Rabbi Alon Meltzer, a Research Scholar in the 2025/2026 cohort of 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 Sacks-Herenstein Center, has written a widely discussed op-ed in the December 17, 2025 edition of The Washington Post. He is also a graduate of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), where he received his rabbinic ordination, 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration. The op-ed, which responded to the recent massacre on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia during a Hanukkah celebration that killed 15 Jews, is titled A Hanukkah Without Light in Australia.
In his eloquent and heartfelt essay, Rabbi Meltzer asked where are the mass protests in defense of Jews under attack around the world? 鈥淲here is the global response to the murders of Jews simply because they are Jewish? Where are the demonstrations against antisemitism? If 100,000 people can mobilize for a distant war,鈥 he wrote, referring to demonstrations against Israel that have occurred in Australia over the last two years, 鈥渟urely a million could rise up today and say: enough.鈥
He implored the global community to attack antisemitism head-on, 鈥淣ot with flowers alone. Not with thoughts and prayers. But with action. With a collective demand that antisemitism 鈥 in all its forms 鈥 is wrong and must stop now. This needs to occur in every country claiming to live by Western democratic values. We need to hear your voice!鈥
In his writing, he also described his experience after the attack, at which he lost friends, former classmates and members of his community. He was a chavrusa (learning partner) of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the local Chabad rabbi who organized the Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach and who was killed that day. 鈥淲e became close on a rabbinic mission to Israel in May,鈥 he said. He also knew Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, that trip鈥檚 coordinator, who was also killed. 鈥淗is wife has taught all my children, including one this year,鈥 he added.
While this past week has been very difficult, he has been heartened by and proud of how his rabbinical colleagues jumped into pastoral care mode, as well as the volunteerism of members of his local community. 鈥淓very person I know is somehow involved. It has been pretty incredible to watch,鈥 he added.
Rabbi Meltzer serves as the Director of Programs at Shalom Collective, a not-for-profit specializing in art and cultural programming, and as Associate Rabbi of Mizrachi Synagogue, Bondi. He has lived in Australia since his time at RIETS, and for the past eight years, his home and shul have been just a few hundred yards from Bondi Beach. Had it not been for his daughter needing to be dropped off at another Hanukkah event, he and his family would probably have been at the beach at the time of the massacre.
He closed his op-ed with a message of resilience and defiance. 鈥淓mpires rise and fall. Hatred shifts its targets. Yet we light the candles anyway,鈥 he wrote. 鈥淭his year, that message cuts painfully close to home. We will gather. We will rally. We will continue our quiet, stubborn protest 鈥 bringing light into the world one candle, one good deed at a time. We will embody the values of those who were killed. We will move forward.鈥
