The broken glass and Eva Geller

Eighty-eight years ago, on November 9 and 10, 1938, synagogues burned across Germany and Austria. Jewish businesses were smashed and looted, homes ransacked and families terrorised. Approximately 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.

The shattered glass gave the Nazi pogrom its name: Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. It revealed what happens when antisemitism becomes normalised and violence against Jews is tolerated.

We know what followed.

For generations, we have promised Never Again, building museums, erecting memorials and teaching our children the consequences of hatred. Yet on this anniversary, Jews across the Western world again confront attacks on synagogues, businesses and their lives.

Perhaps no story captures this anniversary’s significance more painfully than that of Eva Geller.

Eva survived Nazi persecution as a child in Romania before rebuilding her life in Australia. On December 14, 2025, she attended a Chanukah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, where gunmen opened fire on Jewish families celebrating.

Fifteen people were killed and dozens wounded. Eva was among those shot. Other Holocaust survivors were affected, reminding us that escaping Nazi persecution did not mean escaping antisemitic violence.

Despite serious injuries and hospitalisations, Eva managed to walk again after doctors told her she never would. But on November 5, 2026, days before the anniversary of Kristallnacht, she died aged 90, becoming the attack’s 16th victim.

Consider the symbolism: a woman who survived Hitler’s Europe, found refuge and built a life in Australia was shot nearly nine decades later while celebrating her Jewish faith.

What does Never Again mean when a Holocaust survivor cannot live out her final years free from antisemitic terror?

For Australian Jews, the warning signs are unmistakable.

In December 2024, Melbourne’s Adass Israel synagogue was firebombed. Authorities classified the attack as terrorism. In July 2025, another synagogue, in East Melbourne, was set alight with approximately 20 worshippers inside.

Sydney has experienced antisemitic graffiti and arson, including the October 2024 firebombing of Lewis’ Continental Kitchen and the January 2025 firebombing of a childcare centre in Maroubra. Australian intelligence attributed the attacks on Lewis’ and Adass to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Then came the Bondi massacre.

Australia prides itself on multiculturalism and religious freedom. Yet Jewish families have watched synagogues burn and relatives murdered at a Chanukah gathering.

Nor is Australia alone. In March 2026, a synagogue in Rotterdam was firebombed and an explosion damaged a synagogue in Liège, Belgium. Jewish institutions in Germany have faced vandalism and attempted arson, while Canadian synagogues have been targeted by gunfire. In Manchester, an attack at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation on Yom Kippur in October 2025 left two people dead.

Different countries, different circumstances, but a disturbing reality: Jews face intimidation and violence in democracies that promise to protect them.

In Philadelphia, on November 8, the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, pro-Palestinian activists planned a “boycott ride” identifying Jewish-owned or Israeli-associated restaurants and businesses. Promotional material reportedly declared, “These Zionist establishments must go! Not in our city!” The plan drew condemnation from Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker and Jewish organisations.

On the eve of commemorating Kristallnacht, Jewish-associated businesses are again singled out. Thankfully, pro-Israel supporters came out to counter protest and drown out their hate.

A boycott in a democracy is not equivalent to Nazi state violence. But the language of exclusion carries a chilling historical echo.

The organisers describe their campaign as antizionist rather than antisemitic. Yet when Jewish business owners are targeted because of their identity or presumed allegiance to Israel, that distinction becomes difficult to sustain. A Jewish restaurateur in Philadelphia is not the Israeli government.

Antisemitism has adapted to the political vocabulary of its time. Jews have been accused of disloyalty, conspiracy and collective responsibility for events beyond their control. Today, hostility towards Jews can be expressed in the language of antizionism.

Criticism of Israeli government policy is not inherently antisemitic. But when synagogues are firebombed, Jewish businesses intimidated and Jewish communities blamed collectively for events in the Middle East, the boundary has been crossed.

Why should a synagogue in Melbourne burn? Why should Jewish businesses in Philadelphia be singled out? Why should a Holocaust survivor celebrating Chanukah at Bondi Beach become a terror victim?

Kristallnacht reminds us that violence is preceded by the normalisation of exclusion, hatred and indifference. The Holocaust remains unique in its systematic destruction. But history need not repeat itself exactly for its warnings to matter.

Remembering the broken glass of 1938, we must remember Eva Geller: a woman who survived Nazi persecution, rebuilt her life and lived to 90, only to die following an antisemitic terrorist attack in the country she called home.

Her story should never have ended this way.

Never Again was never meant merely as a promise to remember the dead. It was meant as a commitment to protect the living.

Eighty-eight years after Kristallnacht, will the world act before the glass shatters again?

Shane Shmuel is the Australian Jewish Association (AJA)’s community liaison – Victoria.