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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/17/bondi-beach-terrorist-attack-hanukkah-australia/
Where Are Mass Protests in Defense of Jews under Attack?
(Washington Post) Alon Meltzer - On Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent two hours guarding the bodies of murdered Jews. That came after hours of hiding and sheltering, after being separated from our children during lockdowns, after learning of friends who had been killed and classmates who had been wounded. All of this for the crime of being Jewish. For the past two years, our community has lived with a rising torrent of antisemitism. For months, communal leaders warned governments and authorities that words would one day turn into violence, and violence into bloodshed. On Sunday, that warning was realized. Fifteen of our brothers and sisters were murdered at Bondi Beach. But what of our country and every other country that claims to value pluralism, tolerance and the safety of minorities? In August, an estimated 100,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbor Bridge to protest a conflict thousands of miles away. Many marched out of genuine concern for human suffering. Others marched because of their hatred toward Jews and Israel. Now, 15 Australians have been murdered in our own backyard. Is Jewish blood not worth marching for? Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Action is needed, with a collective demand that antisemitism - in all its forms - is wrong and must stop now. This needs to occur in every country claiming to live by Western democratic values. I fear that such a vision exists only in my imagination. The writer is the associate rabbi of Bondi Mizrachi Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.