Bondi Beach Shooting: Community Unites in Support After Targeted Attack on Jewish Residents

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Bondi Pavilion on Monday morning to place flowers close to the scene where the alleged attackers — a father and a son — targeted the Jewish community celebrating the first day of Hanukkah.

“The Jewish community are hurting today. Today, all Australians wrap our arms around them and say, ‘we stand with you’,” Albanese told reporters.

Bart Shteinman, an executive member of the Jewish Council of Australia, expressed that the magnitude and intensity of the recent attack were beyond what most Jewish individuals could have ever anticipated.

“In Australia, almost every Jewish person knows someone who had a loved one or a friend involved in this tragic event, and many of us are aware of individuals who have lost their dear ones,” Shteinman shared with SBS News.

The Jewish Council is urging everyone to participate by lighting a candle in memory of the deceased and in support of their families.

Shteinman said the council is hoping all Australians will join the Jewish community in lighting a candle this year. The festival of Hanukkah is a celebration of light and miracles that traditionally sees families light a candle across eight nights.

People are seen embracing after placing flowers at a memorial outside Bondi Pavilion. Source: AAP / Mark Baker/AP

A group of young people standing close together in front of flowers placed on the ground.

“We encourage individuals to share this act on social media, using it as an opportunity to express solidarity with the Jewish community and everyone affected by this catastrophe,” Shteinman added.

Get in touch with community members

Senator Dave Sharma, former Wentworth MP and ambassador to Israel, has also urged Australians to check in with members of the community.

“I think anyone who has a Jewish friend or neighbour or work colleague or acquaintance or business owner or anything else — make a point to get in touch with them,” he said.

“Just say you’re thinking of them, and you’re concerned for their welfare, because the Jewish community’s felt besieged and isolated, and felt unwelcome in Australia these last two-and-a-half years.”

Sharma said at times like this, members of the community would be asking questions about whether they belong in Australia.

“It’s incredibly important on every other non-Jewish Australian to give them some level of reassurance and support,” he said.

“I think people will be surprised at just how valued and appreciated those gestures are at this time.”

While the Bondi attack was directed at the Jewish community, Sharma said it is also being seen as an attack on Australian values, institutions and social compact.

“As we see by how all Australians are reacting, we see it as an attack on Australia and the sort of fundamental values that underpin our society — our multi-faith society of respect, tolerance, diversity, and fundamentally a peaceful and respectful attitude towards one’s fellow citizens,” he said.

Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, encouraged people to speak up about the contribution of the Jewish community and to call out those who try to isolate or criticise them.

“Speak up about the importance of them feeling safe. Speak up and embrace Jewish creatives who’ve been doxxed and isolated and many people will not work with them or exhibit their their work, their work. That all has to end,” she told SBS News.

“The Jews of Australia are absolutely the most loyal, committed Australians, and they need to be supported in everything that they do, their professional work, their social work, their communal work.”

Blood donation website crashes

There has also been an overwhelming response to calls for Australians to give blood.

NSW Premier Chris Minns told reporters on Monday people looking for something practical to do could give blood.

“We saw extraordinary scenes from NSW public hospitals last night. Emergency departments, at the drop of a hat, were in the process of saving scores of lives,” he said.

“They did an incredible job, but they need your help. They need blood.”

A man in a suit speaks at a lectern flanked by a man and a woman, also in suits.

NSW Premier Chris Minns (centre) said people looking for something practical could donate blood. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas

The response from Australians has been so overwhelming that it crashed the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood website.

Lifeblood spokesperson Jess Willet said the organisation’s centres are full and it is trying to open up more appointments.

“Please check back, but if your local donor centre is full, have a look at other nearby centres, which may still have appointments,” she said.

“It’s important to note that we do need blood donors every day, and so if you can’t get in this week … Christmas is a particularly critical time of year, and we’d encourage people to look ahead and book maybe next week or the week after, when blood donations will also be urgently needed.”