Last night, an interfaith memorial service was held in the forecourt of St Mary’s Cathedral, with speeches from Anthony Fisher, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Premier Chris Minns, and Rabbi Ben Elton of the Great Synagogue. faith leaders from Anglican, Pentecostal, Orthodox and Uniting churches, together with Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim representatives lit 15 candles in memory of the innocent dead of Bondi’s massacre. The Vatican sent a message:
“…Pope Leo the 14th offers the assurance of his spiritual closeness to all those affected by this senseless act of violence, with renewed hope that those tempted to violence will undergo conversion and seek the path of peace and solidarity. His holiness prays for the healing of those still recovering, as well as consolation for those grieving the loss of a loved one, commending the dead to the loving mercy of Almighty God. The Holy Father invokes the divine blessings of peace and strength upon all Australians.”
Archbishop Anthony Fisher: ‘Demonstrations have taken place here in Hyde Park within earshot of the great synagogue … messages delivered that made violence thinkable. This must stop.’
Dear friends, we gather this evening in what should be a season of joy, feeling a great weight of sadness, our celebration of peace now marred by violence, a festival of light for Jews and Christians now overshadowed by darkness and death. An unspeakable evil has visited our city, claiming 15 lives, leaving scores more injured, grieving, traumatised, and profoundly wounding our whole community. It’ll never be forgotten.
This darkness challenges us all. It challenges our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Last Sunday, as they celebrated Hanukkah, they were met with one of the oldest and darkest of human hatreds. The Jews have suffered slavery in Egypt, exile in Babylon, oppression by empires, and twice the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. They’ve known centuries of diaspora, pogroms, the Shoah, antisemitism in many guises. Now carnage in our own city.
How can anyone live faith openly when fear whispers to hide your identity and existence? How can anyone maintain hope when despair seems the only response? How can anyone trust their neighbours when trust is so callously violated? Our Jewish friends teach us to hope, believe, and trust even amidst great darkness.
Think of Jessica Rosen desperately searching for her son amidst gunfire last Sunday, seeing a little girl screaming and throwing her arms around her, shielding her with her own body until the shooting stopped. “I got you,” Rosen kept repeating.
“I did what I could,” she explained, simply, later.
To the extent that I can speak for Catholics, for Christians, for believers, for people of goodwill, I say to our Jewish sisters and brothers, “You are not alone. We got you. We got you.”
“As members of a shared humanity, as fellow believers under God, as neighbours and friends, this attack on you attacks all that is good and holy.”
It wounds us too. We Gentiles were best represented last Sunday by heroic emergency workers, lifesavers, police and others who intervened and by Ahmed al Ahmed, who ran at one gunman, sustaining injuries but managing to disarm him and force his retreat. He saw the victims, his father later explained. An instinct, humanity, conscience, made him intervene.
But the dark stain of antisemitism on our city and nation challenges us all. Hanukkah and Christmas challenge us also to light a candle of fraternity, justice, goodness, to be instruments of comfort, healing, mercy, to repair broken trust, torn social fabric, fractured peace, to demonstrate the best of humanity after witnessing the worst.
Tonight, civic and religious leaders join together to commemorate the dead and to declare never again, to dedicate ourselves and our communities to building a better culture, safer laws, more civil discourse, to cultivating an environment where hatred finds no fertile ground, where violence is not tolerated, where ugly rhetoric is confronted before it divides and radicalises.
For two years now, week after week, demonstrations have taken place here in Hyde Park within earshot of the great synagogue where inflammatory messages were articulated, unchecked slogans chanted that turned up the temperature, and messages delivered that made violence thinkable. This must stop.
Hanukkah and Christmas proclaim that darkness cannot overcome light, a day’s worth of oil can, by God’s grace, burn for eight, A family’s courage and spark a nation’s hope. The heroes of Bondi defy the haters who would turn Australians to the dark side. Our task is to keep the light burning.
My Jewish friends, your resilience inspires us and those who died, this Hanukkah will be remembered. We will honour them best by ensuring antisemitism is prevented and denounced, the beaches, homes and businesses, places of worship and festivals are safe, and that no human being lives in fear in our city, our land.
