Bondi Seashore assault casts a shadow on Hanukkah celebrations in Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel — A rabbi with a blowtorch climbs onto a scissor raise and is hoisted as much as a large Hanukkah menorah.

“Are you ready!?’ he asks the children gathered below.

“Sure!” they shout in unison.

Rabbi Shaul Reizes uses the blowtorch to light the first, rightmost candle and leads the children and a crowd of grownups assembled behind them at Habima Square in Tel Aviv in singing the Hanukkah blessings.

It was at a ceremony like this one, thousands of miles away in Australia, where two gunmen opened fire on Sunday, killing at least 16 people, including a 10-year-old girl and a Holocaust survivor. The tragedy is casting a heavy shadow over the Jewish festival of lights in Israel, where people of all ages had been looking forward to celebrating — especially this year, as a ceasefire in Gaza has held since October and all but one of the hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the attack of Oct. 7, 2023, have been returned.

A big menorah stands outdoors the partitions of the Outdated Metropolis in Jerusalem, prepared for every day ceremonies to gentle the candles each night time.

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The Orthodox Jewish Chabad motion lights these giant menorahs in cities round Israel — and all over the world — yearly. Reizes says what the assailants did on Bondi Seashore in Sydney, Australia, will not change that.

“What they want to do is to bring more darkness to the world, and we are sure that our mission now, especially this night, is to bring more lights to the world,” he mentioned.

In Tel Aviv, it is the primary time there are giant public actions in honor of the vacation because the COVID pandemic and the wars that began on Oct. 7, 2023.

“Hanukkah is back after several years of being canceled, basically,” mentioned Alice Eldar, as her toddler pranced round her with a glowstick, shouting, “Hanukkah!”

Eldar mentioned she was completely happy that issues had been returning to regular and her household may attend public menorah-lighting ceremonies and purchase the normal jelly-filled donuts referred to as sufghaniyot on the bakeries on the town.

“It feels like we can actually celebrate again,” mentioned Eldar.

She has lived in Israel for six years and heard concerning the assault in Australia from her mom, who referred to as from London to inform her.

“You’re seeing more and more of these kinds of antisemitic attacks and this sentiment of intense hatred of Jewish people again,” mentioned Eldar, who just isn’t Jewish however is elevating her youngsters within the custom. “It’s really depressing.”

In lots of international locations, together with Australia and america, Jews are feeling more and more susceptible regardless of beefed-up safety outdoors their faculties and synagogues. In Israel, there have been assaults by militants — together with the Hamas-led assault two years in the past that sparked the Gaza struggle — however many Jews right here nonetheless say they really feel safer in a rustic the place the bulk shares their religion, and so they do not appear troubled by the absence of armed guards posted at such websites.    

That is why the assault in Bondi Seashore, wherein two cops had been amongst the 40 individuals injured, could make Australia appear to be a scary nation to individuals like 28-year-old Raz Kahlon. As he crossed Habima Sq. on his bike, Kahlon mentioned he had been hoping to journey to Australia sometime to expertise the seaside tradition there.

“It was one of my dreams, to go to Sydney to surf there, to meet the new people, to meet the good vibe people,” he mentioned, including that he does not assume he’ll go now. Listening to concerning the taking pictures is like getting “a big ‘no’ on the country,” he mentioned.

A brief stroll from Habima Sq., a crowd congregated at 10 p.m. on Tel Aviv’s Frishman Seashore for a vigil to recollect the victims of the mass taking pictures in Australia. They lit memorial candles, positioned them within the form of a Star of David on the boardwalk and sang a prayer for peace.

At a vigil in Tel Aviv for the victims of Australia’s Bondi Seashore assault, candles are specified by the form of a Star of David, Dec 14.

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Among the many many English audio system there, some had an accent from Down Beneath.

“I felt that it was important that I show up this evening,” mentioned Ben Freeman, who comes from Melbourne and spent a lot of Sunday checking in along with his many pals and kin in Sydney to see in the event that they had been OK. He was relieved to be taught that they had been.

Freeman mentioned he grew up experiencing antisemitism in Australia. However the rise in threats and violence in opposition to Jews and Jewish establishments again dwelling simply grew to become an excessive amount of, he mentioned, and led to his choice to maneuver to Israel.

“When Oct. 7 happened, things shifted massively in Australia. And I hung around for another year and I decided to pick up and come to a country where I wouldn’t have to explain myself, and I could be free.”

He agrees with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who mentioned this week that Australia’s authorities “did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia” regardless of a wave of assaults in opposition to Jews, together with arson at synagogues, vandalism of Jewish property and antisemitic slurs shouted at anti-Israel rallies. Netanyahu additionally mentioned Australia’s choice to acknowledge a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”

“I think the response to Oct. 7 was really disappointing, from the Australian government,” Freeman mentioned. “To be really, really honest, the blood is on their hands.”

Eli Parkes, who moved to Israel 10 years in the past, mentioned the Australian Jewish neighborhood is made up largely of individuals whose grandparents, like his, had been Holocaust survivors. They moved to Australia, he mentioned, as a result of they needed to get as far-off as attainable from “the antisemitism of the Old World.”

“And it doesn’t get much further than Australia,” he mentioned. “When we grew up, we thought we were the blessed Jews who didn’t have to deal with all that. And unfortunately, the last few years have shown us that that isn’t quite true.”