‘The feeling of being under siege’: US rabbis react to Bondi Beach attack in Sydney

NEW YORK – In Montana and Maine, in Houston and Chicago, in Schenectady, New York, and snowy Manhattan, rabbis awoke on Dec 14 and reached for their phones, only to learn of an attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney
that left at least 15 people dead.

With the first evening of the holiday still approaching in the United States, they were left to determine how to respond, both spiritually and practically, to violence that several said was shocking – but not particularly surprising.

“It’s not a new thing to wake up and read stories like this. It feels almost normalised,” said Rabbi Rachel Simmons, 38, of Temple Beth El in Portland, Maine, who said preparations were already under way to protect a communitywide Hanukkah party later this week.

“We will definitely have armed guards, and we’ve spoken with local police about increasing their presence.”

Anti-Semitic hate crimes have risen swiftly in the US since 2021.

Attacks in Boulder, Colorado
, and Washington
in 2025
stoked anxiety among Jews nationwide, and the violence in Australia seemed likely to escalate the tension.

By noon on Dec 14, many rabbis contacted by The New York Times had communicated with congregants, sending messages of sadness and hope, and drawing connections between the attack and Hanukkah, a holiday that celebrates the Jewish people’s resilience in the face of adversity.

Rabbi Rafi Spitzer, 35, of Schenectady, was up late on Dec 13 when he learnt the news. His wife was set to return from a week-long trip, and at 11.30pm, the rabbi was cleaning the kitchen, where dishes had piled up over the course of the Shabbat holiday.

“It’s hard to ignore the feeling of being under siege,” Rabbi Spitzer said. His Conservative synagogue, Congregation Agudat Achim, is already in touch with local law enforcement officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation about its scheduled holiday events.

“We already had a security plan that was more extensive than anything we’d done before because it already was the case that that felt necessary,” he said.

Rabbi Robbie Schaefer of the Har Shalom synagogue in Missoula, Montana, expressed concern about his own slate of holiday events, though he said there would be an armed guard at the synagogue, as there is every time his congregation gathers.

“Given the small size of the community and the small size of the town, we don’t have much of an option to increase security on short notice,” he said.

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference on the afternoon of Dec 14 that there would be increased security for Hanukkah-related gatherings in the city.

“This is not an isolated incident,” she said of the Australia attack.

“It is part of a wider assault on Jewish life. Jewish communities are being forced to confront a threat that is persistent, adaptive and, as evidenced yet again today, global in scope.”

Several rabbis were eager to talk about the broader political context of the attack, connecting it to Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, which over the course of two years has ignited fierce protest around the world.

Some rabbis said the political atmosphere in the US, and the increasing acceptance of slogans that they saw as calling for the destruction of Israel, had paved the way for attacks like the one at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, 66, of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a reform congregation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said that while criticism of Israel was entirely legitimate, calls for abolishing the Jewish state had led to “increased hostility towards Jews and Jewish institutions”.

“We have to agree on certain basic red lines,” he said. “We cannot normalise and tolerate the destruction of Israel.”

But others urged caution and careful analysis when asked to situate the attack in a broader global context.

Rabbi Daniel Kirzane, 40, who leads the reform synagogue of KAM Isaiah Israel in the Hyde Park neighbourhood of Chicago, said that while there was often a temptation to paint all anti-Semitic acts as fundamentally similar, there were key differences that could lead to broader understanding.

He noted, for example, that earlier in 2025, Australia accused Iran of directing arson attacks on Jewish institutions in the country.

State-sponsored anti-Semitism, he said, was a world away from what he experienced “in diverse, sleepy Hyde Park”, where in 2025 there have been several instances of anti-Jewish graffiti that have demanded a very different response.

KAM Isaiah Israel was scheduled to hold a rededication ceremony on the evening of Dec 14 for its newly restored sanctuary. Four hundred people had registered to attend, and the synagogue had already planned to have heightened security and a major police presence.

“I wonder if some people will choose not to come, and I wonder if some people will make a point to come,” Rabbi Kirzane said.

Almost every rabbi interviewed dwelt on the resonance between the attack and Hanukkah itself, and emphasised the importance of celebrating the Jewish people, even in dark times.

Rabbi Sarah Fort, at Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, which she said was the largest Conservative synagogue in the country, said that the holiday was a time when “we have to be publicly Jewish”.

“We are commanded to bring light to the darkness,” she said. “And the time when Jews feel most scared to do so is a time like now.” NYTIMES