For many Australians, Sunday’s terror attack at a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach near Sydney felt all but inevitable following years of escalating antisemitic violence and rhetoric.

According to authorities, at least 15 people were killed, as well as one of the two gunmen who opened fire at a family Hanukkah event attended by some 2,000 Jews from the Sydney area. At least 13 were critically injured, including two police officers.

“I’m horrified and devastated that this happened, but not shocked,” Lynda Ben-Menashe, president of the National Council of Jewish Women Australia, told The Times of Israel. “Over the past two years, antisemitism has been rising by the month, and the government has not listened to our pleas. When there is no visible consequence to incitement, violence always ensues.”

Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the Gaza war and setting off a tidal wave of antisemitism across the globe, Australia’s 120,000-strong Jewish community has been among the hardest hit.

Over the past year, Jews in Australia have seen synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital, and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives said to have been intended to cause a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue.

“I’m trying to process what impact this is going to have on the Jewish........

© The Times of Israel