A family reacts during a menorah lighting ceremony at a floral memorial for victims of Sunday’s shooting, at the Bondi Pavilion on Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. Mark Baker/AP

Two men, a father and a son, 50 and 24 years, engaged in an unprovoked attack against a Jewish gathering on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia yesterday. The latest news reports on the internet say at least 15 were killed and 40 or more injured, but I had seen on network news that the death toll had reached 18. The Jewish community had gathered at Archer Park near Bondi Beach to participate in a celebration in anticipation of Hanukkah, which began today. Several people are in critical condition in local hospitals, while others are in stable condition. Among those killed were a Holocaust survivor, two rabbis, a ten-year-old girl, and an employee of NBCUniversal.

The carnage would undoubtedly be worse except for the extreme heroism of Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Muslim immigrant from Syria who moved to Australia in 2006 and became a naturalized citizen in 2022. As can be seen in a video of the moment, al-Ahmed is seen crouching behind a car until he finds the moment to subdue one of the attackers. However, al-Ahmed was shot and seriously injured in his successful effort to take the gun away from the shooter, who ran away. Al-Ahmed is in serious condition in one of the local hospitals. He is being hailed as a hero because, of course, he is. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute to al-Ahmed, saying, “We saw an action of a brave man – turns out a Muslim brave man, and I salute him – that stopped one of these terrorists from killing innocent Jews.” A GoFundMe page has been set up to pay for Mr. al-Ahmed’s medical expenses and has already raised more than $1 million. May God bless him with a quick and full recovery.

The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, reports that the attack seem to have been motivated by Islamic State ideology. The two shooters were identified as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed. The father was shot and killed by authorities at the site, while the son was shot and taken to a local hospital. It is believed that they both dedicated themselves to the Islamic State.

This is what ABC is reporting about some of the victims who were killed.

Pope Leo XIV sent a letter to Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher expressing his deep sadness over the tragedy and his commitment to pray for the victims. Speaking to the group that donated this year’s Christmas tree and Nativity scene to the Vatican, Pope Leo said, “Enough with these forms of antisemitic violence! We must eliminate hatred from our hearts.” For his part, Archbishop Fisher said in an official statement that, “as we follow the horrific news coming from this evening’s shooting at Bondi Beach, let us pray for those who have been killed or injured, the many who were forced to run for their lives and our emergency service workers who are right now trying to keep people safe.” He also asked for the intercessor or Our Lady, Queen of Peace for all those impacted by the attack and for the city of Sydney itself.

There is no other group on the face of the Earth that suffers more regular and extreme bigotry and violence than the Jewish people. Attempting, as best they can, to maintain a peaceful existence in every country in which they live, and especially in Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, the Jews nevertheless are the targets of hatred, conspiracies, and violence. There is nothing that Jews do to provoke this reaction from others. The greatest enemy of the Jewish people today is the fundamentalist Muslim world. Indeed, Iran has raised the destruction of Israel to the level of official state policy. There remain 32 member nations of the U. N. that do not recognize Israel, 27 of them being Muslim nations. Syria and Lebonon practice a boycott of Israel, and Hamas calls for Israel’s destruction.

But the fundamentalist Muslim world is not the only enemy of Israel. The U. N. regularly passes resolutions condemning Israel. Anti-semitism remains high in Europe and many believe it is on the rise. Earlier this month in Toronto, an Uber driver stopped his car and told Miriam Mattova, a model and former Miss Slovakia, to get out when he learned she was Jewish. No, it doesn’t register to the level of violence, but it does reveal the seething anti-semitism that remains even in civilized Western societies and among international leadership.

The history of the Catholic Church toward the Jewish people has been a mixed bag. For centuries, relations between Catholics and Jews were fine, with few problems and no pograms. Then, in the eleventh century, the People’s Crusade attacked Jewish communities along the Rhine on their way to the Holy Land. Since then, Jews have been victims of attacks by Catholics and Protestants in Europe and elsewhere. At the same time, many bishops and popes protected the Jewish communities in their respective cities.

But regardless of the past, the last century has witnessed efforts by Catholic and Jewish representatives to establish meaningful relationships of mutual respect. Pope Pius XII emerged from World War II a hero on the world stage, recognized for his efforts to save Jews during the Nazi persecution. The Second Vatican Council promulgated Nostra aetate, it’s document on the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community, which included the following: “True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ; still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.” The Church thus ended any blood-libel carried by Jews for the death of Jesus Christ. The document also condemned all forms of racial discrimination, including anti-Semitism.

INo pope accomplished more in terms of Catholic-Jewish relations than Pope St. John Paul the Great. Having grown up in Poland with Jewish friends as a child and young man, John Paul greatly admired the Jewish people and respected that Christianity’s spiritual roots are in Judaism. “Spiritually, we are all Semites,” Pope Pius XI famously declared. Pope John Paul lived that reality more than other popes and, indeed, more than most Christians. Relations have not always been absent of strain, as reflected in the fact that the Vatican offically recognizes both Israel and Palestine and calls for a two-state solution to the conflict. Still, the relationship of mutual respect has held strong, even in difficult times, like the bombing of the only Catholic Church in Gaza by the Israeli Defense Force, which killed three and injured more, including the pastor.

But discrimination in the form of anti-Semitism can never be tolerated. It seems that the attack in Sydney was not simply an act of discrimination, but was carried out by two men who aligned themselves the with Islamic State’s goal of annihilating Jews. This is more than discrimination. This is deeply ingrained hatred for the other, simply because that other is a Jew, and a commitment to the position that Jews have no right to exist. That is something we all must protest and, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, be willing to take personal action against.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.