The Decibel - Bondi Beach shooting echoes past antisemitic attacks

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

The attack on Jewish Australians at Bondi Beach in Sydney has sent shockwaves around the world. To many in Jewish communities, it mirrors previous antisemitic attacks seen in countries around the world over the past several years. Globe columnist and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette executive editor David Shribman joins The Decibel. He covered the Tree of Life shooting in 2018, where 11 Jewish people were killed in their synagogue in Pittsburgh. Shribman talks about how the recent shooting in Sydney impacts Jewish communities around the world and what living in Pittsburgh has taught him about life after tragedy.  Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith, an act of evil anti-Semitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation. Before the weekend, 15 people were killed in a mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Jewish people around the world reacted in shock. We were all horrified to learn this morning of the cold-blooded murder of our fellow Jews in Sydney, Australia. We were shocked, we're devastated.

I'm really worried about the rising anti-Semitism and the continual feeling of our And some communities see echoes of previous anti-Semitic attacks. David Shribman is the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. He led that newspaper's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Tree of Life shooting in that city in 2018, where 11 Jewish people were killed in their synagogue. It's the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. David is on the show today to talk about how the shooting in Sydney reverberates through Jewish communities around the world. and what he learned from Pittsburgh about life after tragedy.

I'm Cheryl Sutherland, and this is the decibel from the Globe and Mail. Hi, David. Welcome back to the show. Well, wonderful to be here on a sad moment. What wonderful little is. Yeah, absolutely. brought you here as a journalist, but you're also Jewish. What were your first thoughts when you heard about the Bondi Beach shooting over the weekend? Well, I'm sitting three blocks from the Tree of Life synagogue where in October of 2018, 11 people were slain at prayer. And so that reminded me, brought back these vivid memories of the terrible day here in Pittsburgh, the tree of life tragedy,

three blocks from I'm sitting now. And so my first thoughts, where everybody said, plujamae, never again, and yet, here we go. Like you said, you're in Pittsburgh where the tragic events happened in 2018. And we're talking to you about another tragedy that happened in Australia. But there's a connection there, right? When it comes to anti-Semitic attacks, you know, a devastating connection, but they do seem to reverberate in Jewish communities around the globe. What is it about the connections between these communities that make these kinds of

events so deeply felt? Well, I don't know. I was born nine years after the Holocaust, so I'm fairly sensitive, though not having been alive during that, American Jews and Canadian Jews, North American Jews, know what happened between 19, say, 33 and 1945. And here we have a death on a mass scale, though not as mass as we had during the Holocaust, but death for people singled out for one reason only. That is the tissue of fear, resentment, I suppose, a little bit, heightened sense of identity and a heightened sense of alarm. And can this happen again?

And, of course, it's now happened several times. There's been synagogues shootings in California, a hostage situation in Texas, other stuff in Europe. And so the pattern seems to be continuing. I guess the irony here is that this is as much heartbreak as anything else. Because since 1945, North American Jews have felt part of the host community in North America rather than visitors. You know, of course, many Jews fleeing the Holocaust were not able to come to the United States and Canada. but since 1945, the world has opened up to North American Jews.

And to have this happen in the United States, in Canada, in Australia, in Europe, it's more heartbreak than anything else. David, as we talked about, you were in Pittsburgh during the Tree of Life shooting that happened in 2018. Yes. What effect did that have on the Jewish community in the weeks and months and years following? Well, of course, the morning of the dead was preeminent. But there was also, along with the fear and the mourning, was a great moment of appreciation to this community here in Pittsburgh and to communities in Canada, in the United States, an outpouring of inter-religious sympathy and support in this community. because there's no more near religious experience than going to a Pittsburgh Steeler game. The Steelers had a moment of silence.

The Penguins, a hockey team, they had their own moments. Christians, Muslims, I was editor of the newspaper in Pittsburgh for 16 years and became very close friends with the Catholic bishop. He played it in a very important role in mourning and in bringing the community together. there were rallies downtown and here in Squirrel Hill where I live. You can tell it's a Jewish area because of a living in Chinese restaurants. They'll be full at Christmas. Anyhow, the community came together and I said to my wife, I was a few months from retirement.

