The UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has said his cousin and cousin’s wife “spent fifteen terrifying minutes hiding under a doughnut stand” as gunmen opened fire during the attack at Bondi Beach.
Fifteen people have been killed – including a 10-year-old girl – in an attack by the two gunmen targeting a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on the beach in Sydney.
Speaking on the BBC Radio Four Today programme, Rabbi Mirvis said one of the key messages of Hanukkah is that Jews around the world declare “we belong, and we will not hide who we are”, but “that declaration was met with murderous hatred” at Sunday’s mass shooting.
The causes of “toxic antisemitism” must be addressed, he said.
Rabbi Mirvis called for people to stand together “against the normalised rhetoric that demonises Jews and the only Jewish State”.
At the Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach, Jewish people were “targeted for the simple act of gathering together, visibly and peacefully, as Jews”, he said.
The right of Jewish communities to gather safely and publicly is a “test of the moral health of any society”.
“Jews have lived with security concerns for as long as I can remember, but the fact that today every public Jewish gathering must be weighed for risk is a sign of something deeply wrong.”
A society in which a minority group have to “calculate whether it is safe to be seen together in public” is a society that is “failing all of its citizens”.
The shooting began at around 18:47 local time (07:47 GMT) on Sunday as around a thousand people were said to be attending a public event organised by Jewish centre Chabad of Bondi.
Verified videos showed hundreds of people fleeing the beach, screaming and running as a volley of gunshots rang out.
The ages of the victims range from 10 to 87 years old, and include two rabbis and a Holocaust survivor.
The two gunmen have been named in local media as 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who died at the scene, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, who is in hospital in a critical condition.
The chief rabbi told the Today programme that the festival of Hanukkah commemorates the defiance of a small band of Jews some 2,150 years ago who were targeted by Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes. He denied them the right to openly practise their faith, demanding conversion on pain of death.
The message of the festival is about “their refusal to be intimidated or erased”.
“Judaism must never be driven into the shadows,” Rabbi Mirvis said.
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