Dear John, we are devastated by today’s antisemitic terrorist attack during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, where at least 15 people were murdered and many wounded. We mourn the killing of Chabad emissary Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a young girl, a Holocaust Survivor and all of the victims of this evil and violent act of antisemitism.

This attack on the first night of Hanukkah is an assault on the Jewish people, but Jewish communities must not allow fear to extinguish the light.

ADL stands in unwavering solidarity with the Australian Jewish community during this painful time as at least 15 people were murdered as they celebrated together. Dozens were wounded. These are not numbers or statistics — they are parents, children, siblings, friends whose lives were stolen. This attack needs to be recognized as part of the pattern of anti-Jewish intimidation and hate that we have seen on the rise — not just in Sydney, Australia but in deadly violence in Pittsburgh, Washington DC, Boulder, Manchester and around the world.

ADL swiftly reached out to our partners in the Australian community, ECAJ, to provide support and help with the response. We must respond with action: holding perpetrators accountable, strengthening security for Jewish communities worldwide, and confronting antisemitism wherever it emerges. Governments must combat antisemitism directly or this will continue to happen. And leaders need to lead — calling out anti-Jewish incitement whenever and wherever it happens.

Just last week, the J7 Coalition — representing the seven largest Jewish communities worldwide — convened in Australia amid a fivefold rise in antisemitic incidents over the past year, and today the coalition issued a statement in response to the attack.