I said, you know, we can never leave us community because of what we've witnessed. Now, I must say that my wife is Catholic, at 16 years of Catholic education, is the vice chair of the board of a Jesuit college. she felt this as strongly as I did. Yeah, tell me why. Why did you feel like you could never leave this community? The outpouring of support and the outpouring of just brotherhood and sisterhood. I continue saying that besides having a Catholic wife, we have a daughter who's a rabbi. So, I mean, she is the only rabbi, not the only one, but a real one with a Catholic mother.

In any case, we just felt great fulfillment and satisfaction at the entire community rally. Now, I should go on a little bit here, Cheryl, to say that it's been, what, seven years, and the healing has not really ended. The trial of the shooter was a traumatic moment here. Everybody relived those days. Then the debate after his conviction prompted a huge debate. about whether the death penalty should be employed. There's all sorts of discussions and debates about Jewish law and the death penalty

and what an eye for an eye means and doesn't really mean that and all sorts of questions like that. And so these conversations continue here at a great and high level and doesn't seem to ever go away. As I say, I'm three blocks away. Go by that site every day. I don't, I'm not a member of that congregation. go by that site every day. I drove by last night. It's at the center of our community. And it's not a center of the Jewish community. It's at the center of the Squirrel Hill community and thus of Pittsburgh as well.

And so it's standing there as a remembrance and a prompt to consider this whole thing, this whole phenomenon. And so it's at the center of our mental landscape and our physical landscape. How do people feel about attending events in traditionally Jewish spaces after what happened there? I've seen no reluctance. There's a lot of security. As a journalist, you know, I've kind of stories about the security and the effort, former FBI agents, you know, employed to give counsel how to firm up the security at these places. I have to say, I spent the last six fall semesters at McGill in Montreal. And last year, there was an outdoor service across the Sherbrook Street in a park. And I said, I couldn't believe that we're actually doing this. But there was no security whatsoever.

And the kids running around and having pizza and could have been in a shooting field. It wasn't. But I don't think there should be a whole lot of outdoor events in the middle of city parks. I don't think that's such a smart idea. I feel like there's something that people in Sydney might be looking to Pittsburgh for, you know, something they can learn. And I'm wondering, you know, do people in Pittsburgh feel safe? And what made them feel safe after what happened? You know, I think that people are very aware.

This certainly, this certainly raised the consciousness again, raised the fears once more. It made everybody startled, really, and it's a tough time. You know, what's odd, though, here, Cheryl? is that this is a moment in the Jewish calendar of optimism and light. And here we are in the darkness during the season of light. This is Hanukkah, where candles are lit as symbols of light and optimism. And the darkness came during the festival of lights. Now, that's an irony for the ages, isn't it?

It taints that holiday because forevermore it'll be the anniversary of this terrible tragedy. David, do you have something to say? Is there something you can tell the people in Sydney that might be helpful? I would say this, that you're not going to, don't think you're going to heal. You can increase your sense of community. We'll get only 150,000 Jews in the entire continent of Australia. There are 150,000 Jews in certain sections of New York in Los Angeles. So it's not really a huge community.

I think it does forge unity in the community. These funerals are going to be tough moments, tough, tough moments. If you have a second, I'll tell you a story about the funerals here in Pittsburgh that kind of illuminate how good gestures can come out of it. The rabbi at the Shah Hashemaiam Synagogue in Montreal was flying from Montreal to Pittsburgh to the funerals. many, many rabbis will be going to these funals, even though Australia is kind of out of the way. So this rabbi decided to come.

There was no non-stop. It was a United flight from Trudeau Airport in Duval to Washington, Dallas, then up to Pittsburgh. And there was some kind of problem at Trudeau Airport. And the flight was delayed a couple of hours, and the rabbi wouldn't have missed his connection to Pittsburgh. And he was clearly troubled about this because the gate agent sought him out, or he went to the gate agent, and he explained, listen, I'm a rabbi, 12 people, all of you are killed in Pittsburgh. I need to get there for the funerals. The guy said, you'll get there. So this is what he did. He called headquarters or somebody someplace. The flight left two and a half

hours late. They radioed to Dallas Airport in Washington and held that flight for two and a half They moved the plane to the gate where the Montreal flight came in. The rabbi got out, took a quick right, took another right, one gate down, got on the plane, and got here. That's the kind of thing that people did at that moment, and we were very, very grateful. And I've told that story about 100,000 times. And it's always fresh in my mind. We'll be right back. I wanted to talk a bit more about this moment in time globally.

