The New Yorker:

A conversation about the country’s unique Jewish community and rising levels of antisemitism.

By Isaac Chotiner

On Sunday, two gunmen killed at least fifteen people at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, in an attack that targeted the country’s Jewish community as it began its celebration of Hanukkah. At least forty more were wounded. The gunmen were father and son; the younger man is in custody and in critical condition, and the older man was killed. The gathering at Bondi Beach had been organized by Chabad, a branch of Orthodox Judaism that holds cultural and religious events around the world. Australia, like a number of countries, has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years, particularly since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, and the ensuing war in Gaza.

I spoke by phone on Sunday with Michael Visontay, the commissioning editor of the Jewish Independent, which is based in Australia, and the author of the book “Noble Fragments.” Our conversation about the attack, the history of the Australian Jewish community, and the rise of antisemitism in Australia, is below.

I read this morning that Australia had a higher proportion of Holocaust survivors than any other country except Israel. What can you tell us about the Jewish community in Australia?

That’s absolutely true, and it is central to the identity and the ethos of the Jewish community in Australia, because it means that, as the generations have gone on, the sensibility and the sensitivity within the community to the threats of antisemitism, of prejudice, and of the echoes of the Holocaust from the Second World War, are much more pronounced here than they are virtually anywhere else. In America, there is a much more diverse array of Jews and of affiliations—there’s a large contingent of Reform Jews, and Jews of all sorts of different backgrounds. Whereas, in Australia, we are largely Holocaust-survivor stock, my own family included, and that has shaped our cultural and religious antennas very, very strongly.

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