A senior New York rabbi has condemned Australia’s "inaction" after a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach was shattered by a mass shooting that wounded 40 and killed at least 15 people, including two prominent rabbis.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky of the Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters in New York City, said the attack, carried out by a father and son, reflected a growing climate of antisemitism in Australia that authorities had failed to confront.

"As well as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, we have now learned that Chabad Rabbi Yaakov Levitan has succumbed to his wounds. May his memory also be a blessing," Krinsky told Fox News Digital.

"Jewish people around the world right now are uneasy, but they are defiant," he said. "Every incremental escalation of antisemitic language that is tolerated has a direct, and now, deadly, consequence, and must no longer go unchecked."

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"Australian authorities need to act with alacrity and stamp out both the acts and the rhetoric that normalize antisemitism," Krinsky added.

The tragic mass shooting Dec. 14 came when two gunmen opened fire on a large "Chanukah by the Sea" event near Campbell Parade at Bondi Beach.

The attack, reportedly being investigated as a terrorist incident by police, included improvised explosive devices found in one suspect’s vehicle, as previously reported by Fox News Digital.

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The elder assailant was killed at the scene and his son was taken into custody in critical condition.

Krinsky, who was also in Melbourne in July when a synagogue arson attack took place at the East Melbourne Synagogue, said he had already seen the "unease" in Australia growing firsthand.

"I witnessed firsthand the unease and concern felt by many within the Australian Jewish community amid the rise in antisemitic incitement, and their sense that the response from the authorities was inadequate, he said.

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"At that point, there was a feeling that the Jewish community in Australia has been increasingly uneasy with what they feel is the lack of a strong enough response to these acts."

Schlanger, 41, who was one of the first deceased victims to be identified, was assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and an organizer of the beach event.

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"While each Chabad center operates independently, they function under our global umbrella organization," Krinsky clarified. "There are no words to underscore the anguish and heartbreak caused by this gut-wrenching tragedy." 

"Rabbi Schlanger was among the victims of this barbarism," he added. "He had deep ties to the United States and studied here, he has family here and although the attack took place far away, this Hanukkah we feel him closer than ever."

"He was younger than I am, and we attended the same institutions, though at different times," Krinsky noted. "He dedicated his life to living in communities around the world, far away from home, inspired by the Rebbe's teachings and vision.

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Schlanger, born in the U.K., married Chaya, the daughter of prominent Australian Rabbi Yehoram Ulman.

"Following their marriage, some 18 years ago, they moved to Sydney to help grow the community and bring the beauty and spirit of the Jewish tradition to life for many in the Sydney Jewish community," Krinsky explained. "He would have found some place to move to go about the work that he had he wanted to dedicate his life to."

As the world responded, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack as an "act of pure evil," according to The Associated Press.

"We are crushed for the families who were celebrating the Festival of Light on Bondi Beach," Krinsky said.

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"But every Chabad community worldwide is already doing what we do best: spreading more light, strengthening Jewish pride and observance, and increasing acts of goodness and kindness."

"The perpetrator may have wanted to dim the Hanukkah lights in Sydney – but they will burn even brighter across Australia and around the globe."

A statement released by Chabad Lubavitch Headquarters in New York said, "Let us be clear: this was a treacherous act of terror – an attack on the community, on goodness, and on light itself. It reflects a climate in which Jew hatred has been allowed to grow and to turn violent. That reality must be confronted." 

"We will honor the lives taken by enhancing Jewish practice, pride and visibility. May their light rise from this sorrow, and their memory be a blessing to us all," the statement read.

Sunday’s deadly terrorist attack on Australian Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney was something the country’s small but historic community had feared since a wave of antisemitic incidents began following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.

While the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, condemned the attack — calling it "a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah,"— his critics say his Labor government has failed to appropriately respond to the alarming rise in antisemitic incidents across the country. 

Avi Yemini of Rebel News Australia, who has been documenting the attacks against the community, told Fox News Digital that just days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, "mobs of Islamic extremists were already openly hunting Jews here in Australia, chanting ‘where’s the Jews’ outside the Sydney Opera House. Since then, synagogues and childcare centers have been firebombed and repeated warnings ignored. With no meaningful government action to confront the problem, tonight’s horrific attack in Bondi was tragically inevitable and is unlikely to be the last."

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He said: "The Australian Labor government has been unwilling to act decisively, in part because of its political reliance on Islamic community votes. As a result, many Australian Jews are now facing a devastating wake-up call that this country is no longer as safe for us as it once was. I believe many will now be seriously considering a move to Israel."

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Adding to the anger, Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faced criticism for failing to note in an earlier statement posted on X that the deadly attack was directed at Jewish Australians.

Following the attack, a reporter confronted Albanese with concerns about his government’s response to antisemitism, citing his government’s recognition of a Palestinian state, Labor ministers attacking the Israeli government and refusing to visit the sites of the Oct. 7 massacres, and the simultaneous appointment of special envoys for Islamophobia and antisemitism. The reporter asked Albanese whether his government had taken antisemitism seriously.

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"Yes, we have taken it seriously," Albanese replied. "And we’ve continued to act. We’ve continued to work with Jewish community leaders. We’ve continued to take all the advice from the security agencies to put in place special measures, and we will continue to do so."

Albanese’s press office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about frustrations regarding the prime minister’s response to the mass shooting attack.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) recently documented 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents across Australia between 1 Oct, 2024 and 30 Sept. 2025, "in addition to 2,062 incidents nationwide the year before." 

It also noted that, "antisemitic incidents in Australia remain at historically high levels, at almost five times the average annual number before Oct. 7, 2023… While there has been a marginal reduction from last year’s all-time high, the most serious categories of incidents, including arson attacks against synagogues, pre‑schools and other Jewish institutions, are higher than in any previous year on record."

Some of the more shocking incidents to hit Australia’s Jewish community since Oct. 7, 2023, up until Sunday's terror attack include:

Masked individuals setting a fire in Ripponlea’s Adass Israel Synagogue while congregants said morning prayers. The fire caused widespread damage and injured one worshipper. 

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Sydney’s Allawah Synagogue was tagged with swastika graffiti. The following day, the Newtown Synagogue, also in Sydney, was similarly defaced. The week prior, a car in Sydney had been spray-painted with an antisemitic phrase.

Major property damage was inflicted on a childcare center near a Jewish school and synagogue in Sydney during an arson attack. Antisemitic graffiti was found inside.

A car was set on fire in a Jewish community in Sydney, and as many as seven homes in the area were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.

Two healthcare workers in Sydney speaking on the social platform Chatrouletka with an Israeli man said that they would refuse treatment to Israeli patients and had previously killed Israeli patients.

Gideon Sa’ar, the foreign minister of Israel, expressed his sorrow to his Australian counterpart Penny Wong by phone. On X on Sunday, Sa’ar said that he told Australia’s foreign minister that "security for the Jewish community in Australia will be achieved only through a real change in the public atmosphere. Calls such as ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free,’ and ‘Death to the IDF’ are not legitimate, are not part of freedom of speech, and inevitably lead to what we witnessed today. The Australian government must take strong action against the use of these antisemitic calls."

Populist Australian Sen. Pauline Hanson said on X that Albanese "never heeded the warning signs, including the weekly antisemitic protests across our nation, hate speech from certain religious clerics, our obnoxious universities and probable terrorist alert." Hanson said the Jewish community in Australia has "the same right to live in peace and harmony as all Australians," and called on authorities to "be honest when revealing the identities and backgrounds of these murderers."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.