Christian leaders in Australia have expressed their solidarity with the country’s grief-stricken Jewish community after a deadly terrorist attack on Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday night.
Two gunmen opened fire on a bunch of Jews as they celebrated the primary day of Chanukah – the standard Jewish ‘festival of lights’ also generally known as Hanukkah.
The gunmen have been named as Sajid Akram, 50, and his son, Naveed, 24. Sajid Akram died on the scene, while his son stays in hospital.
The 15 victims include a 10-year-old girl named only as Matilda, who had been having fun with the festivities together with her family, and Peter “Marzo” Meagher, a retired former detective with the NSW Police Force who had been on the Chanukah celebration because the event’s photographer. Another victim was Alexander Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor who got here to Australia from Ukraine.
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Kanishka Raffel, said he was “shocked and sickened” by the “horrific” attack.
In a press release, he rejected antisemitism and violence, and called for peace.
“We embrace our Jewish neighbours and fellow residents in love, friendship and support. We reject antisemitism, violence and hatred,” he said.
“We pray to the God of all comfort and the Father of compassion, for the security and protection of the Jewish community.
“We pray for those grieving the tragic lack of family members, those injured or traumatised, for the police and medical employees, and for our government and security agencies as they respond.
“We pray for the peace, safety and recovery of the community in Bondi and more widely across Sydney.”
He went on to provide thanks for bystander Ahmed Al Ahmed, who has been praised as a hero and credited with saving more lives after tackling one among the gunmen and successfully removing his weapon.
The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, blamed increasing “public antisemitism”. He assured Jews of his prayers and “closeness”, and said that Christians “must do all we are able to to maintain them protected”.
“For greater than two years, an environment of public antisemitism has festered leading
to intimidation, division, and the normalisation of incendiary language,” he said in The Catholic Weekly.
“Opposite my own cathedral in Hyde Park there have been weekly demonstrations where inflammatory messages have been usually articulated which could only have ‘turned up the temperature’ and maybe contributed to radicalisation. This must stop.
“My great grandmother was a Jew and so I actually have Jewish heritage in my family. Jesus was a Jew, born of a Jewish mother, born a subject of the Jewish Law. Mary and Joseph were Jews. So too our father Abraham and all of the prophets, in addition to all 12 of the apostles. Christians are children of the Jews. And so, an attack on the Jews is an attack on all of us.”
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