Pittsburgh Jewish community celebrates first day of Hanukkah, amid shadow of deadly attack in Sydney

PITTSBURGH — On Sunday, members of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community celebrated the first day of Hanukkah.

With the celebration also came the news about a deadly attack on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

According to the Associated Press, two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people, including a child. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it an attack of antisemitic terrorism.

One of the gunmen was fatally shot by police. The other was arrested, but was last said to be in critical condition.

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The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh issued a statement standing in solidarity with the Australian Jewish community.

This attack is the deadliest one in the diaspora since the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, the Jewish Federation says. It’s also the deadliest shooting in Australia in almost three decades.

“This shooting was a deliberate act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community in Sydney as they celebrated the first night of Chanukah, and it must be loudly and clearly called out as antisemitism,” the Jewish Federation’s statement reads in part.

The attack took place as hundreds gathered for Chanukah by the Sea. The Jewish Federation explains that Chanukah is one of the “most visible and recognizable celebrations for Jews worldwide.”

“Targeting the Jewish community on this sacred occasion is nothing short of horrific,” the statement continues.

Channel 11 reporter Christine D’Antonio spoke with Jeff Finkelstein, CEO of the Jewish Federation, about the horror on Bondi Beach.

The attack comes a little over seven years after 11 members of the Jewish community were killed while worshiping at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

Finkelstein says the beginning of Hanukkah is supposed to be a time of light and joy, and now the community is mourning the lives of those who were killed.

“It’s OK to disagree with others,” Finkelstein said. “It’s not OK to be disagreeable, and especially to this kind of extreme. This violence has to end. I would like to say that all hatred should end, but I don’t know if we’ll ever rid the world of hate. We should try to, but we need to rid the world of violence.”

During a Hanukkah celebration in Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood, Jewish leaders encouraged the community to be the light, even with so much darkness.

“We are devastated and at the same time determined to keep on going, keep on spreading light,” Chabad of Greenfield Yitzchak Goldwasser said.

“One of the blessings of being part of the Jewish people as a peoplehood is that, in these moments, we are one family, and we stand together in the tragedy and the mourning,” Hillel Jewish University Center Executive Director Dan Marcus said.

Sen. John Fetterman was on hand for the event in Greenfield.

“I can’t imagine what folks here in the Jewish community in Pittsburgh and across the nation must feel after that tragedy,” Fetterman said.

“This absolutely speaks to the resilience of the Jewish people because, after the attack in Australia on the first night of Hanukkah, look at us out here. Everyone is still out here, no matter how cold it is, we’re all here,” Jewish community member Sheina Marcus said.

Sunday was Sheina Marcus’s Hebrew birthday, and she said nothing was going to stop her from getting to the celebration in Greenfield.

“I couldn’t get my car out of the snow. I was determined to get here no matter what, so I started walking. It was so cold, and then I see a car with a menorah on top, and I’m like, wait up! So I got a ride here, and I’m grateful for that.”

Jewish leaders say that, even in the face of horror, it’s important for the community to keep coming together and remain strong.

The Jewish Federation also shared a statement from Gefsky Scholar and Australian native Rabbi Danny Schiff. It reads:

How fervently we prayed that Pittsburgh’s mass murder of Jews who were engaged in bringing light to the world would be the last.

It was not to be.

Time and time again, around the world, Jews continue to be targeted.

And now Bondi.

As horrendous scenes of Jewish death and destruction flood in, we must again absorb the unbearable: that another terrible blood-soaked day of fatalities, injuries, grief, and shattered families has been added to the historic pain shared by Jews everywhere.

To my family, colleagues, and friends in the terrorized Sydney Jewish community: we wrap you in our tender embrace at this hour of deepest darkness for us all.

To everyone else:

Know this: there is no society that is freer than Australia. Australia is far less troubled by polarization and extremism than almost anywhere else. If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. The enemies of the Jewish people have clearly been greatly emboldened, and the struggle against them will not soon be over.

And know this as well:

In Pittsburgh, they came to desecrate the Shabbat with heartless cruelty. In Israel, they came to violate Simchat Torah in the most appalling and gruesome way imaginable. In Manchester, they came with deadly violence to despoil the holiness of Yom Kippur. And in Sydney, they came to defile Chanukah on a vicious evening of slaughter. We have been mercilessly attacked on our most solemn days, pitilessly brutalized in our houses of worship, and unsparingly savaged in our own homeland…

But we shall never stop being Jews committed to our Judaism.

And the Maccabean spirit that ensured that those devoted to the good fight would prevail – that spirit will remain our guiding light.

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