A Letter to the Bondi Community

To the Bondi community, and especially to the Jewish families who are grieving, I write with deep sadness and a heavy heart.

I know that for some of the Jewish community in Bondi, your journey to Australia began in very difficult circumstances, fleeing persecution and antisemitism in the former Soviet Union. You came seeking something deeply human and modest: the chance to live without fear, to raise your families in peace, and to practise your faith openly. Australia offered that safety, and for many years it was honoured and protected.

But the events of Sunday have cruelly shaken the promise we made to you. For those who fled persecution elsewhere, to experience fear again here is deeply distressing. It reopens wounds that were thought to have been left behind. I grieve with you for that loss of certainty, and for the anguish and shock that now sit alongside it.

I have been privileged to know your community for many years. I have seen the care with which lives were rebuilt, the way traditions were preserved, and the quiet strength with which families made a new home here.

I want to express my respect and support for Rabbi Yoram Ulman, someone I have known for many years. He has led his community with compassion, steadiness and moral clarity, shaped by his own experience of persecution and by a deep commitment to faith, dignity and coexistence. In moments like this, such leadership is both a comfort and a guide.

Long ago, I stood with others, including many parliamentary colleagues, asking that Jewish families be allowed to leave the former Soviet Union and find safety elsewhere. That human longing for freedom and security has stayed with me ever since.

Over time, those connections endured. My wife Heather and I spent time with the community at Chabad Bondi, where we were once presented with a Hanukkah menorah, a quiet symbol of endurance and hope. On more than one occasion, I was also privileged to be invited to light a Hanukkah candle on Bondi Beach. They were moments that reflected the sense that this country had become your home.

Bondi has long been a place of openness and ease, a place where people gather freely, without suspicion, simply to be present with one another.

That violence intruded there makes this tragedy harder to bear. Yet it must not be allowed to redefine what Bondi is, or what it represents. Nor should it diminish the sense of belonging that so many have built there over many years.

I want to say this as clearly and gently as possible: the ideals that brought you to this country, safety, refuge, freedom and belonging, have not been extinguished by what happened on Sunday.

They are still here. They live in the compassion of neighbours, in the solidarity shown across communities, and in the determination of Australians to reject hatred and violence in all its forms.

This is a time for mourning and reflection. It is also a time to stand close to one another, to offer reassurance where fear has entered, and to protect the values that make our shared life possible. Australia’s promise of safety and sanctuary is not conditional, and it does not belong to one moment or one place. It is a commitment that must endure, especially when it is tested.

To those who are hurting most deeply, please know that you are not alone. Many Australians grieve with you, stand beside you, and remain committed to the principles that first made this country a place of hope.

With sympathy, respect and solidarity,

Hon. Philip Ruddock AO

Hon. Philip Ruddock AO was Immigration, Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs Minister and Attorney-General in the federal government of Prime Minister John Howard.