Sheltering in Place in Sydney: What AJC's Moshe Lencer Witnessed at Bondi Beach the Day After an Antisemitic Massacre

AJC Director of Campus Affairs Moshe Lencer was on his first visit to Australia when the unimaginable happened. Hours after he enjoyed the sun at Sydney's Bondi Beach, it became the site of an antisemitic terrorist attack, leaving 15 people, including a child and a Holocaust survivor, dead. Moshe recounts attending a student leadership shabbaton, in partnership with Australia's Union for Jewish Students (AUJS), and the immediate aftermath on the ground—a mix of helplessness and resolve—and the powerful scene at Bondi Beach the following day, as Jews and non-Jews gathered to mourn and show solidarity. Reflecting on the rise of antisemitism in Australia, Moshe—speaking as an outsider to the community—underscores the guiding principle of Australian Jews at this moment: "If we stop celebrating Jewish identity, it means they won." Read Full Transcript : https://www.ajc.org/news/podcast/ajcs-asia-pacific-institute-on-how-australias-government-ignored-the-warning-signs-before Resources: - What To Know About the Antisemitic Terror Attack in Sydney -Take action: Urgent: Confirm U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Listen – AJC Podcasts: - Architects of Peace - The Forgotten Exodus - People of the Pod Follow People of the Pod on your favorite podcast app, and learn more at AJC.org/PeopleofthePod You can reach us at: peopleofthepod@ajc.org If you've appreciated this episode, please be sure to tell your friends, and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Transcript of the Interview: Manya Brachear Pashman: As the sun began to set in Australia on Sunday, more than 1000 gathered on Bondi Beach in Sydney to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah by the Sea, but at about 6p m, terrorists fired into the crowd, killing at least 15 and wounding dozens more. Students with the Australasian union of Jewish students had just wrapped up a Shaba tone before they headed to Bondi Beach and our own AJC, Director of Campus affairs, Moshe Lencer, whom we affectionately call Moosh, was there with him shortly before the attack, and he's with us now. Moosh, welcome to people of the pod. Moshe Lencer: Thank you for having me. Manya Brachear Pashman: Well, I wish it were under very different circumstances. How are you doing and how are the students doing that you are spending time with there? Moshe Lencer: It's a wonderful question, and the more I think about it, the less I have a clear answer. It's a combination of helplessness, and in the same time, desire towards hope and trying to figure how to move through this very dark time. The last 24 hours, a little bit more than that have been very interesting is this has been my first time ever in Australia. I landed here Friday morning. Right now, for context, it's Monday night, and until about 6pm on Sunday, it was a very pleasant, positive experience, filled with moments of Jewish pride and joy. The reason I'm in Australia, even in this moment, is time, is AJC has a partnership with the Austra Asian union of Jewish students known as AJUS. Which is the student organization that focuses on Leadership for Jewish students in Australia and New Zealand. And I was invited to take part in a shabaton that was held just outside of Sydney with student leaders from both Australia and New Zealand. The weekend was filled with laughter and joy and happiness, and we were making edible chanukias before the holiday, we were talking about ways to advocate for what students needs and for what they need. We even finished the day with kayaking, and there was a lot of happiness and a lot of desire, because, as I learned recently, and I should have understood before by being in the southern hemisphere. This is the beginning of summer. This is the first few weeks when people finish the school year and they're enjoying it. They're celebrating. And that's why the dates were chosen. So it's like beautiful and it's sunny, and we were expelled and everything. And as we were about to start celebrating a holiday that's all about our community and resilience, our resilience was tested again, and now as just over a day into it, we're still trying to see what we can do and how to move forward and support the community right now as it's hurting. Manya Brachear Pashman: You were actually at Bondi Beach shortly before the attack. Can you kind of describe the environment and why you were there in the first place? Moshe Lencer: Yeah, of course, as mentioned, we were doing the shabbaton, and the programming ended around 3pm and it's summer. It's the first few days of summer. If you Google, what can you do, or what should you do and see in Sydney, the first few things people will see will be the Opera House, which is, I think, the most iconic place in the city. And then the second thing is go. It says, Go to Bondi Beach. It's such a big piece of the community here and where people go. It's also super close to where most of