Eternal rest, grant unto the victims, oh Lord, and healing for the survivors. May their memories be a blessing.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: ‘There was pure evil at Bondi last Sunday. Yet even at that moment, we were given proof that evil will never overcome the courage, decency, compassion, and kindness of Australians.’
Your Grace, Archbishop Anthony Fisher, the Premier of New South Wales, Christopher Minns, rabbi Ben Elton, interfaith leaders, the Governor of New South Wales, and members of the diplomatic Corps, including Ambassador Amir Maimon of Israel.
Tonight, as we gather in one iconic Sydney location, we mourn the devastation inflicted at another at this cathedral dedicated to our Catholic faith. We grieve for all those who were killed affirming their faith, Jewish Australians deliberately targeted on the first night of Hanukkah.
As they came together at that beautiful place to renew their hope, their resilience, and their belief in the power of light, the darkness of terror and antisemitism was cast upon them. Our prayers this evening are for the souls of the innocent people whose lives were so cruelly and violently stolen away at Bondi Beach that Sunday evening. We pray with those who knew and loved them, including I know the family of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was farewelled today.
Everyone who has lost the centre of their universe, the love of their life, their pride and joy. We grieve for the light and laughter and strength and comfort that so many have lost. We grieve for everyone denied their future, and we grieve with everyone who would have shared in their happiness. We pray that those being treated for the injuries we recover.
We reflect with gratitude on the bravery and skill of the police and first responders who save lives, and we offer our thanks for the courage and selflessness of everyday Australians. People who in a moment of deadly danger did not hesitate to run to the aid of strangers, to shield, shelter or comfort people fleeing in fear, ordinary people demonstrating extraordinary courage, including the remarkable actions of Ahmed Al Ahmed who put himself in the line of fire, resting a gun away from one of the shooters people he has never met, owe him their lives.
We pray for the souls of Boris and Sofia Gurman and Reuven Morrison, murdered while bravely protecting others. Our nation owes them and all the heroes of Bondi. A profound debt of gratitude, not just for their bravery but also for their example, for reminding us that at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character.
There was pure evil at Bondi last Sunday. Yet even at that moment, we were given proof that evil will never overcome the courage, decency, compassion, and kindness of Australians, which is central to the character of who we are.
Our nation is stronger than the cowards who seek to divide us. The spirit of the country that we have built together will always be greater than those who seek to breach it. We are braver than the people who try to make us afraid. We will not be divided.
We will come together as we are this evening, and we’ll come through this together.
Friends, this sacred place is where I learned about the love and compassion of Christ. I commenced school here in year five, and for the next eight years I was nurtured here as a student, as a boy maturing into a young man and as an altar boy in the church behind us. In the guild of St. Stephen, I was raised to believe in the duty we owe to the vulnerable, not as a question of charity, but as a measure of our common humanity.
When we go in peace today, let us carry the hope of this place in our hearts for those of us celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ in just over one week. Let us live up to his example of love to our neighbours. Let us wrap our arms around the Jewish community and, with our words and deeds, make it clear you are Australian and all Australians stand with you. No matter which faith we worship or whether we have no faith at all, we stand with Jewish Australians.
You have every right to worship and study and work and live in peace and safety. You have every right to be proud of who you are and proud of the remarkable contribution that your community has made to Sydney and to modern Australia over generations.
Sunday was a dark day for our nation. Tonight, as we illuminate this cathedral, let us ensure that Australia remains a land of light, a nation blessed and enriched and strengthened and inspired by every faith. And in the days ahead, may your faith comfort you. May it sustain you, may it lift you up, and surround you with the love and nurture of others.
Premier Chris Minns: ‘Our instinct as Australians is to stand by our mates to look after one another and to leave no one behind’
Prime Minister, Governor Beasley, Archbishop Fisher, Rabbi Elton, members of the diplomatic Corps, including Ambassador Maimon, religious leaders, in particular, President of the Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip. We were meant to gather here tonight to celebrate Christmas, A season that speaks to Christians of joy, of hope, and of light entering the world. Unfortunately, instead, we come together here at the beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral in a different spirit, united in grief, but also in love. To stand alongside the Jewish community of New South Wales and to say clearly and without hesitation that you are not alone.
