The Last Candles of Bondi |
Bondi Beach is Australia’s shame,
a shoreline salted with Jewish tears,
where the candles of Hanukkah
were shot out by men who pray to death
and call it holy.
For years, the sky grew dark with warnings—
marches praising Hamas,
chants for intifada,
streets flooded with flags that hide knives,
campuses where professors baptize hatred
as “justice,”
and politicians nod politely,
eyes fixed on the next election,
ears stopped to the sound
of windows shattering in Jewish shops.
Labor spoke of “human rights”
as it turned its back on Jewish lives,
recognizing “Palestine” in the shadow of October 7,
saying nothing of the babies burned in cribs,
the women raped in fields,
the families dragged into tunnels like sacrifice.
Words became daggers,
and daggers became policy.
In Melbourne, the Adass Israel Synagogue
was lit with the wrong fire,
petrol replacing prayer,
worshippers running through smoke
as flames licked the doorway
like a second Kristallnacht.
God’s house burned,
and the law spoke softly
of “arson” and “investigation,”
as if this were just another crime
and not a message in fire
that Jews are once more marked.
In lecture halls and offices
antisemitism grew “mainstream”—
a new fashion of old hatred.
Jewish students learned to hide their stars,
tuck their tzitzit,
........