Amanda Wojciechowski was taking her daughters to a Jewish and Catholic holiday celebration Sunday morning when she heard the news that a gunman had shot and killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in an act of antisemitic terrorism.
Wojciechowski, like much of Chicago’s Jewish community, was left reeling.
“It was troubling to hear that on the day that was supposed to be more of a celebratory thing,” she said at a menorah lighting in Lake View on Sunday night. “We tried to say we’re gonna focus on shining the light, and it’s not gonna keep us from our beliefs and moving forward.”
Wojciechowski said she brings her daughters, 7-year-old Allison and 9-year-old Whitney, to the menorah lighting every year. It’s important to celebrate their faith even in the wake of tragedy, she said.
Jewish faith leaders echoed her sentiment, spreading the message that light, the central theme of Hanukkah, is the only way to counteract darkness and hate. Rabbi Dovid Kotlarsky, one of the organizers of the Lake View event, said he heard the news of the shooting at 4 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep.
He would later learn that he knew one of the victims, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, “the most happy, energetic” member of Chabad-Lubavitch, one of the most well-known Hasidic Jewish movements. Kotlarsky remembered a video Schlanger had posted on X in which he fixed a menorah to the top of his car and drove it around. The video was captioned “The best response to antisemitism. Happy Chanukah!”
“His message was if you want to fight antisemitism in the world, you need to bring more light,” Kotlarsky said.
Australia has faced a wave of antisemitic attacks over the last year, but authorities gave no indication that those are connected to the most recent shooting. A child was among the dead, and a 50-year-old gunman was fatally shot by police, local authorities said.
The Bondi Beach shooting was the deadliest shooting in nearly 30 years in a country known for its strict gun laws.
“We’ve always had interesting, different gun laws,” said Andrew Woodman, who lives in Lake View but grew up in Melbourne, Australia. “When events like this happen … we want to support everyone in the Jewish community.”
At the Lake View menorah lighting organized by Chabad East Lake View, which had increased security in response to the Australia attack, a couple dozen attendees cheered when organizers lighted the 12-foot menorah, prompting awestruck exclamations from bundled-up kids. Coffee, hot chocolate and latkes were served. A few organizers threw gold-wrapped chocolate coins from the top of a firetruck ladder for kids to collect.
Members of Chicago’s Jewish community attend a menorah lighting ceremony Sunday evening in Lake View. Chabad East Lakeview organized the event and provided refreshments and gold-wrapped chocolates for children. Security was enhanced following the Sydney attack earlier in the day.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
The mass shooting drew swift anger and mourning from local and national leaders, who condemned antisemitism and vowed to reduce gun violence.
Gov. JB Pritzker posted a statement on X, saying that during Hanukkah, people will “come together to pray for a future where the light will triumph over darkness.”
All 25 Jewish members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Brad Schneider from Illinois, released a joint statement in response to the shooting.
“On a night meant for celebration, Jewish families in Australia, gathering in joy and peace on the first night of Hanukkah, were grotesquely targeted with hate and murderous intent,” the statement read. “Sadly, this attack does not come as a surprise to the Jewish community of Sydney who have been raising a clarion call for local and national authorities to take concrete steps against a rising tide of antisemitism.”
The members of Congress looked forward to the rest of Hanukkah, an eight-day celebration of “defiant optimism,” and vowed to celebrate the holiday in the face of antisemitism.
“As we light the menorah each night and remember the miracle of the festival of lights, let us proclaim that light is stronger than darkness, right is stronger than might, and justice is stronger than tyranny,” the statement said.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Chicago, condemned the Australia shooting and another shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island that killed two students and critically injured more.
“We pray fervently for those directly affected by these attacks,” Cupich said. “But we also resolve to act against the circumstances that gave rise to them. In one case, hatred was strong enough to overcome even Australia’s strong firearms regulations.”