SYDNEY (BP) — The international Jewish community is mourning during its annual Festival of Lights after gunmen killed at least 15 and injured dozens at a Hannukah celebration in Sydney Dec. 14.
In the U.S., a mass shooting Dec. 13 at Brown University that killed two and injured nine is raising suspicion that it was also an antisemitic attack, although law enforcement has not announced a motive.
The Brown University shooting occurred in a Jewish professor’s classroom, and Brown University has a Jewish president and the highest proportion of Jewish students in the Ivy League, with growth among Orthodox Jewish students recently, the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) reported in suggesting a possible antisemitic connection. Police arrested a person of interest, but later released him.
Ric Worshill, executive director of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship, said many Jews are considering safety before attending synagogue, annual celebrations and other public events.
“Jewish people in general, at least in the United States, they’re terrified of going to any public function that’s Jewish related,” Worshill said, comparing the situation to Hispanic and other believers who are avoiding church for fear of being captured by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “In the Jewish faith, a lot of people are not going to synagogue. They’re not going to work. They’re not going to Hanukkah celebrations. They’re not going to the different feast celebrations that they’d normally be going to, because they’re afraid they’re going to be attacked.”
In Sydney, two gunmen police said are a father and son opened fire at the Chabad of Bondi annual Hannukah by the Sea celebration at the Bondi Beach Park Playground just before 7 p.m. Sunday. One of the gunmen, the father, was killed and his son was injured and is in police custody. Those killed include a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old man who had survived the Holocaust. At least three dozen were hospitalized, NBC News reported today.
Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries, encouraged Messianic believers to call on the Lord and comfort others with the hope of Christ, while remaining vigilant amid rising hatred and violence against fellows Jews.
“This year is especially difficult as it is the first Hanukkah after the return of the Israeli hostages, and we have all been geared up to celebrate and to lighten the moments in which we live that have been so dark at times,” Glaser told Baptist Press. “We were hoping that the light of Hanukkah would pierce through the pain we have experienced. And instead, we are left shocked and grieving.”
Glaser expressed solidarity throughout the international Jewish community, and said the violence highlights the community’s vulnerability, whether or not they are Messianic.
“So many have said, ‘What happens to one Jewish community happens to us all.’ So true,” he said. “We are all taking this to heart as we mourn and celebrate Hanukkah at the same time.”
Glaser highlighted Jesus’ words of comfort in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Worshill encouraged Southern Baptist congregations to adopt area synagogues and let the members know the church is praying for them and available to help in any way they can.
“I’d really like to see that,” Worshill said, “because the few places that that’s happening in the United States is having a tremendous effect on the Jewish community that’s being taken care of.”
Antisemitism has been growing in Australia and elsewhere since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, those tracking such hatred have said.
Antisemitic incidents have increased nearly five-fold in Australia since Oct 2023, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said Dec. 3, reporting 1,654 antisemitic attacks from October 2024 – September 2025, in addition to 2,062 incidents nationwide the year before. The number compares to 342 such incidents in Australia annually the previous 10 years.
Marina Rosenberg, Anti-Defamation League senior vice president for international affairs, said the increase in violence should be a warning internationally, ECAJ said in its report.
“What is happening in Australia is not an exception; it should be a wake-up call to communities worldwide,” the ECAJ quoted Rosenberg. “Across North America, Europe and Latin America, Jewish communities are reporting the same pattern of unprecedented harassment, threats and incitement. When synagogues can be firebombed in Melbourne and Jews threatened and attacked in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Toronto, this is a threat not only to Jewish safety but to democratic stability itself.”
Glaser asked Christians to pray for families of the victims, for Chosen People Ministries staff and church planters in Australia, and for Jews globally.
“We must be vigilant, compassionate for the losses of our fellow Jewish people and help our brothers and sister in the Messiah to understand the depth of this growing antisemitism,” Glaser said, “and to do what they can to pray and withstand this growing and dangerous movement.”
He referred to those murdered and injured as Hanukkah heroes.
“Those who perished were simply celebrating a Jewish holiday. They chose to do so in public, which made them vulnerable to attacks,” Glaser said. “I view those who died, were injured and who publicly identified as Jewish in the midst of well-known growing antisemitism as heroes and role models for us and the next generation of Jewish people.”
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