the Jewish community lives. So we were saying, okay, the shabbaton is done. A lot of the people are now local. What can we do in between? Before people hop on trains and flights and everything? Let's go to Bondi Beach. We all met up at the frozen yogurt location that's very iconic there very that chain itself was very connected to Sydney, and the participants just went there as an unofficial thing. I got there a little bit after just exploring. I said, my first time in Australia, like, Okay, what do I do? I go to Bondai beach. I walked around there. I was seeing this. It's the first week of summer school. Just ended. The beach was packed. It was sunny, beautiful, everything. I don't think there was a person in Sydney that wasn't at the beach yesterday, and I left the beach at around 510, ish, heading towards dinner with the student leaders at the Opera House. Because if I'm already there, I need, I should see everything else. Manya Brachear Pashman: And so why having, having walked that beach, why was there a Hanukkah celebration there? Can you tell our listeners who may not be familiar with who organized it, and why was the first night celebration? Operation scheduled for that, but that Hanukkah by the sea? Moshe Lencer: Yeah, of course, Hanukkah by the Sea was one of several events that were held yesterday by the Jewish community. Here. It had over 2000 people, but and it wasn't the only one. There were many events that were designed to celebrate, to have joy. Hanukkah is a holiday of lights, the community here, the geography here is that for a lot of us, Hanukkah, as a holiday, happens in the cold, in the winter, and this is the beginning of summer. You know, it's summer we go to the beach. I was joking with them that their Christian friends do Christmas in July, just so they can have snow or cold associated with the holiday. And just to think about it, right? So going to the beach, going to the where that's part of their culture, the culture here. So there were other events not even far from it. It was the best way to celebrate it. And Chabad of Bondi is a community that's growing, and it's community. It's beautiful, and it's using different aspects of of the tapestry that is the Jewish community of Sydney. So it's more of like, why not do it here? Why not have it there? It's, you know, it's the most connected to what's going on. It's, would have been surprising if they weren't doing something here. Manya Brachear Pashman: Was there in a giant menorah on the sands of the shore? Or how did they have it set up there? Moshe Lencer: I will be honest that I missed the preparation. But from what I've seen, though, you know, it's Chabad. They bring giant menorahs wherever they go. I even today they brought a giant menorah to light right there, because this is the core of what Chabad is, is to bring the light, to bring the essence of Judaism, where everyone might go. I walked also today by another location that wasn't far, which had another Hanukkah event yesterday with rides and everything. And they still had the hanukkiah there. That also was a huge Hanukkah. It was, there wasn't hiding of what is going on. You know, the people saw the flyer for what was going on. It was very public. There wasn't a feeling that this holiday should be celebrated in closed doors and hidden from the public. Manya Brachear Pashman: So you had mentioned earlier offline that you went back to Bondai Beach with the students that you were there to observe the Shabbaton with. Can you tell me what the scene is the day after? Moshe Lencer: I arrived there today with, with the senior leadership of AJAS who, for context, these are college age students that have tremendous amount of responsibility and leadership and ability. They oversee Jewish students across the whole continent and New Zealand, just to explain. And these are people there in their early 20s, and today, it was very important for them to make sure that we stop by and pay their respects. We have flowers and we want to go and stop at the site. And we weren't the only people with this idea. And what, from everything in my understanding, was a combination of very structured and a very spontaneous situation. People showed up with flowers and stones to mark they were there, and candles and stuffed animals and ways to make sure that the location is not going to be seen as something that isn't important and isn't marked what the horrible scenes was there. We got there, and I would say, there were, let's say about 100-120 sets of flowers. And then we stood there for another hour and a half, and I think it quadrupled, if not more, in that hour and a half. And it was just lines and lines of people. And what was very also noticeable, these were not just Jewish people, not Jewish and just Jewish individuals. I saw people of faith from different religions. I saw people walking with groceries and putting on flowers and heading back. I said, Children, I don't think there's someone in this whole area, and could have been even outside of Sydney that didn't want to stop and pay their respects because of how horrible that's the situation last night was, and how much it hurt the community, the Jewish community, of course, as being a part of the victims, not just the Jewish community that goes to Bondi, but also the community of Sydney. Many dignitaries have visited the sites in the last 24 hours, and. Um, there were several moments of spontaneous singing. There were, it was Hebrew singing, and it was started by different groups in different moments. It was just ways to those standing there to kind of find some silence in it. It was an attempt. And I'm saying an attempt, because I don't think anything can really help but an attempt to try to start processing, and I'm not going to be worried, and I cannot speak to the community itself as because I'm an outsider, I am fortunate enough to be connected to the members here and to those that are really trying to do what they can to continue and to move forward, but it is an outsider seeing something like this actually, there's some beauty and community and very, very dark times, and to know that it's not just the Jewish community helping each other, but It's the whole community here that they're showing up, just shows there might be some, some hope. Manya Brachear Pashman: Was this out of the blue? I mean, in your conversations with people there on the ground, was this shocking? Or have they sensed a slow motion journey to this point? Moshe Lencer: Antisemitism in Australia has been on the rise for a while now. Since October 7, a lot of events have happened, if it's been synagogues that were set on fire, and if it was individuals that would threaten children right outside of their kindergarten, if it was swastikas being spray painted, as I mentioned, the shabbaton started Friday. I landed at 9am on Friday, and I needed to be at our meeting place that was a main synagogue in Sydney at 11am meaning that my time I went through customs, got all my stuff, I just Uber directly there with my luggage. When I got to the synagogue, I was greeted by a security guard who looked at me and he was very confused of why a person he doesn't know stands outside of his synagogue with luggage. The first thing he told me is like, you're not allowed to walk in with luggage into a synagogue in Australia, and I understood exactly why he was saying this. They don't know me. They don't know what's in my luggage. Don't what can come out of my luggage. All of this story to say is that there, there is this tension. And I said it to him, and I said it when I walked in it I really was appreciative that would everything the security guard, no matter what, no matter what I was saying that was like, You're gonna open your luggage, I'm gonna go through everything you have to make sure that you're no matter we're gonna tell me, I'm making sure that there's nothing here that can harm this community. So the people are taking their job seriously with that being said, Australia as a whole has been lucky to never have events like this, not just on the antisemitism. They have never had this large of a terrorist attack and its soil. So it's one of those they're preparing to for what they know, not what they thought would ever be gun laws on like the US are a lot more stricter there. It's very uncommon to even have weapons so easily. I'm not going to say that people saw it specifically coming. They felt like there is a slow simmer of events. Something's going to happen. No one thought this scale of horrible event can happen, because there was never a scale of this horrible event to a point where it's not a culture like the Jewish community in the US that checks its media and the updates every five minutes that three four hours after event yesterday in downtown Sydney, people were not even aware what was going on in other places, because what they didn't have to check the news. The Jewish community, of course, did. We were told to shelter in places. Everything happened. But if you were someone that is not connected Jewish community in Sydney, and you were in downtown Sydney, and which is in a different part by the Opera House, there's a huge chance you had no it was going on because you didn't need to, because you didn't think that you didn't think that you need to think that something's going to happen. And then moving forward to today, the whole feeling shifted. I got into an Uber that took me to the area, and his first reaction was, I really hope nobody's going to try to shoot you without even knowing I'm Jewish or not, he just like all he knows it was that there was a horrible attack last night in that geographical area. Manya Brachear Pashman: So it's kind of shocking that you landed at 9am and by 11am you were already introduced to the precautions. That they took and the severity with which they with which they took them, and then not even 48 hours later, the worst. What can we do here in the United States or anywhere in the world where people might be listening to this podcast? What can we do to