In the Catholic tradition, places like this cathedral exist not just for celebrations, but for moments like this. Moments when a community gathers for one another to comfort each other, to bear brief together and to affirm the dignity of every human life. Tonight, that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Yesterday, many of us were deeply moved by the words of Rabbi Eli Feldman, who spoke so beautifully about his dear friend, Rabbi Eli Schlanger. The two Elis had studied together as young men. They’d both become rabbis, and Schlanger was like a brother to Feldman.
Eli Schlanger was one of those optimistic people who would celebrate Hanukkah by dancing down the street because he said the best way of fighting antisemitism was to dance. On Sunday night, Rabbi Schlanger was murdered. He was murdered on Bondi Beach for the simple reason that he was a member of the Jewish community.
If Eli Feldman had responded to this evil act with spite or with hatred, I think there’d be a general understanding from most Australians, but instead, on television in front of everybody, he said, “No matter the colour of your skin or what you believe, we are all created in God’s image. Every single human being is created in God’s image. Let us love each other. Let us care about each other.”
If there is anything this moment asks of us, it is reflection on the extraordinary grace shown by Rabbi Feldman, and so many religious leaders of the Jewish faith, who we call our neighbours and our friends. Reflect on their values, the values that bind us together as a society.
For those of us who are not Jewish, moments like this remind us of the deep responsibility that we have to listen, to learn, and to stand alongside a community whose history reflects resilience, courage, and faith, but also persecution. Here in Australia, we believe, and we must continue to prove that people have a fundamental right to be able to live openly, practise their faith freely and feel safe doing it.
That promise matters, and it’s one we recommit to tonight. The purpose of this attack was to frighten us and to isolate us. It was designed to divide Australian against Australian, but standing here together across faiths and backgrounds, it’s clear that it will fail. It will fail because of the strength of the Jewish people. It will fail because of the strength of Australians, a strength shaped by our shared values, our respect for faith, and an unbreakable commitment to one another. Whether we know each other or not.
The truth is, our instinct as Australians is to stand by our mates to look after one another and to leave no one behind. And when that instinct is tested, it reveals itself not in speeches, but in brave and often selfless acts. In recent days, we’ve seen lifesavers run barefoot towards danger, long lines form around blood banks across the country, quiet acts of humanity that speak far louder than any words.
As we approach Christmas, a season that calls Christians to joy and peace, we do so with heavy hearts this year, but I hope not without hope now. I think it would be reasonable that hope could seem a distant prospect after the last few days. Some may even call a return to happiness and unity a miracle. And the truth is, we’ve got every reason for despair at the moment, but perhaps we can take some encouragement and comfort from our Jewish friends. As David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, said, “In the Middle East, in order to be a realist, you must believe in a miracle,” so don’t give up on hope. Rabbi Sacks once said, “To be a Jew is to be an agent of hope in a world serially threatened by despair.” Ours is a sustained struggle against the world that is, in the name of the world that could be. should be, but is not yet. Rabbi Eli Schlanger was buried today. He left a message just weeks ago for all of us, not knowing that it would sustain us after his passing, and we’ve been ripped apart. He said, “May we pray for peace within our hearts and peace all over the world.”
Rabbi Ben Elton: ‘Over the past two years, antisemitism in Australia has run riot. It has not been checked, it has not been stopped. Whatever has been done has been insufficient. On Sunday evening, that became an unarguable fact.’
I want to thank the Archbishop, Dean and Cathedral staff who have invited us here this evening. My fellow faith leaders, the Prime Minister and Premier, and everyone who has gathered to show their solidarity with the Jewish community. Our grief is limitless and unbearable. The grief of the Jewish community, and I hope and believe of other communities too.
15 precious souls. A 10-year-old girl called Matilda, a heartbreakingly iconic Australian name, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, fathers of small children, old and young, all beloved, all worlds in themselves and more names that are yet to emerge.
Today, I attended two funerals. I have performed many funerals in my years as a rabbi, and I have never known anything like it. Uncontrolled, uncontrollable, wailing, all around. There is no deeper human tragedy than the one we are witnessing now, and all the result of human choice and human evil.
Jeremiah knew what we are experiencing today: “Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes, a fountain of tears that I might weep day and night for the slaying of the daughter of my people.”
