and only emboldened those trying to do these things. And then, of course, we had this horrific terrorist attack.
We just had a visit from Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who was asked how he felt about the attack in Manchester compared to what he’s seeing in Sydney – the words he used, and the words others have used, are “shocked but not surprised.” We’re very much still in shock that this kind of thing has happened, but at the same time we have been warning the government about what happens when you don’t take antisemitism seriously and you don’t stop it in its tracks. This is very possibly the result. We’ve now experienced the most painful episode not just for the Jewish community, but the worst terrorist attack in Australia’s history by far.
The Sydney Rabbinic mission visiting World Mizrachi Headquarters in May 2025.
Can you talk about both the events of that day and the immediate aftermath? Where were you, and how were members of your community affected?
I was at a wedding that I was officiating. As I’m sure your readers are aware, on Chanukah we have many communal events – not just Chabad houses, but community shuls throughout Australia. Chabad is very public with their Chanukah events, lighting menorahs in public places, and every year Chabad houses run different Chanukah events all over the community. They’re beautiful, they bring people together, often people that aren’t necessarily regular shul attenders or going to other Jewish events on a regular basis. One of those happens every year, put on by Chabad of Bondi at Bondi Beach. There was food, there was music, there were all sorts of activities for adults and children alike. And then two terrorists showed up and started shooting. They did so for a number of minutes before they were stopped and neutralized. That led to scenes which – based on what I’ve seen since October 7th – were reminiscent of that day, though on a smaller scale with fewer people. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but there were very, very difficult scenes for everybody. Everyone who was there, even if they were not physically hurt, has been very much affected mentally and emotionally. Thanks to a number of very brave people, including the volunteers and first responders from the community security group, more people weren’t killed and injured.
Following that, there was a real sense of crisis in the community – shock, disbelief. I lost a couple of close friends. There’s no one in the Jewish community, not just in Sydney but throughout Australia, who hasn’t lost somebody or knows somebody who was injured or killed. We’re not a huge community – there are just over 100,000 Jews in Australia. But with that shock and disbelief, there’s also been a lot of resilience, a lot of chesed, a lot of opportunity to be with each other, to comfort each other, to stand strong.
On the eighth night, the community returned to Bondi Beach. 20,000 of us lit the menorah again. That was led by Chabad of Bondi, who were most impacted by what happened. Just over a week ago, 20,000 people came – the Prime Minister, the Premier, all sorts of different people to show their support. And the truth is that it’s been very heartwarming, the expressions of support we’ve received from the greater Australian community. Every night they created a vigil, a bonfire where people would come. A lot of non-Jews brought flowers. Every night they did Chanukah lighting in a smaller way than we did on the last night, but every night a couple of thousand people would come. As we got later into the evening, Bnei Akiva would come and run a tisch for everyone and they would all sing together.
The community is determined to stand on our own two feet and continue Jewish life proudly. If anything, more and more people want to commit to greater Jewish observance and deepen their connection to the State of Israel. This terrible tragedy has in many ways made us stronger – our observance stronger, our Jewish identity louder and larger.
Rav Eli Schlanger Hy”d and Rav Yaakov Levitan Hy”d with their wives at the end of the Sydney Rabbinic mission with Mizrachi Missions.
It’s still very early, but have there been any discussions about what this means for the future of the community and the ability to continue to have public Jewish life in Australia?
I very much hope not. We’re working to make sure that’s not the case. The government has provided us with tools that we didn’t have before. But in terms of what the concrete future plans are, I think it’s too early to say.
I also want to pay tribute to two friends of mine that I lost. Given that I’m doing this interview for HaMizrachi, I should mention that these two friends were instrumental in making the Mizrachi trip to Israel happen – the one we all did together, the rabbis and rebbetzins of New South Wales. There were about 25 of us, and I led the trip as President of the Rabbinical Council. Now that we’ve lost two members of our rabbinic group, that trip keeps coming back to all of us who were there – the incredible experiences and memories we shared.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger was very proud of his Judaism and his identity, but also reached out to each and every Jew, got on with everybody, found common ground with everyone, and spent his time just thinking of new ideas to increase Torah and mitzvot. Looking back on it, he was such an important part of lifting the ruach of everyone on that trip during the highs and lows that we all went through in those six days.
And then Rabbi Yaakov Levitan – when I first decided we’re going to do this trip, Yaakov was my first call. In terms of the logistics and making sure everything was taken care of behind the scenes, there was no one like Yaakov in the community. He was also a very close friend of mine. I said, “Yaakov, I need you. I need you to come on this trip. I need you to be part of this. I need you to come and just take care of everything.” And the trip would never have happened without him. These were two incredible people that we lost among the 15 incredible kedoshim that are no longer with us.
Thank you very much for speaking with us.