Tamarac Mayor Michelle J. Gomez {City of Tamarac}
Tamarac Mayor Michelle Gomez and a group of local faith leaders on Tuesday expressed grief and outrage over the terror attack that killed 15 Jews at a Chanukah menorah lighting event in Sydney, Australia, calling the act of antisemitic hatred “a stark reminder that evil exists in our world.”
In a statement penned by Gomez; the Rev. Lee Davis of St. Martin Episcopal Church; Rabbi Kopel Silberberg of the Chabad Jewish Center of Tamarac; Rabbi Daniela Szuster and Rabbi Rami Pavolotzky of Temple Beth Torah Sha’aray Tzedek; and Pastor Joseph Haksop Kim of the South Florida Global Methodist Church, the group condemned the Bondi Beach massacre – which authorities said was motivated by the hateful ideology of the Islamic State terror organization – and said they rejected antisemitism wherever it appears.
“This attack is a stark reminder that evil exists in our world,” their statement said. “But it is also a reminder of our shared responsibility to confront that evil – not only by speaking out, but by strengthening our commitment to goodness, compassion, and unity. Hate seeks to divide and destroy; we choose to answer it by standing together and reaffirming the dignity of every human.”
Shared on the third night of Chanukah, the statement drew a direct connection between the Jewish holiday’s themes and the present moment. Chanukah, the statement noted, commemorates the struggle of the Maccabees’ in ancient Israel, who fought not only for survival but for the right to practice Judaism “openly and proudly.”
The Maccabees led a successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Greeks, who had tried to Hellenize the Jews and defiled the Temple in Jerusalem. The attack on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was another assault on that same principle — the freedom to live one’s faith in public without fear, according to the statement.
“Chanukah is, at its core, a celebration of the triumph of public Jewish identity in the face of those who sought to extinguish it,” the signatories said. “This latest attack is yet another assault on that same sacred principle, the freedom to live one’s faith in the open. Just as the Maccabees stood strong against forces that tried to silence them, we too stand united today against hatred and intolerance, and in support of every community’s right to worship and live without fear.”
“We call on all who stand for decency and freedom to fight against the forces of antisemitism, hate, and bigotry, and to stand together with the global and local Jewish community,” the mayor and faith leaders said. “We stand with the Jewish community in Australia and worldwide during this painful time. And we continue to hope and work for the day when hatred, terrorism, and violence will be eradicated from the human experience, and only peace, justice, and goodness will prevail.”
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