Running While Jewish in Sydney, Weeks Before Bondi |
I ran the Sydney Marathon on August 31, 2025.
Before I landed, I knew Sydney was already in trouble. Weeks earlier, on August 3rd, there had been a massive pro-Palestine march on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, one that crossed well beyond political expression into open antisemitism. I knew the Jewish community there was uneasy. I also noticed that many people were keeping their heads down and avoiding anything that made them visibly Jewish in public.
Yet I’m a New Yorker. An American Jew. I’m not afraid of much.
When I landed at the airport, I changed my shirt. It had an Israeli flag and an American flag, with the text: Yes. I’m both. I wasn’t trying to provoke anyone. I was simply refusing to hide.
A few days before the race, around 6 or 7 in the morning, I took a bus to the On Cloud shakeout run. On the bus, I noticed a religious Jewish man quietly saying Tehillim (Psalms) under his breath. I said hello and introduced myself. We spoke for a few minutes. He was warm, grateful, almost relieved to be acknowledged.
Then he said something that stayed with me: he admitted he was afraid to be praying on the bus.
Not attacked. Not threatened. Just afraid.
The fact that quietly saying Psalms on public transport in Sydney in 2025 could feel like an act of bravery stopped me cold.
Later that weekend, on the way back from the Marathon Expo, I saw a young woman wearing a Star of David necklace. I commented on it and shared a compliment. She smiled but then said, almost apologetically, that wearing it felt brave right now.
Two separate Jews. Two separate moments. Same message.
In those moments, Sydney didn’t feel like Australia. It felt like something darker. Something older. Something I never thought I’d feel in the 2020s. It........