Australia - Mass shooting at Bondi Beach Hanukkah Celebration - 14 Dec 2025

[MrsAddick]

Well, this is fresh, this is raw.... and if the worst thing that happens is someone delivers a ham, we should consider ourselves fortunate.

With respect, I think you are missing the point I was making.

How we respond to hateful acts matters. Language and symbolism matters. It all feeds into how we treat each other and respect for cultural difference.

 

[sunspun]

I'm surprised that these men chose Jewish people as their victims. I read in this thread that there are only 117,000 Jews in Australia, which has about 29 million people total. Did I remember those numbers correctly?

If those numbers are right, that seems to me so few Jewish people in the whole country. I wouldn't think anyone would have anything against them. I guess just the very fact that they are a minority group may be enough for some small-minded, radical types.

Do Muslims as a whole have long-standing differences with Jews in particular, more so than with gentiles? That may be an ignorant question, but I'll admit I'm mostly ignorant regarding that history.

Are the Jewish people in Australia concentrated in this area, or are they more dispersed all across the country?

 

[MrsAddick]

I'm surprised that these men chose Jewish people as their victims. I read in this thread that there are only 117,000 Jews in Australia, which has about 29 million people total. Did I remember those numbers correctly?

If those numbers are right, that seems to me so few Jewish people in the whole country. I wouldn't think anyone would have anything against them. I guess just the very fact that they are a minority group may be enough for some small-minded, radical types.

Do Muslims as a whole have long-standing differences with Jews in particular, more so than with gentiles? That may be an ignorant question, but I'll admit I'm mostly ignorant regarding that history.

Are the Jewish people in Australia concentrated in this area, or are they more dispersed all across the country?

I'm surprised that these men chose Jewish people as their victims. I read in this thread that there are only 117,000 Jews in Australia, which has about 29 million people total. Did I remember those numbers correctly?

If those numbers are right, that seems to me so few Jewish people in the whole country. I wouldn't think anyone would have anything against them. I guess just the very fact that they are a minority group may be enough for some small-minded, radical types.

Do Muslims as a whole have long-standing differences with Jews in particular, more so than with gentiles? That may be an ignorant question, but I'll admit I'm mostly ignorant regarding that history.

Are the Jewish people in Australia concentrated in this area, or are they more dispersed all across the country?

Re your first question, I’m not going to attempt to answer that!

Re 2nd question: “Are the Jewish people in Australia concentrated in this area, or are they more dispersed all across the country?”…

Yes, the Jewish population is relatively small in Australia. The majority would live in Sydney (or Melbourne) and mostly concentrated in two main areas: the Eastern Suburbs and upper-north shore. There are a few Jewish denominated schools and multiple synagogues for worship

 

[drsleuth]

I'm surprised that these men chose Jewish people as their victims. I read in this thread that there are only 117,000 Jews in Australia, which has about 29 million people total. Did I remember those numbers correctly?

If those numbers are right, that seems to me so few Jewish people in the whole country. I wouldn't think anyone would have anything against them. I guess just the very fact that they are a minority group may be enough for some small-minded, radical types.

Do Muslims as a whole have long-standing differences with Jews in particular, more so than with gentiles? That may be an ignorant question, but I'll admit I'm mostly ignorant regarding that history.

Are the Jewish people in Australia concentrated in this area, or are they more dispersed all across the country?

From the 2011 census

Australia’s total Jewish population was estimated to be 116,967 in 2021 and constituted 0.46% of the national population which stood at 25.4 million people.
Between 2011 and 2021 the Jewish population grew by 1.2% compared with growth of 19% in the
general population.
The size of the enumerated Jewish population in 2021 was 99,956. However, we found that at least 494
Jewish care home residents were missing from the 2021 Census data (see Appendix 4).


