Australia/Israel Review

Having endured two years of terrorist attacks, sirens, and missiles, drones and rockets since the horrors of October 7, 2023, I thought I was moving my wife and two young daughters to the safest and most peaceful place in the world when we decided to return to Australia less than one month ago. 

“Abba [Hebrew for ‘dad’], does that mean no more boomies?” my eight-year-old daughter asked me when I informed her of the move – “boomies” being her short-hand for the constant explosions and attacks that comprised her day-to-day experience in Israel during the war. I told her it was boomie-free. I could not have imagined that we were actually going straight from the frying pan into the fire.

I was returning to Australia in part to help combat the rising antisemitism in the country in my incoming role as the head of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) Sydney office. 

Chanukah by the Sea is an annual well-attended event hosted by the local Chabad at the iconic Bondi Beach to mark the first night of Chanukah, featuring a carnival-like atmosphere for children with food, a petting zoo, face painting, music, bouncy castles and other entertainment. 

I had just gone to get some food while my family sat down to watch the lighting of the menorah when the carnage began. I turned and ran towards my wife and children and was shot in the head. The doctors later told me that the difference between life and death was mere millimetres, and that it was a “a miracle” that I had survived. 

At the time, all I knew was that I was bleeding heavily out of my head and had fallen on the ground. I snapped a selfie to send to my wife with the message “Love you” appended, not knowing if I’d ever see her or the children again. It took 15 minutes, the longest 15 minutes of my life, before I could get in contact with her and learned that she and the children were safe.

As it turned out, I was one of the lucky ones. Fifteen others, including a 10-year-old child, Matilda, as well as Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, tragically lost their lives, and dozens, including children, like me, spent time in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds. In the minutes between 6:42 and 6:48 that evening, many people lost everything. 

The doctors say I will make a full recovery. They mean physically; I do not know if I will ever forget the screams, the blood and the terror. I saw bodies and parts all around me, and although I have spent years telling stories of terrorism and resilience and advocating for survivors of attacks, I would never have guessed that I would become a victim myself, and on Bondi Beach of all places! 

One of the reasons I returned here was because I had watched from afar with growing frustration as the Australian Government failed to respond effectively, if at all, to the exploding antisemitism following Hamas’ massacre and pogrom on October 7, 2023. 

I watched with horror as antisemitic protesters marched to the Opera House screaming “f_ck the Jews!”, as the police told Jews to stay clear of the area instead of stopping the protesters. Things only got worse from there, on campus and on our streets, with arsons, vandalism, assaults and harassment creating an impossible atmosphere for Jews.

I needed to join this fight. 

The Jewish community has been warning the Government for two years that the normalisation of antisemitism would inevitably end in bloodshed. Laws went unenforced, emboldening extremists. Instead of a crackdown, the Government escalated its denunciations of Israel and decided to recognise a Palestinian state, hoping to appease the extremism it has allowed to fester unencumbered. 

What happened at Bondi was a natural culmination of this Government’s feckless virtue signalling. 

The Jewish community does not need to hear that “There is no place for antisemitism in Australia” again. It needs decisive action. It needs political will. Most importantly, Islamist extremism must be confronted head on.

We now know the father-son terrorist duo were Islamic State loyalists, and that the son, Naveed Akram, was affiliated with local networks that promoted Jihad and Islamic State advocacy for more than a decade.

How have the hate preachers suffered no consequences? How are they allowed to continue radicalising and spewing hate? How did it take a court case by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) just to get some of their public antisemitic lectures finally taken offline in mid-2025?

I look forward to assuming my role at AIJAC soon and helping ensure this changes. Because it must change.

This murderous attack needs to be a watershed, marking the end of appeasement and the beginning of real action, of real consequences, so that Australia can remain a place where Jewish life can flourish freely. 

On the beach that day, I saw horror, but I also saw heroism. People risking their lives to help the wounded, to comfort people, to stop the attackers. Some, such as Boris and Sofia Gurman and Reuven Morrison, were killed as a result. A kind man helped staunch my bleeding head by ripping off his shirt. 

That’s the real Australia. Not the jihadism of the hate preachers and their followers, and not the virulent anti-Israel protesters and their murderous slogans. 

The last X post by Rabbi Eli Schlanger – who was murdered in the attack and leaves behind a wife and five children, including a two-month-old baby – reads: “The best response to antisemitism. Happy Chanukah!” above a music video of him dancing by an electric menorah on his car. 

He was right, and I thought of him as I lit my menorah in the hospital – the ultimate symbol of Jewish resilience and endurance, representing how light will triumph over darkness. 

But it will take real leadership to ensure that this story has a happy ending.

This was and remains the lucky country, and I am determined to show my daughter that it is indeed a place without “boomies”, where she and all Jews can live securely.