Quick Take
Local celebrants of Hanukkah gathered on Sunday night in downtown Santa Cruz for the first night of the joyous Jewish holiday. But their minds were on the senseless killing of Hanukkah celebrants half a world away, in Sydney, Australia.
It is the sharpest of tragic ironies. For Jews around the world, the attack and murder of Hanukkah celebrants on a beach in Sydney, Australia, could mean that, for years to come, this horrifying mass killing will be forever associated with a holiday of joy.
A father and son are believed to have targeted a gathering celebrating the first night of Hanukkah on Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday. The attack led to 16 deaths, with victims ranging in age from 10 to 87, as well as 43 injuries, making it the second-deadliest mass shooting in Australian history. The country’s prime minister called it a deliberate attack on Jewish people.
In Santa Cruz on Sunday evening, congregants from Temple Beth El in Aptos and allies gathered at city hall to light the community menorah and welcome Hanukkah, just as they have done for several years.
“When I got up [Sunday morning,] and saw what had happened,” said TBE’s Rabbi Paula Marcus, “it was the first time I ever felt nervous about our gathering at city hall for the first night of Hanukkah. I had never felt that before.”
The gathering, she said, went ahead without incident. But it brought an acute degree of mourning and shock to the celebration of one of the most joyous holidays on the Jewish calendar. The event was also attended by Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley and other elected officials.
“I think some people showed up just because of what happened,” said Marcus, “and because they felt the need to be in community with other Jews, to show that we’re not afraid. We might have all felt a little nervous doing this, but we’re not going to retreat.”
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that at least one of the two men who carried out the Bondi Beach attack has been linked to extremist ideology and the Islamic State group. But Marcus instead stressed the story of 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, who is shown on video jumping one of the shooters from behind and disarming him.
“One thing that cannot be overlooked that is really important right now,” she said, “is that a Muslim man risked his life to disarm the shooter. We really have to lift up the fact that this man did this, and literally saved lives by doing this, which comes from a place of shared humanity.”
The Bondi Beach killings have already been overshadowed in the news cycle by other tragedies, the mass shooting at Brown University and the killing of director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele. But, said Marcus, American Jews have felt vulnerable to violence in recent years, especially since the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh in 2018.
“This didn’t quite feel like Pittsburgh,” she said, “because it didn’t happen in a synagogue, and it didn’t happen in this country. But we know the potential is there. When something like this happens and when you see so much white nationalism online, it just raises the intergenerational trauma that all Jews feel.”
Despite the tragedy in Australia, Temple Beth El will continue with its celebration of Hanukkah, which includes a dinner and “Rock of Ages” Shabbat service on Friday at the temple in Aptos. In reflecting on the shooting, Marcus evoked the traditional story of Hanukkah, which focuses on the rededication of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem after it was desecrated by the Syrian king. Legend has it that a small amount of lamp oil kept the menorah lit for eight days, widely considered to be a miracle.
“[Hanukkah] is a celebration of freedom and miracles and liberation,” said Marcus. “Maybe that’s why [the Sydney shooters] chose it. But we have to stand firmly and say, ‘Nope, we’re not going to let that stop us.’ The temple was desecrated. And they had the courage and the faith to light the candelabra, even though there is so little oil. It was a miracle. And miracles don’t just happen. People make them happen. And the miracle of this man [Ahmed] stepping forward in a moment of such terror has to be the message that you take away this Hanukkah.”
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