Local Jewish community responds to mass shooting in Australia

A pair of father-and-son gunmen killed at least 15 people in a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday, December 14, 2025, according to officials. At least 42 people have been hospitalized.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the shooting a “targeted attack against Jewish Australians” and a “terrorist incident.” The elder gunman, aged 50, was shot and killed by police, authorities said. His 24-year-old son was wounded and remains hospitalized.

Andy Green, Senior Rabbi of the Congregation Or Tzion, joined “Arizona Horizon” to reflect on the attack and how it impacted both himself and his community.

Rabbi Green knew a woman who was present at the shooting. Her husband was shot and wounded, but she and her two daughters were not hit. The woman told Rabbi Green she dove into the sand and whispered words of encouragement to her daughters.

“This isn’t the first time,” Green said, “…and tragically, I don’t anticipate it being the last time that someone blames the Jewish people for whatever they think is challenged with in the world, and takes that out in a violent way.”

Rabbi Green explained the moment he realized a friend of his had been one of the victims of the attack, as photos were circulating of the individual, bloodied. The attack comes as the family had just recently moved to Australia, in hopes of a fresh start.

“One of the reasons they had moved…was the trauma that their family had endured, and their young children had endured during the recent war,” Green discussed, “…and wanting to be able to be in a Jewish community that felt safe…there is no Jewish community in the world, even here in Arizona, where we can have a certainty of safety.”