Australia’s Turnbull Kindles Hanukkah Lights at Sydney Central Synagogue

Malcolm Turnbull. Image by Getty Images

By JTA December 14, 2015

Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull participated in the Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony at Sydney’s Central Synagogue.

Turnbull lit the shamash and held it during the blessings, passing it to Cantor Shimon Farkas to light the eight candles on Sunday night.

The prime minister spoke to over 500 members of Sydney’s Central Synagogue community about the threat of terrorism and of how information technology would be the next boom in Australia saying the coming boom “is based on a path that Israel has trodden for us and set such a great example.”

Turnbull said that the message of Hanukkah was not only a Jewish message but “one for the whole world.”

Speaking of the terrorism threat facing the world, Turnbull said: “We stand up to this threat not wringing our hands, not frightened…because that’s what the terrorists want us to be. They want us to change the way we live. They want us to change our values. They want us to turn on each other. They want the majority of the population to turn on the Muslim community in Australia. We should do none of that. We have to remain a strong, united, multicultural society standing up for our values. Strength and courage will overwhelm the fear that these terrorists try to inspire in us. We are too strong for them and we will always be too strong for them.”

Following his address, Turnbull joined a group of children to play with dreidles.

The Central Synagogue’s spiritual leader Rabbi Levi Wolff told JTA: “He scored a few gimmes.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO