Hanukkah is meant to be a holiday of light and joy, but after the events at Bondi Beach, how can people be sure? Shots were fired. People ran for their lives. Bodies fell to the ground. According to CNN, on Sunday, December 14, the first night of Hanukkah was planned to be celebrated with a public gathering on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The event was meant to be open, welcoming, and joyful, reflecting the values of the holiday. Families, community members, and visitors came together by the shore to mark the beginning of the eight-day festival of light. This was a moment meant for unity and hope rather than fear.

Instead, the festivities were cut short by violence. Panic spread across the beach, and chaos emerged as emergency services attempted to respond quickly to that area. What should have been a peaceful public gathering became a moment of shock and grief, spreading far beyond the shoreline where the shooting occurred.

After the tragedy, anger and heartbreak was deeply felt, especially by Jews worldwide. “The Jewish community is rightly angry today that their years of warnings to governments have not been heeded, that their worst fears have been realized,” Senator James Paterson said. Sixteen lives lost. Sixteen lights extinguished. Sixteen people the world will never get back. The number of people’s lives taken for no reason is impossible to ignore. “A 10-year-old child has been murdered. A Rabbi has been murdered. Someone who survived the Holocaust, who survived Nazi, Germany, who made their home here in Australia, has been murdered,” Paterson said. A child’s future was stolen, and a survivor who believed that Australia could be a safe place for him after unimaginable persecution was killed by the people meant to be his neighbors. 

The fact that this shooting occurred on Hanukkah is not incidental. The holiday itself wraps around a time when Jewish life itself was threatened, a time when practicing the faith openly was dangerous but was done out of necessity. The menorah was lit not because it was a safe thing to do but because it was important to the people. To attack a Hanukkah celebration is to target a lot more than a gathering; it is to challenge the idea that the Jewish people have a right to exist.

Bondi Beach is symbolic for a reason. It is known for being an open, vibrant, beautiful beach, making it the perfect place to hold gatherings. Holding the Hanukkah celebration there was meant to show that the Jewish people are a beautiful community that deserves to belong, that fought to belong. 

Hanukkah teaches that light doesn’t just appear on its own; it is created. It also teaches responsibility, as the community and the government of that community need to work together to ensure that the light isn’t extinguished.

As candles are lit this year, they carry a heavier meaning than just the traditional aspect. This year, the people will honor and respect the countless lives lost over the past two years because of the immense rise of antisemitism. 

If Hanukkah is the holiday of light, then who in this moment is responsible for protecting the light when it is threatened, when it is dimmed, and when it shines? The answer cannot be silence or surprise anymore. This is because when darkness is allowed to spread, the candles being lit aren’t just an act of tradition but an act of courage. 

A light needs to shine in a world of darkness.