Timeline: How attacks on Jews in Australia have been growing since Oct. 7
The Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting has jolted Australia as antisemitic violence reaches new threshold
People react at the site of a shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Dec. 14. Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images
By Benyamin Cohen December 14, 2025
The mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday marked a grim new chapter in a pattern Australian officials have been tracking for more than two years: the steady escalation of antisemitic threats, from harassment and vandalism to arson, attempted attacks on synagogues and, now, mass-casualty violence at a public Jewish gathering.
Police said at least 11 people were killed, including a rabbi, when a gunman opened fire on families celebrating the first night of Hanukkah at the Chabad event, known as “Chanukah by the Sea.” Federal and state leaders swiftly condemned the attack as antisemitic terrorism and pledged a full national security response.
For Australia’s Jewish community, which numbers around 100,000, the shooting shattered any remaining sense that the country’s recent antisemitic incidents — alarming as they were — remained largely isolated and contained. Some of those attacks, including the December 2024 firebombing of a kosher restaurant and a firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue that same month, were linked to potential Iran involvement.
Sunday’s attack followed mounting warnings from law enforcement and Jewish organizations that antisemitism in Australia had entered a more dangerous phase since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza ensued.
Below is a timeline of major recent antisemitic incidents in Australia, as authorities and Jewish groups charted an intensifying threat.
December 2025
Prior to the Hanukkah attack, the Executive Council of Australia Jewry (ECAJ) released a report identifying 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents in the year ending Oct. 1, a near-record total surpassed only by the 2,062 cases logged the year before.
July 2025
Australia’s antisemitism envoy reported a dramatic rise in attacks against Jews, citing more than 2,000 cases in the year following Oct. 7 — an increase of more than 300% compared with the previous year.
July 2025
A man set fire to the front door of a synagogue in Melbourne while congregants were inside for Shabbat dinner, as a separate group of protesters stormed an Israeli restaurant nearby. No one was injured in either attack, police said, adding that the synagogue fire was quickly extinguished and that one person was arrested after demonstrators chanting anti-Israel slogans disrupted the restaurant.
February 2025
Two nurses at a Sydney hospital were arrested after they threatened to kill Israeli patients in a video that went viral. It was an episode officials described as emblematic of how antisemitic rhetoric had seeped into workplaces and public institutions.
February 2025
Police in Melbourne arrested a man accused of scrawling antisemitic graffiti in a park and throwing a packet of bacon at a passerby who confronted him.
February 2025
A cluster of incidents in Sydney’s southeast suburbs, home to a large Jewish community, raised alarm among authorities. Antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on cars, homes and a Jewish elementary school.
January 2025
Police discovered explosives in a camper van in Sydney, saying the device may have been intended for a mass-casualty attack targeting Jews. Police later revealed that the plot was an elaborate hoax masterminded by a crime boss.
January 2025
Two synagogues in Sydney were vandalized on successive days with swastikas and other antisemitic slogans. The attacks also included a nearby home that was defaced with an anti-Jewish slur.
December 2024
The Australian government formed a national antisemitism task force, signaling a shift toward treating antisemitic violence as a coordinated security threat rather than isolated hate crimes.
December 2024
Arsonists firebombed a historic synagogue in Melbourne, causing congregants gathered for morning services to flee. At least one person was injured and the building suffered extensive damage.
In August 2025, federal authorities announced charges in the case and said intelligence agencies were examining evidence of foreign-linked coordination. Officials publicly alleged Iranian involvement, escalating the case into a matter of international security, and expelled from the country Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi and three other Iranian officials.
October 2024
On Bondi Beach, where the December 2025 shooting took place, arsonists first attacked a brewery which they had incorrectly identified as a kosher caterer. They went back and set fire to the caterer’s building a few days later. Authorities eventually revealed they thought the attacks were done at the behest of Iran. That same month, antisemitic graffiti appeared on a Jewish bakery in Sydney.
May 2024
Vandals sprayed antisemitic graffiti on a Jewish school in Melbourne. School officials increased security amid concerns about copycat attacks.
February 2024
Pro-Palestinian activists made public the personal details of hundreds of Jewish academics, artists and professionals who had participated in a private WhatsApp group. The leak triggered a wave of harassment, prompting at least one family to go into hiding. The episode drew condemnation from federal leaders and warnings from police that online targeting could translate into real-world violence.
December 2023
The ECAJ reported a sharp spike in antisemitic incidents in the weeks following Oct. 7, including threats, harassment, vandalism and intimidation. The increase prompted expanded security at synagogues, schools and community centers across major cities.
November 2023
A Melbourne synagogue was ordered to evacuate during Friday night Shabbat services as police responded to nearby pro-Palestinian demonstrations. About 150 congregants had gathered at Central Shul in Caulfield when authorities advised them to leave as a precaution.
October 2023
Two days after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the Sydney Opera House was lit up in the colors of the Israeli flag and was expected to draw Jews looking for a public space to mourn. Instead, it drew more than 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters, some of whom spewed antisemitic slogans and rhetoric.