There are many more days of weeping ahead. Only a few of the dead are buried. The process of mourning is only just beginning, and the healing of broken bodies and broken spirits is still a far distant prospect.
It is proper that I acknowledge that, along with many other members of the Jewish community, I have been overwhelmed by the demonstrations of solidarity that have come to me from people of many faiths since Sunday evening. From neighbours and from leaders at every level. It is truly heartwarming to know that you stand with us and against violence and hatred.
As I sat with faith leaders and [NSW] Minister [for Multiculturalism, Stephen] Kamper on Monday morning, I saw many in tears, unable to speak.
Let us be clear, this was an attack upon Jews that is first and foremost and must never be forgotten. We will never forget the non-Jewish victims who were murdered and those who are recovering from injuries, including police officers who walked towards the danger.
Words cannot express our admiration for those who were killed as they confronted the gunman. And for Ahmed Al Ahmed, who removed the terrorist’s weapon and is now in hospital as a result of his heroic actions, none of that should be obscured, and equally let no one obscure the antisemitism, pure and simple, that this represents and expresses.
Over the past two years, antisemitism in Australia has run riot. It has not been checked, it has not been stopped. Whatever has been done has been insufficient. On Sunday evening, that became an unarguable fact.
The time for evading or muddying the issue is over. The time for distracting, for gaslighting, for manufacturing complexity where it does not exist is over. We can have all the political disagreements in the world, and we should be able to express them reasonably. But hateful rhetoric has to stop. Demonisation has to stop. Pandering to movements that want to kill every Jew everywhere has to stop.
It falls to all leaders of all groups and communities to set an example and to call out when their example is not followed. Let no one deny what “Globalise the intifada” means. It means Jewish blood on the sounds of Bondi Beach.
How has it come to this in our beautiful country, beautiful in its nature and its people, a place some of us have chosen to make our home and raise our families, and a place where some of us were lucky enough to be born? How can we reclaim the decent Australia we thought was unbreakable?
Preventing a repetition, God forbid, of this atrocity will require wisdom and effort. There are no simple or easy solutions. This event can’t be blamed on lax gun control, even though it is always worth examining who can have access to firearms. It will not be stopped by putting the Jewish community behind higher walls or increasing security at events. Even though we do need, and we should be given, additional security infrastructure and human protection, the answer cannot be ghettos for our own protection. That is both impractical and immoral.
The most difficult issue and deepest root cause is the hateful and murderous attitudes towards Jews that have, in recent times, come to infest our society. Tackling that is a long-term problem, but the work must begin now. There is a report on dealing with this problem from the special antisemitism envoy. It exists, and now there must be an explicit, direct response and action.
The first duty of a state is to defend its citizens, all its citizens, including its Jewish citizens. I have no doubt, I have no doubt that our political leaders believe that as much as I do. But now we must see concrete actions being taken.
The weeping has only just begun. There are so many funerals still to come. Children mourning their parents and parents mourning their children. And it is not just the Jewish community that is in mourning. Our entire country is in mourning, and now is the time for a national soul-searching. Let this gathering say that enough is enough, and let each of us take personal responsibility to do whatever we can and urge whoever we can reach to root out this cancer in our society, the murderous cancer of antisemitism and the hateful ideologies that spawn it. And to do that once and for all.
Prayer is insufficient because God wants our actions and not just our prayers, but prayer is also indispensable. So please join me as I pray, and we conclude our gathering.
Almighty God, we assemble together in grief … to mourn the 15 precious souls murdered in hate and violence last Sunday evening. May they be sheltered forever in your divine presence and in the hearts of their loved ones. Send healing to those injured in body and in soul, civilians and police, heroes and survivors.
We thank you for those who stood in the face of death to challenge and overcome the perpetrators of this terrible deed. We thank you for all those who have helped and supported us since this atrocity and will for many months and years to come.
We recommit ourselves to working together with all people of goodwill to rebuild our peaceful and harmonious society, and to recreate Australia at its best. We will not allow evil to triumph. We will not let hatred win.
Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil for you with us. Your rod and your staff give us comfort. May God who makes peace in high places make peace for us all now and forever. Amen. Amen.
Image Credit: Nine facebook