bring comfort, to bring solace, to show support that really will make a difference. Moshe Lencer: Everything I've noticed, I'll say that out of what I've been noticing. And then AJUS has actually just launched about 45 minutes ago, a new initiative that they're asking the community, and when I say in community, I mean the Jewish community at large around the world, to share how they're spreading light right now and this holiday, send videos and pictures of lighting the menorah. It's already the second night of Hanukkah. Here it's right now, 10:34pm on Monday, while the day is only starting in the US. So they're, you know, they're far ahead at 16 hour difference. They want to see, they want to feel that the community and the Jewish pride and joy is still going through this. They're the community as it's hurting and it's trying to recover from this, is also trying to show that there is still a vibrant Jewish community, because at the core of this event is to have us hide and is to have us stop being who we are, and to have an if we stop celebrating Jewish identity means they won. They mean that they got exactly what they wanted by actively attacking us and killing us. They're also stopping us from continuing to be the community that we want to be. So that's one thing. The other thing we're that I am seeing again, I don't want to speak for the community itself. I'm just saying from my experiences with it is to make sure that if you have any interaction with decision makers, if it's in Australia, or diplomats that represent Australia around the world, or even in your own country, that can make any type of public comments. As I said, it was simmering for a while, this didn't show up out of nothing. They didn't expect this horrible thing because, like I said, there was no precedent. But it didn't mean they weren't saying something's going to happen. Australia understood something's going on. But I think right now, what we need to do is putting some pressure to make sure that they're taking a lot more seriously here in Australia, they're taking it a lot more seriously around the world that after two years, when we were saying, this is not just about what they are using, the word of Israel is the fault. We're not against the Jews. It is. It is against the Jews. The lighting of a Hanukkah and Sydney, well, there's a cease fire. Has nothing to do with Israel has all to do with Jewish identity and community, and that's what we need right now to make sure that, you know, we're speaking out. We're making sure that elected officials, those that can make difference, are making a difference. Manya Brachear Pashman: You talked about the past two years that there has been a rise of antisemitism since October Seventh. And just a few days after October 7, you also mentioned the Opera House. The Sydney Opera House was illuminated in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag to show solidarity after the terror attack, and yet, there were protesters outside yelling and some yelling antisemitism, and I'm curious if there has been any indication or expression of similar sentiments in the days after this terror attack. Moshe Lencer: From my conversation so far with the community and from everything I saw, at least today at Bondi, it seems like the larger community is right now hurting for the Sydney, its own geographical syndicate community, for the Jewish community within its community, said I saw people Fate of different faiths there, very visibly from others right now, and I don't want to, want to knock on wood, I haven't heard or seen anything with that being said. Sorry, let me track this. I do know this morning, as people were putting down flowers, there were some videos of people wearing kefirs, they were actively trying to explain the connection between the shooting in their beliefs, and were trying to intimidate and interrupt as people were trying to mourn and the site. But it was very anecdotal. I believe was one or two people at most, and that does not represent a much larger thing. Just in comparison, as you mentioned that on October 9 that the bridge area in Sydney saw a protest that had hundreds of people. So it's a very different thing. With that being said, we're only 24 hours into this. Our community knows that sometimes we get a short grace period and then it flips. So I'm hoping that by the time this airs what I am saying won't change. Manya Brachear Pashman: You and me both. Well, you reminded me of the 16 hour time difference. It reminded me that on New Year's Eve, I always tune in to watch the fireworks in Australia, because they're always the first to ring in the new year. And it, to me, is kind of a early first sign of hope for great things to come in the new year, and then I don't want to wait. In other words, I always tune into Australia for that sign of hope and of newness. So I hope that this is I hope that a page turns in Australia for the better, not for the worst. So moosh, thank you very much for joining Moshe Lencer: Thank you for having me.