Statement of Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA of Solidarity with Australian Jewish Community

 December 14, 2025

The Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA Executive Committee expresses their solidarity with the Australian Jewish community after today’s horrific terror attack on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

We are appalled at reports from survivors that the police on the scene did nothing for at least 10 minutes to try to stop the attack, until a brave good Samaritan disarmed one of the killers.

We join the Australian Jewish community in condemning the Australian government, who has failed to take action against ongoing antisemitic threats and attacks, leading today’s terrorists to believe, apparently correctly, that targeting Jews for terror and murder is acceptable.  

Unfortunately, Australia is not alone.   Today’s attack against Jews observing and celebrating Hanukkah, one of our people’s many cherished traditions, is a predictable result of rampant antisemitism, masquerading as “anti-Zionism” and other memes of the political left and political right, that political and community leaders have not only ignored, but often voiced or encouraged. 

Government leaders and others in the United States and throughout the world today who, among other self-righteous actions and pronouncements, have failed to prevent and punish threats against synagogues and other Jewish institutions; supported boycotts of Israeli performers, academics, and businesses; praised or justified actions of Hamas in starting and prolonging the Gaza war; accused Israel of “genocide” contrary to its actual conduct and all recognized definitions of the term; used, encouraged, or failed to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada;” or engaged in similar slanders against Israel and the Jewish people, the blood of the victims of today’s Bondi Beach massacre is on your hands as well.

On this first day of Hanukkah, the Holocaust survivor and second generation leadership remind the world that despite the hatred of so many, the Jewish people are strong and resilient and will prevail.

Signed:

 Louise Lawrence Israels, President, Washington, D.C.                                   

JOINED BY THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS' FOUNDATION USA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Dena Axelrod, Ft. Lauderdale, FL                  

Magda Bader, Boston, MA  

Esther Finder, Las Vegas, NV                    

Renee Firestone, Los Angeles, CA

Klara Firestone, Los Angeles, CA     

Jay Ipson, Richmond, VA               

Ella Frumkin, Los Angeles, CA                       

Vera Karliner, Miami Beach, FL     

Annette Lantos, Washington, D.C.     

Katrina Lantos Swett, Concord, NH         

Steve Moskovic, New York, NY

Shirley Rubin, Boynton Beach, FL                 

Neal Schaecter, Miami, FL

Charles Srebnick, New York, NY                    

Anita Schuster, Las Vegas, NV

Agnes Vertes, Weston, CT

Sydney Carpel Schaecter, Miami, FL

Thomas Weiss, M.D., Miami Beach, FL