Bondi Beach where the light was meant to go out

Bondi Beach should never be a place associated with terror.It represents life, freedom, sunlight, families, children, and coexistence. But on the first night of Hanukkah, as Australia became one of the first places in the world to welcome the festival of light, Bondi Beach became the site of a horrific terror attack against more than 2,000 Jews who gathered to light a menorah. Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the local Chabad-Lubavitch emissary whose event was designed to “fill Bondi with joy and light” was murdered, along with at least 10 others.That should stop us cold: Jews were shot for celebrating Hanukkah.Australia can feel a world away from the Middle East, from Europe, from the centers of global conflict. But in many ways, as my local rabbi Berel Gurevitch of Chabad of West Village has explained, Australia is the canary in the coal mine. This was not random: A public menorah lighting cannot be concealed. It was a visible and unapologetically Jewish event, and therefore it was targeted. The message was meant to travel far beyond Sydney for Jewish communities gathering worldwide to light their menorahs: don’t assemble, don’t show up, don’t shine.Earlier this year, I visited Bondi Beach to hear directly from Australia’s Jewish community about their experiences since Oct.7. What struck me was not fear, but resolve. Even as antisemitism surged there, they refused to retreat from public Jewish life.Jews across the world are now asking themselves questions no one should have to ask in a free society: Is it safe to attend a public Jewish event, to be visibly Jewish, this Hanukkah? This attack did not come out of nowhere.For years, segments of the mainstream media have recycled inflammatory talking points, sanitized terror and relentlessly portrayed Israel — and by extension Jews — as irredeemably evil.And this hate inevitably spills into our streets. Jewish communities warned governments repeatedly about the consequences of this incitement. They bese...