Could it be that the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre will be the tipping point? Could it be that the world will finally wake up to the murderous nature of antisemitic rhetoric? Could it be that, at last, there will be a massive pushback against the radical ideologies that fuel this bloody fire and against the social media feeding frenzies that help stoke these sentiments?
Look for a moment at these dates, all from the last five years. What do they have in common?
October 27, 2018. April 27, 2019. October 9, 2019. December 28, 2019. May 9, 2023. October 7, 2023. October 12, 2024. October 2, 2025. December 14, 2025.
On all these dates, Jews were killed (or attacked) on a Sabbath or Jewish holy day simply because they were Jews.
From the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, PA, on October 27, 2018, during a weekly Sabbath service, to the Poway, California, synagogue shooting on Passover, April 27, 2019.
From the Yom Kippur attack on a Jewish girls' school in Toronto (thankfully, without fatality or injury) on October 12, 2024, to the fatal Yom Kippur attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, on October 2, 2025.
From the attempted arson of a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, this past July during a Sabbath dinner to the Bondi Beach, Australia, massacre on the first day of Hanukkah this very week.
The pattern is the same, with the unimaginably gruesome massacre of October 7, 2023, standing as a massive exclamation point in the midst of the carnage.
From Israel to Australia, from America to Canada, and from England to Tunisia, the pattern is the same: Jewish children, women, and men were butchered while they worshiped in synagogues.
Or while they participated in Jewish religious ceremonies.
Or while they went about their business on a Jewish holy day.
In three of the instances listed above, the motivation was far-right, White Supremacist, Jew hatred. In all other instances, save one, the motivation was radical Islamist Jew hatred. In all cases, the results were the same: a river of Jewish blood. (And should I also mention the murder of two Israeli embassy staff members on May 21, 2025, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.? Or the Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado, at a peaceful rally calling for the release of Israeli hostages on June 1, 2025, as a result of which one elderly Jewish woman was burned to death?)
It is high time that the world wakes up and sees the handwriting on the wall.
How many more Jews must be slaughtered before more of us stand up and speak out and confront this madness? How much more blood must be shed before we openly address the violent nature of antisemitism?
Focusing specifically on Australia, Dionne Taylor, the communications manager of the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, said, "We have been completely let down by our government. We warned them that this snowball effect was going to happen, and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed."
She added, "It started with hate speech. Then graffiti. Then public demonstrations. Then firebombing synagogues, preschools, people's homes, people's cars. And now murder."
How could these overtly violent, blatantly antisemitic signals be missed? How could a major Jewish event take place in the open without massive security measures in place?
To quote Bondi resident Jack Pinczewski at length, "No one in the Jewish community I spoke to felt like this was a surprise. Many felt like this was an inevitability. Ever since 7 October, the Jewish community in Australia has been drinking from a firehose of antisemitism. Daily occurrences of hate—an inexorable tide of evil we felt rising around us.
"The worst feeling was seeing those who we thought might be sympathetic to our plight dismiss our fears as a 'hoax' or a 'moral panic.' Elites in our media threw these deliberate fictions and red herrings into the national debate, making the warning signs almost impossible to see for the average Australian."
Put another way, the Jewish community in Australia was not crying wolf.
Pinczewski continued, "The worst were the egregious and uncalled-for accusations that Jews were 'weaponising' antisemitism to shut down debate on Israeli policy, and the obscene navel-gazing debate over whether pro-Hamas rioters at the Sydney Opera House were chanting 'Where's the Jews?' or 'Gas the Jews'—as if the difference between the two actually matters." (Really!)
Indeed, "Australian civil society has failed. This attack is the result of a series of failures of leadership across our country. From politicians to business leaders, academics and commentators, there has been too much equivocation and misdirection on antisemitism."
Similar quotes and sentiments could be cited at length (see here for another example; more broadly, see here, and here, and here).
Stern rebukes also came from government leaders in Israel (including Prime Minister Netanyahu).
"Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar declared that Australia had been warned about potential attacks and that the shooting was the result of 'the antisemitic rampage in the streets of Australia over the past two years, with the antisemitic and inciting calls of "Globalize the Intifada" that were realized today.'"
Quite bluntly, he stated, "The Australian government, which received countless warning signs, must come to its senses." (For Netanyahu's urgent letter of warning sent to Australian Prime Minister Albanese in August, see here.)
Now it's time for the rest of the civilized world to come to its senses.
Enough Jewish blood has been shed.
Words have consequences. Ideologies have ramifications.
And when Israel is falsely accused day and night, literally by the second, of intentionally slaughtering women and children in Gaza, something bad is going to happen.
When Jews (and/or Israel) are unceasingly blamed for almost every evil under the sun (including, most recently, the assassination of Charlie Kirk), something bad is going to happen.
And when blatant, ugly, antisemitic comments and acts are given free expression without rebuke, without pushback, without denunciation, something bad is going to happen.
It is time for the world to wake up, and that starts with each of us taking responsibility for our own spheres of influence, be it during a discussion over family dinner or on our social media posts. Let us do our part before this deadly cancer of Jew hatred spreads any further.
Pastors, leaders, educators, businessmen, parents, students, social media influencers, politicians – every single one of us – must make our voices heard.
In the words of Rabbi Schmaya Krinsky of the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in New York City, "Every incremental escalation of antisemitic language that is tolerated has a direct, and now, deadly, consequence, and must no longer go unchecked." (Rabbi Krinsky lost several of his colleagues in Bondi.)
As I've said endlessly, this does not mean agreeing with everything Israel does, nor does it mean making all Jews into saints. But it does mean confronting the hatred and exposing the lies – today, not tomorrow.
Others can discuss the specific issues of immigration and enforcing relevant laws. But all of us can push back against the dangerous sickness of Jew hatred. Now is the time.
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