Sydney’s NYE tribute revised after backlash

A planned New Year’s Eve tribute to the 15 victims of the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre has been amended following strong representations from Jewish artistic and cultural leaders, who warned that the original proposal risked erasing the antisemitic nature of Australia’s deadliest terrorist attack.

The City of Sydney had announced that the victims would be honoured during the Sydney Harbour New Year’s Eve celebrations with the projection of a white dove and the word “peace” onto the pylons of the Harbour Bridge, as well as a minute’s silence. While welcomed as a gesture of remembrance, the plan drew swift criticism from within the Jewish community, which argued that the symbolism failed to acknowledge that the victims were targeted because they were Jewish.

Almost 30 prominent Jewish Australian figures from across the arts, music, literature and film wrote to Lord Mayor Clover Moore in an open letter on December 29, calling for the use of an explicitly Jewish symbol in the tribute.

“Let us be clear: two terrorists shot dead 15 innocent Australian civilians at a Chanukah event on Bondi Beach for one reason only – because they were Jewish, living publicly Jewish lives,” the letter stated. “It is insulting to strip our friends and family, who were killed for being Jews, of the dignity of being recognised as Jews in their death.”

The signatories included Pulitzer Prize–winning author Geraldine Brooks, Academy Award–winning producer Emile Sherman, concert pianist Simon Tedeschi, Australian Chamber Orchestra artistic director Richard Tognetti AO, ARIA Award winners Deborah Conway and Yaron Hallis, and Walkley Award–winning filmmaker Danny Ben-Moshe.

In a media release accompanying the letter, spokesmen Ben Adler and Ben-Moshe said generic calls for “peace” had too often been used to dismiss Jewish concerns about rising antisemitism.

“Over the past two years, expressions of Jewish culture have grown increasingly unfashionable in the Australian cultural landscape,” they said. “Our exclusion, alienation and demonisation have contributed to the climate of antisemitism within which the Bondi terrorist attack occurred.”

The group argued that Sydney’s New Year’s Eve celebrations were not only a local event but a global cultural broadcast, with the world looking to Sydney as one of the first, and most spectacular, celebrations to bring in the new year. Failing to acknowledge the Jewish identity of the victims sent a damaging message.

In exclusive comments to The AJN, Adler noted that Australia has developed a global reputation as a hotbed of antisemitism, and that the Sydney fireworks are a chance for Australia to restore its reputation.

“We’ve all had Israeli relatives and friends reach out to us when the news of attacks in Australia hits them,” he said. “The Sydney NYE fireworks are watched by millions nationally and, apparently, hundreds of millions globally. It’s one of the few times the international community actively turns to Australia for reasons outside of the news cycle, and one of its most popular cultural offerings – a massive opportunity to show the world that not just Sydney, but Australia, after a horrendous two years of rising antisemitism, stands unequivocally in support of the Jewish community.

“Failing to acknowledge the Jewish community in any way during the memorial moment would have been a massive missed opportunity for Australia in its attempts to rehabilitate its global image.”

According to reporting in The Daily Telegraph, the City of Sydney subsequently revised its plans following the backlash, with Lord Mayor Clover Moore acknowledging the concerns raised and agreeing to include Jewish symbolism in the tribute.

A menorah will now be projected onto the pylons during the minute’s silence, with the dove to follow alongside the words “peace” and “unity”.

Adler noted to The AJN that the use of a Jewish symbol in the tribute would help bridge the divide between communities, saying many non-Jewish friends reached out to him in the wake of the terror attack saying they had very little understanding of Jewish culture.

“Even friends who have lived their entire lives in the eastern suburbs did not know what a Chanukiah is,” he said, explaining that for years, Jewish culture, particularly in the arts, has been shunned.

“Jewish cultural practitioners do not receive anything comparable to the favourable treatment that other minorities do, in platforming, opportunities, interest, and public grant funding. In a word, we are unfashionable. Our stories are not told, our people are not platformed, our art is not hung, our music is not heard,” he explained. “The only antidote is exposure therapy. Wider Australia needs to become reacquainted with our symbols, and through them, our stories and us. A menorah on the pylons of the Harbour Bridge during one of Australia’s most watched cultural products is a first step in that direction.”

For many in the community, the outcome represents more than a dispute over imagery. It is seen as a broader test of whether antisemitism can be named and confronted publicly in Australia, rather than softened by universal language that obscures targeted hatred.

As Adler and Ben-Moshe wrote, “Only when we clearly name the problem of anti-Jewish hatred in Australia can we hope to overcome it.”

The New Year’s Eve tribute will take place less than three weeks after the December 14 attack, which occurred during a Chanukah gathering at Bondi Beach and claimed the lives of 15 people, shaking both the Jewish community and the nation.