Bondi’s Double Wound: From Stabbings to Synagogue Shooting, Australia Grapples with Shattered Safety

By Suraj Karowa and Tiffanie Turnbull Sydney, Australia – December 22, 2025

There’s been an outpouring of support from the community – but tension remains

As the final Hanukkah candles flicker out, Bondi Beach – Australia’s sun-kissed emblem of laid-back bliss – stands scarred by two mass tragedies in 18 months. The community that once boasted “everyone knows everyone” now whispers of deja vu, defiance, and deep-seated anger.

A stabbing rampage at Westfield Bondi Junction in April 2024 claimed six lives. Last week’s hail of bullets at a joyous Hanukkah celebration on December 14 killed 15, including a 10-year-old girl with fairy-tale face paint still smudged on her cheeks.

Declared a terror attack, the shooting has reignited debates over antisemitism, gun control, and a national myth of invincibility.

Mary, a 31-year-old British expat who survived the Westfield horror, was blocks away when gunfire erupted at “Chanukah by the Sea.”

Helicopters thumped overhead, sirens wailed, and neighbors fled in panic. “I felt it in my bones – wrong, again,” she told reporters, tears tracing paths down her face.

The first paramedic on scene? The same one who triaged the bleeding in the shopping mall nine months prior. “You wouldn’t fathom this happening twice,” Mary said.

“I tell my family back home how safe it is here. Not anymore.”
Bondi’s grief is intimate. The beachside suburb, with its surf breaks and eclectic vibe, draws dreamers from afar – including Jewish families fleeing persecution.

Funerals for the victims have drawn thousands of mourners this week

Victims spanned generations: Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, 89, whose life began and ended in antisemitic violence; Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the beloved “Bondi Rabbi” and father of five; and Matilda, the bee-loving child whose death inspired a suburb-wide motif of buzzing tributes – stickers on lampposts, balloons at memorials, chalk bees on pavements.

Mayor Will Nemesh, who texted Rabbi Schlanger moments after the shots, captured the ripple: “If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.”

The impact has “reverberated around Australia,” he said, staining the nation’s self-image.

Funerals drew thousands; surfers paddled out in tribute; lifeguards formed human chains on the sand. Yet beneath the solidarity simmers tension – fury at ignored warnings, politicized pain, and fractured trust.

The Jewish community, for whom Bondi has long been a sanctuary, feels the betrayal deepest. Dr. Zac Seidler, a local psychologist and mental health advocate, hasn’t swum in the ocean since.

Ryan Park says healthcare workers will take time to recover from what they’ve seen

“It felt sacrilegious,” he confessed. His Holocaust-survivor grandparents, once reassured of Australia’s haven, now echo pre-war dread: “These are the signs.

I’ve seen this before.” Seidler, who spent years bolstering their faith in humanity, admits, “Now I feel like the fool.”

Antisemitism’s surge predated the attack. The year opened with vandalism and arson at synagogues in Bondi’s orbit.

Pro-Palestinian protests, mostly peaceful, occasionally veered into hate – chants, placards branding Jews as perpetrators. Jewish leaders say warnings fell on deaf ears.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, booed at memorials, faces calls to resign over his government’s recognition of Palestinian statehood – a move echoed by allies like the UK and Canada.

“We told you,” one mourner at the Bondi Pavilion murmured amid wilting flowers. “This was predictable.”

A memorial inside the Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre where six people were stabbed to death in April last year

New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park likened the scenes to “war zones.” First responders treated colleagues’ attackers while haunted by last year’s stabbings.

The Westfield inquiry, delayed by the shooting, probes mental health lapses: the stabber, schizophrenic and off meds, acted in psychosis. Victims’ families demand accountability – referrals for doctors, billions for services.

But Sunday’s terror shifts the lens: two gunmen, their motives probed as Islamist extremism, exposed gaps in intelligence.

A 2019 probe into one suspect lapsed; a federal review launched Sunday. NSW Police, chided by Muslim leaders for ignoring radical preachers, now eye harsher protest laws – banning “hateful” slogans, empowering arrests.

Not all blame lands neatly. Seidler urges nuance: “Hold multiple truths. Fear antisemitic rhetoric, yes – but Muslim Australians have a right to grieve Gaza. Call out the line when crossed.”

Some decry anti-immigrant opportunism; Liberal MP Allegra Spender highlighted a Muslim hero, Ahmed al-Ahmed, who wrestled a gunman bare-handed, saving lives.

Donors gifted him A$2.5 million in hospital. “We wouldn’t have our savior without open doors,” she said.
Anger festers elsewhere.

At the Pavilion’s petal-strewn gates, a woman snapped at a posing VIP: “Photo op in blood.” Media draws ire for live-interviewing shell-shocked survivors, hands still gore-flecked. Arab Australians condemn the attack – and fear reprisals.

Suspicion taints institutions: federal agencies for dropped leads, police for complacency.

Yet defiance endures. Lifeguards sheltered strangers; restaurants hid the hunted; opposition leader Kellie Sloane packed wounds on-scene.

Blood drives snaked for hours; notes read: “Kindness louder than hate.” Sunday’s memorial climaxed with a menorah lighting – the ritual denied the slain.

Ahmed’s father sparked the shamash; rabbis’ orphans followed; lifesavers and medics joined; Matilda’s dad lit the last, voice cracking on her “fountain of joy.”

Rabbi Yehoram Ulman of Bondi Chabad implored: “Returning to normal isn’t enough. Sydney must be a beacon – where decency drowns fear. But only if we act, continuously.”

UK expat Henry Jamieson, beachside during the fusillade, echoed: “Traumatized forever, but we won’t let them win.

Australia’s magic is unique.”
Australia’s gun laws, hailed post-Port Arthur, falter here: illegal weapons smuggled, buybacks announced anew. As flowers wilt and helicopters fade, Bondi heals uneasily.

Two wounds, one community – will unity scar over, or split wider? The nation watches, safety’s illusion in tatters.