Stop the violence against the Jewish people
It feels like it would take a miracle right now
My heart is heavy.
In the hours before sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, December 14, there was a pogrom in Sydney, Australia, and a shooting at Brown University that may have been motivated by antisemitism. And that mensch of an American, Rob Reiner, was murdered with his wife in their home, most likely by their son, Nick, who struggled with mental illness and addiction.
This isn’t what I want to write about. But it is our grim reality.
On the famous Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, over 1000 people gathered to attend a celebration for the first night of Hanukkah. Families met friends and discussed holiday and beach plans, ate sufganiyah, and waited for sundown and the lighting of the Hanukkiah (Hanukkah menorah).
Two men, a father and son, believed to have ties to ISIS, opened fire on the gathering, murdering at least 15 people and injuring many more. Among the dead were two rabbis, an 87-year-old Ukrainian Holocaust survivor who died shielding his wife of 57 years from bullets, a young man who immigrated from France last year, and a 10-year-old girl. Two police officers were also killed. The older gunman was killed by police, while his son is in critical condition. An unarmed bystander—a Muslim man who immigrated to Australia from Syria and just received citizenship in 2022—tackled one of the gunmen from behind and disarmed him, taking several bullets to his arm and shoulder. He is in the hospital and will require more surgery.
Sydney has been the site of large “pro-Palestinian” “protests.” The last one took place in October and featured a sea of Palestinian flags and “protesters” chanting “Fuck the Jews!” and “Gas the Jews!” This seems neither pro-Palestinian nor a protest. It looks and sounds like fascism.
Australian investigators are looking into whether Sunday’s pogrom was tied to an Iranian-backed terrorist infrastructure that had planned violent attacks against Australia’s Jewish population before being dismantled by Australian authorities just a month ago.
At Brown University in Providence, RI, a gunman entered a final exam review session and opened fire, killing two students: a second-year student from Birmingham, AL, who was a member of the Episcopal church and vice-president of the College Republicans; and a first-year student, an immigrant from Uzbekistan, who planned to become a neurosurgeon. Nine other students were hurt; eight remain hospitalized in critical condition. The shooter has not been caught.
There have been 392 mass shootings in the United States so far this year.
By contrast, Australia’s last mass shooting was in 1996, after which gun-control laws were tightened. Sunday’s fifty-year-old shooter had acquired his guns legally; today, Australia is again calling for stronger gun-control.
The professor of the class at Brown, an economist who is also an associate in Judaic Studies, confirmed that her class was the one targeted. She was not present; her TAs were running the review session. An American with a PhD from MIT, the professor is Jewish, and she taught for four years at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Her area of research, as noted in her online bio, is the economics of immigration, looking at outcomes in the U.S. and Israel.
We don’t yet know who the murderer is or what motivated him, but in the current climate we can’t say with any confidence that the professor’s identity is coincidental.
Hours after the pogrom in Australia, thousands of “protestors” in the Netherlands demonstrated outside a Hanukkah concert. They chanted, banged drums, set off smoke bombs, and broke past barriers to force their way into the concert hall.
Earlier this week, a gunman opened fire on a house in Redmond, California, that had a large Hanukkah display outside. The gunman yelled “Fuck the Jews!” and drove away.
Reflecting on the origin story of Hanukkah, a friend writes:
The Greeks didn’t start with violence. They asked the Jews to give up one thing, then another. Each step sounded reasonable at the time. Many Jews went along, believing assimilation would keep them safe. The deeply religious pushed back early. Most people only understood the danger after too much had been given up.
That’s why this doesn’t feel abstract right now. From universities to international bodies to people calling themselves protestors, the same pressure keeps appearing. Jews are being told to stop being Jewish: in public, in practice, in identity.
In 2023, someone (I forget who—sorry!) organized a gesture of solidarity during Hanukkah. Those of us aren’t Jewish were invited to light Hanukkah candles in our windows. I went to Target and bought a (really, quite nice) menorah, or Hanukkiah, and stopped at the coop for beeswax candles. My family lit candles by our front window each night.
There was no official plan to continue every year, and I packed the Hanukkiah away with the Christmas decorations. Last year it sat in the box. But after waking on Sunday to the news from Australia, I went to the coop for another box of beeswax candles, and last night we lit the first one.
I don’t say the traditional prayers, both because I don’t know them and (mostly) because I don’t feel it’s my place. Instead, I whisper my own words of prayer: for protection for Jewish people and for an end to the harassment and violence against them, and for an end to antizionism and antisemitism. Am Yisrael Chai.
Thank you 💙
Thank you <3