Victoria Teplitsky, a retired pediatric care center owner, and her father Semyon, attended the Hanukkah by the Sea event at Bondi Beach on the day of the recent terror attack. She escaped unharmed, but Semyon was shot in the leg.
The Times of Israel reports that Seymon is receiving several operations to piece back the shattered bone. The 87-year-old Holocaust survivor is in good spirits but is angry that something like this was able to happen in Australia. Victoria shared this anger as she publicly urged Australian leadership to do more to help protect Jewish lives.
“It’s not the fact that those two people had a gun. It’s the fact that hatred has been allowed to fester against the Jewish minority in Australia,” she told Reuters in an interview.
“We are angry at our government because it comes from the top, and they should have stood up for our community with strength. And they should have squashed the hatred rather than kind of letting it slide,” she said. “We’ve been ignored. We feel like — are we not Australian enough? Do we not matter to our government?”
Anti-Semitic incidents have been rising in Australia since Hamas launched its October 7 massacre in southern Israel, which sparked the two-year war in Gaza. A rise in such incidents over the past 16 months prompted the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declare that anti-Semitism was his top priority in terms of threat. Authorities have called Sunday’s shooting an anti-Semitic terrorist attack.
Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon echoed Victoria’s words, saying that Jewish Australians often must worship behind closed doors and with the security of CCTV and guards. Victoria also referred to the 2024 Melbourne arson attack on a synagogue – no one was killed, though very little was done afterwards.
The Jewish population of Australia is just under 100,000. The community saw significant growth after World War II. Semyon was one of those Jews who came to Australia at that time to start a new life.
The Bondi Beach terror attack that left 15 dead and 28 wounded is one of the most significant attacks on Jews outside of Israel since October 7. It’s also the result of years of rising anti-Semitism in the country that has gone unchecked. The Fellowship and our generous supporters continue to pray for the families and victims of this tragedy, and that the world will take a bold stand against anti-Semitism.