Geography
In 2021, the vast majority (94%) of Australia’s Jewish population lived in its capital cities, more than double the national proportion (40%).
84% of Jews lived in either Melbourne (with an estimated 53,373 people) or Sydney (with an estimated 43,738 people).
The most populous Jewish neighbourhood in Australia in 2021 was Caulfield – North in Melbourne with an estimated 10,884 Jewish people or 9% of all Jews in Australia. 49% of the population of Caulfield – North was Jewish. The adjacent area of Caulfield – South was second most populous area with 8,040 Jewish people.
Among the largest Jewish communities in Australia, between 2011 and 2021, growth was strongest in
Bentleigh East (in Melbourne – Inner South) at 12%.
The greatest decline was seen in St. Ives (in North Sydney) down 27

Lots more info in this link

https://jca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Jewish-Population-of-Australia-Report_2021-Census-1.pdf

 

[drsleuth]

 

[SouthAussie]

If those numbers are right, that seems to me so few Jewish people in the whole country. I wouldn't think anyone would have anything against them. I guess just the very fact that they are a minority group may be enough for some small-minded, radical types.

I posted before about the long running anti-Jewish people ideology of ISIS, and that these men had both pledged allegiance to ISIS.

I didn't want to post any of that ideology here, but had provided a link where you can read about it ... in this post.

It has been reported that they just didn't seem to be attached to any particular ISIS cell (or not that they have found yet).

imo

 

[Marg944]

I visited Bondi this afternoon to pay my respects…. Extremely sad.

There were plenty of Chaplains offering support to all of us….

Everything has been left untouched, but is barricaded off.

Cars have all been locked in the car park, I assume because it is a crime scene….

 

[SouthAussie]

Sounds as though there was a group of off-duty doctors/medical staff helping, too. Who happened to be in the area.
The doctor (cardiologist) that they interviewed says that everyone was doing their best in a very difficult situation.

 

[kiwi50]

I visited Bondi this afternoon to pay my respects…. Extremely sad.


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There were plenty of Chaplains offering support to all of us….

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Everything has been left untouched, but is barricaded off.

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Cars have all been locked in the car park, I assume because it is a crime scene….

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Marg I’m so pleased you were able to go to Bondi, even though I’m a kiwi, I met my husband there, and have such lovely memories of Bondi 50 years ago, lived in Bondi Road.

 

[BreakingNews]

I’m not sure if it’s been discussed but I was wondering what the end game plan was here. Did they intend to get them selves arrested? Take their own lives? Or had they planned a getaway?

I heard on one of the many news reports last night that they intended to kill as many Jewish people as possible. Not sure what they had in mind for themselves.

 

[Marg944]

There is a site to leave condolence messages …..

Bondi Beach attack

Information about the Bondi Beach attack that occurred on Sunday, 14 December 2025.

www.nsw.gov.au

 

[su5ie]

Brave moment Bondi beachgoers attempted to disarm gunmen

Two victims of the Bondi Beach shooting were caught on camera moments before their tragic deaths - as they battled to stop one of the gunmen.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Two victims of the Bondi Beach shooting have been pictured moments before their tragic deaths trying to stop one of the gunmen.
Many people may not know that at the very beginning of the incident, two individuals were among the first to identify the gunman and bravely attempted to disarm him,' a social media user said.
'Tragically, they were shot and killed in the process.

Already linked from other sources above, but this is the Daily Mail's article.
Rest in gentle peace to these two brave heroes.
They obviously saw and understood what was about to go down.

Hopefully we'll learn their names and backstory soon !

No words I can use here, about the perps.
Imo.

I will never commend highly enough the bravery of heroes especially when those hero's are ordinary decent people going about their day .

The contrast is stark between the totally unselfish act of sacrificing their lives for the safety of others and the selfish evil act of the two shooters who wanted to kill and cause as much panic as possible.

Evil exists in this world and I try not to allow it to win by making me so fearful as to shut myself away and never have opportunity to meet the earth angels of this world.

May these heroes and the many who died rip and may their names be held as a reminder to all that there is light even in complete darkness

Edited for spelling mistake

 

[BreakingNews]

This tragedy has brought back memories of visiting the Antarctic. Everyone on board had the same aim. To see Antarctica. For 12 days we were one. No racism, no colour, no bias to anything, no politics, no religion. Was such a great feeling of oneness. World peace.

 

[Ladyotm]