The sun had barely set on Bondi Beach, one of Australia’s most iconic stretches of sand, when gunfire shattered the first night of Hanukkah. On December 14, 2025, a father and son opened fire on a Jewish celebration, killing 15 people in what authorities have called the deadliest attack on Jewish people in Australia’s modern history. The massacre left a nation reeling and drew the world’s attention to a troubling trend: antisemitism is rising, not just in Australia, but across the globe.
For many in the Jewish community, the attack was not an isolated tragedy, but the culmination of years of warnings. According to Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, “We’ve seen every manner of exclusion, abuse, attack, harassment, threats, fire bombings, burning of synagogues. This country has changed fundamentally in two years, and it’s culminated now on the beach.” He and other leaders had repeatedly urged the Australian government to take stronger action against a resurgence of what some call the “oldest hatred.”
The numbers are stark. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reports that antisemitic incidents in the United States alone increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2024, reaching just under 9,500 reported cases—an 893% jump over the past decade. Miami-Dade County, Florida, saw 83% of those incidents in 2024. Globally, the ADL found that nearly half the world’s population holds significant antisemitic beliefs. In Australia, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry recorded 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2024 and September 2025, following an all-time high of 2,062 the previous year. The threats ranged from vandalism of homes, cars, and schools with anti-Israel messages, to arson attacks on synagogues and childcare centers.
Jewish Australians, who make up less than 0.5% of the country’s population, have been facing what an Australian parliamentary inquiry called “an unprecedented rise in antisemitism.” Most of the threats have been reported in Sydney and Melbourne, home to 85% of Australia’s Jewish population of around 117,000. The Bondi Beach attack was the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, which led to sweeping gun control reforms. Now, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his National Cabinet have vowed to eradicate antisemitism, tighten gun laws even further, and set up a centralized National Hate Crimes and Incidents Database.
Yet, for many Jewish leaders, government pledges ring hollow. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles said, “This is not the first incident of this kind in Australia, just the worst. Warm words of embrace are just not going to cut it. We’re looking for action, changes of policies.” Rabbi Menachem Gluckowsky, deputy chief justice of the Chabad Rabbinical Court in Israel, called the massacre “a wake-up call for Australia for sure,” adding, “This is not just our battle. It’s not just a battle for the Jewish people. This is a battle on evil.”
Australia’s struggle is mirrored in the United States, where Jewish communities have responded to rising threats by dramatically increasing security. Rabbi Yossi Harlig, of the Chabad Center of Kendall and Pinecrest in South Florida, said his congregation spends more than $100,000 a year on security, including full-time guards, cameras, and panic buttons. “We have full-time security from when people show up until people leave. That’s over 12 hours a day,” he said. “But we’re focused on doing everything in our power to make sure our campus is safe.” Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner confirmed that the city has stepped up police presence to protect Jewish residents and institutions.
Despite the pain, the Jewish community is responding with resilience. “Whenever we’ve been challenged throughout our history, and unfortunately, that’s been thousands of years – we dig in deeper,” Rabbi Harlig said. “This is a moment for us to stand even stronger.” On December 18, 2025, a group of Miami-Dade mayors planned a joint news conference to publicly denounce antisemitism and reaffirm their support for the Jewish community.
Antisemitism’s roots run deep. Samuel Heilman, emeritus distinguished professor of sociology and Jewish studies at City University of New York, explained, “The fact of the matter is that antisemitism is always there. It’s like cancer. It takes, sometimes, a little bit of a change to bring it up to the surface, but it’s always lurking there. This feel of hatred for Jews that has lasted from one generation to another.” The hatred dates back to Biblical times, was cemented by the words of early church leaders like John Chrysostom, and was inflamed by figures such as Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation. The Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered, is a stark reminder of where unchecked antisemitism can lead.
Today, the threat comes from both the political right and left. Pamela Nadell, author of “Antisemitism, an American Tradition,” told Straight Arrow News, “It is in particular on the rise because it is coming both from the right and from the left at the same time.” The right’s antisemitism is often tied to white supremacist ideology, as seen in the 2017 Charlottesville protests where marchers chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” On the left, Nadell said, antisemitism is “deeply rooted in the idea that Israel is an illegitimate state, and that idea goes back to the Soviets.”
The recent war in Gaza has added fuel to the fire. As Israel’s military offensive continues, a recent poll found that 48% of American Jews disapproved of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Yet, as Heilman pointed out, antisemites do not distinguish between Jews who support or oppose Israel. “They don’t split the hairs,” he said, likening the dynamic to the Nazi era, when even Jews who had converted or married non-Jews were still targeted.
In Australia, pro-Palestinian demonstrations and the government’s formal recognition of a Palestinian state in September 2025 have, according to some Jewish leaders, emboldened extremists. Rabbi Cooper said that this recognition was a “signal” to terrorists determined to attack Jews. Prime Minister Albanese, however, rejected any direct link between government policy and the Bondi Beach shooting, stating, “My job is to provide support for the Jewish community, is to make it clear that Australians overwhelmingly stand with the Jewish community at this difficult time.”
Online, antisemitic rhetoric has exploded in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue found a 4,963% increase in antisemitic YouTube comments on conflict-related videos after October 7, 2023. Fringe platforms like 4chan, Bitchute, Gab, and Telegram saw a 50% rise in daily antisemitic comments.
What can be done? Experts agree there is no simple solution. Nadell said, “We need grassroots organizing, we need education, we need interfaith coalitions, and more. Those are the steps that could begin to lay the seeds to turn the world away from this hate.” Heilman added, “We need leaders who make it clear that attacking any group of people because you don’t like their policies or you don’t like their loyalties or you don’t like their history is something that should be discouraged in all of the places where these attacks on Jews have happened.”
Despite centuries of persecution, Jews have survived as a minority, often defying the odds. As Rabbi Gluckowsky said, “We won’t be intimidated or inhibited of who we are as Jews.” The Bondi Beach attack has left scars, but it has also galvanized communities and leaders to confront antisemitism with renewed determination, both in Australia and around the world.
