The recent tragic shooting in Australia at a Hanukkah festival once again has demonstrated to the world the pernicious and evil effects of anit-semitism, which is the world’s oldest form of prejudice.
Anti-semitism may have reached its peak with the Holocaust in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and ‘40s, but it still remains the number one source of hate in the world today.
In the United States, acts of anti-semitism have spiked exponentially in the past 10 years (long predating the war in Gaza). According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 9,354 anti-semitic incidents in 2024, the highest number since it began tracking the data in 1979, representing a 344% increase over the past five years and an 893% increase over the past decade.
The stark nature and depth of anti-semitism in our country was on full display in the August, 2017, white nationalist demonstration in Charlottesville, Virgina, when a group of white supremaciasts marched with candles chanting, “The Jews will not replace us.”
New York City’s Police Commissioner, Jessica Tisch, speaking on Sunday about the shooting in Australia, unequivocally stated the extent of the scourge of anti-semitism: “This is not an isolated incident. 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.”
Every synagogue and temple in our country now has armed security guards, something that would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago.
Up until this past weekend, Bondi Beach in Sydney had been a world-famous destination, known for its surf and long stretch of beautiful beach. But now it will be forever remembered as a place where scores of innocent people were gunned down for one reason and one reason only: They were Jews.