Restoring a feeling of safety for Australian Jews will take extraordinary effort. As well as stamping out antisemitism, the work should start with a national approach to managing guns
The shock and grief that already hung over Australia this week after the Bondi beach shootings has only been compounded by the funerals for the victims.
Members of Melbourne’s Jewish community gathered on Thursday to mourn Reuven Morrison. The 62-year-old met his wife, Leah, at Bondi after immigrating from the Soviet Union in the 1970s. He died there on Sunday night, having thrown a brick at one of the gunmen, trying to slow the deadly attack on joyful Hanukah celebrations. His unjust death betrays the reason Morrison chose to move across the world.
“We came here with the view that Australia is the safest country in the world,” Morrison said last year.
After more than two years of living in heightened fear, Jews in Australia had their worst fears confirmed at Bondi beach, where Morrison and 14 others died. Restoring their feeling of safety will take an extraordinary effort and a long time.
