I am in Israel on my first visit since the Gaza ceasefire and the release of all but one of the hostages, Master Sgt. Ran Givili z”l. The visit follows two weeks in Australia spent in close engagement with Jewish leaders and communities confronting rising antisemitism and danger.
In Melbourne, the community marked a year since the synagogue firebombing, still living with the consequences of that attack. In Sydney, departure came only hours before the massacre at Bondi Beach on the first night of Hanukkah.
That sequence of events frames time in Jerusalem, where Jewish leaders from fifty countries are gathered for the J50 forum convened by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to coordinate a global response to antisemitism.
The contrast is stark. Diaspora communities continue to absorb trauma while Israel marks the Festival of Lights, as Jewish leadership must confront a shared crisis together.
The J50 forum is not a symbolic gathering or a networking exercise. Foreign Minister Sa’ar created it to establish a standing strategic partnership between Israel and Jewish communities worldwide.
Leaders from across the Diaspora are meeting in Jerusalem for policy briefings, strategic discussions, and practical workshops on public diplomacy and communal defense. The forum maintains continuous contact with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and provides ongoing updates on security, diplomacy, and the global antisemitism landscape.
Participants are engaging with senior officials, journalists, and influencers, and hearing directly from former hostage Keith Siegel. The purpose is coordination and action.
Antisemitism no longer hides in the margins of society
Jews everywhere confront a period of danger and moral testing. That reality came into brutal focus with the murder of 15 Jews at Bondi Beach by Islamist terrorists. The attack confirmed what Australian Jewish leaders had long warned: antisemitism no longer hides at the margins. It organizes, radicalizes, and kills.
In recent weeks, Israel’s Ministry of Defense released a sobering assessment. The global surge in antisemitism does not arise organically, nor does it flow simply from political disagreement. States and terrorist organizations deliberately export violence, incitement, and ideology far beyond Israel’s borders. Rockets launched at Israeli cities do not remain confined to Israel.
Australia learned that lesson firsthand. The synagogue firebombing in Melbourne was not an isolated act of hatred. It reflected a broader campaign targeting Jewish communities far from Israel’s borders. The same actors who target Israel actively work to destabilize Jewish life worldwide. What begins in Israel never ends there.
During Israel’s campaign against Hamas, calls for a “cease-fire” from anti-Israel activists exposed their true intent. These demands did not seek peace or restraint. They demanded Jewish silence. Israel should halt its defense. Hamas and its allies, it seemed, could continue attacking Israeli civilians without consequence.
That same moral inversion now fuels violence across the Diaspora. Selective outrage and the erasure of Jewish vulnerability have moved from protest rhetoric to physical attack.
Since the truce between Israel and Hamas took effect in early October, violence against Jews worldwide has intensified. Two weeks later, attackers assaulted Yom Kippur worshippers at a synagogue in Manchester. Two months later, the violence reached Bondi Beach, where Jews gathered to celebrate Hanukkah and instead faced terror.
This sequence reflects cause and effect. When the world delegitimizes Jewish self-defense, Jewish life everywhere becomes more vulnerable.
Here in Israel, a deeper clarity is evident. Israeli society understands that security cannot be subcontracted, that moral clarity cannot be outsourced, and that Jewish continuity demands courage.
Hanukkah sharpens that understanding. The festival does not commemorate survival alone. It marks renewal after desecration, light after defilement, and faith reclaimed after betrayal. It rejects the idea that Jews must justify their existence on terms set by others.
Israel embodies that refusal.
At a time of relentless accusation, a basic truth must be repeated. Only in Israel does Judaism, Christianity, and Islam coexist freely and openly under the protection of law. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communities pray and live side by side.
That reality stands in sharp contrast to the regions controlled by the forces whose narratives dominate much of today’s international discourse.
As the year draws to a close, Jews across Israel and the Diaspora are taking stock. Not only of what was endured, but of what was learned. The connection to Israel is not abstract. It is personal and existential. Antisemitism adapts, but it never disappears. Silence remains impossible.
Hanukkah teaches that light requires intention. It does not spread on its own. In Israel and across the Jewish world, it must be kindled deliberately, with clarity, confidence, and resolve, unapologetic in defense of Jewish life, Jewish dignity, and the Jewish state.
The global war on the Jews demands responsibility and unity. The ner tamid, the eternal flame, endures through Klal Yisrael itself, the shared fate and purpose of the Jewish people.
The writer is the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the recognized central coordinating body representing 50 national Jewish organizations on issues of national and international concern. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions of all member organizations. Follow him on X/Twitter @Daroff