Push to include Bondi massacre in school curriculum

A campaign is underway to fast-track teaching about the Bondi Beach terror attack in Australian schools, with Jewish leaders and education experts backing plans to include it in both primary and secondary curricula as a lesson in where antisemitism leads.

According to a report in The Sunday Telegraph, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) co-CEO Alex Ryvchin is among those supporting the push, arguing the attack that killed 15 people offers a powerful case study for students.

“Bondi really provides an excellent examination of not only where antisemitism leads and the fact antisemitism didn’t end with the Holocaust, but that it continues to the present day,” Ryvchin said.

“That’s one of the great lessons of the Holocaust – you see how it begins with laws and dehumanisation and trying to drive a wedge between Jews and non-Jews. In the road to the Bondi massacre, we see that same sequence where warning signs were ignored, where people wouldn’t listen.

“You had this very clear progression from chanted threats to those threats being carried out.”