Does this particular event feel different following October 7th, 2023, compared with previous acts of anti-Semitic violence? Oh, of course. Of course it does. The raid, a mass raid of October 23, was a moment of horror to Jewish community and to others. And the response, the Netanyahu response, prompted rage among those who sympathized with the Palestinian cause, particularly the civilian toll. It split the Jewish community because many Jews are outraged as well at what they consider the excess of this response. It awakened a latent pro-Palestinian sentiment among many people,

prompted a new pro-Palestinian sentiment among others and enhanced a long-term pro-Palestinian sentiments among North Americans and that got transmuted into some of it maybe it's hard to tell exactly cause and effect but it's incontrovertible that the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in North America, Europe and Australia came after the Hamas invasion and the response to it. So, yes, this is a different world.

There are two worlds here, one before and one after. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement on Sunday. He said, Australia's government, quote, did nothing to stop the spread of anti-Semitism and that he warned the Prime Minister that his support for a Palestinian state, quote, pours fuel on the anti-Semitic fire. David, what response to the government?

do you think a government has to combat anti-Semitism? Well, a concomitant question is what responsibility or what is the appropriate response of the Israeli Prime Minister to those kind of stuff? I think generally speaking, countries don't like it. One of the people talk about how other countries should behave. Of course, Nanyaro is in a peculiar position because that is the Jewish state. One of the responsibilities of countries, countries are responsible for the phrasing in the American Constitution is ensuring the domestic tranquility. That's the responsibility of every government, it's responsibility of Prime Minister Netanyahu's the responsibility to Prime Minister of Australia. It's of course,

responsibility of the President of the United States. We certainly see him taking that role on with enthusiasm. And so while Netanyahu is a controversial character, he was speaking about someone else's responsibility. A lot of people in Australia feel the same way, by the way. I've never been to Australia, so I have no idea whether that's a legitimate critique or not. I do know that it was a inflammatory, but perhaps appropriate critique, but then again. I'll also say here that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese denied there was a connection between these things, saying most of the world supports a two-state solution and said,

quote, my job is to make it clear that Australians overwhelmingly stand with the Jewish community at this difficult time. Well, you can't ask for much more than that. Of course, support for a two-state solution is very popular in the United States and in Canada. It's not an Utre position. It's by no means a radical position or unusual one. It is actually the conventional position of people, including many, many Jews. So you spoke to community and religious leaders after the attack happened in Sydney. What advice do they have for people that feel fearful? Well, you know, they all say we know we've got to be more careful, but how you fight this is beyond me. They don't know

either. You know, just say we have to fight this. What does that mean? Does that mean more security at synagogues, I suppose it does? It doesn't mean restrictions on the freedom of expression of some people? Well, that's a whole different question. There's no easy answer if there had been, it would have come up 2200 years ago during the first Hanukkah. The attack in Sydney took place on the first night of Hanukkah. And you talked about how this is a time of celebration. Are there any lessons we can learn from the story of Hanukkah that can serve as a kind of guiding light during this difficult moment for the Jewish community? Well, I don't know if Directly from the story of Hanukkah, but how it's commemorated, I think, Cheryl, gives us some meaning and maybe a path forward.

It's a celebration, as I ever said earlier, of light and of optimism. There's a wonderful Peter Paul and Mary's son that they debuted in 1986. Only one of the Peter Paul and Mary's is Jewish. But the reprise line is don't let the light go out. Don't let the light go out. has been there for many years, something like that. I think that that's a good guide. David, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Thank you so much. It's a great pleasure. It's a sad, sad time. That was David Shredman, a contributing columnist for the Globe, an executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. Kevin Sexton produced and mixed this episode.

Our producers are Madeline White, Michal Stein, and Ali Graham. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Thank you for listening.