For Australian IDF soldiers, Bondi shooting triggered memories of Oct. 7

In other parts of Israel, U., an army medic, and G., a soldier, were trying to call friends and family to check if they were safe.

All three are Australian olim (new immigrants) in their early 20s.

While the community was reeling from the attack, some of its young members were serving in the IDF on the other side of the world. These soldiers have spent recent months trying to reconcile the fear they felt for their community in their supposedly safe home, with their desire to serve and protect Israel.

Y. was born in Israel but grew up between Sydney and New Zealand, before returning to Israel at 18 to serve in the army. He is in the Hesder program, which combines army service with yeshiva (religious studies) and was a soldier in the 933rd Nahal Infantry Brigade.

U. is Israeli and grew up in Melbourne. She was a member of the Israeli Scouts, and joined its affiliate Garin Tzabar, a lone soldier program. She has recently finished her service as a medic in the IDF after three years.

G. was born in Melbourne, made aliyah, and is currently serving in the elite infantry Golani Brigade, where he has been for the last year.

Y. sat in his class, struggling to concentrate. Being on the other side of the world during such a frightening moment as the Bondi attack “was a very weird feeling.” He spoke about his time in Gaza, when he was “in more danger than [his] family usually is in Australia.”

“During your service they are always worrying about you, and since they can’t see you, there is a constant worry, especially when you are far away and don’t know what’s going on,” but he wasn’t prepared to have the roles reversed and be the one scared for the safety of his family there.

Y's father is a rabbi in Sydney’s North Shore, on the other side of the city from where Bondi Beach is, and he was on stage, giving a speech at a parallel Chabad Hanukkah event when the attack was taking place.

The short message, “Don’t worry guys, we’re all okay. There’s been a terror attack,” stuck with him all day.

Fear and concern immediately coursed through his body, he said, adding with a bit of a nervous laugh that “it’s not really reassuring when you hear ‘don’t worry’ and ‘terror attack’ in the same sentence.”

U. and G. said that even though they are from Melbourne and not Sydney, it was frightening to learn about the attack.

U. described how “the fear of the unknown really took over in that moment.” She didn’t really understand what was happening but quickly began calling family and friends to check that they were okay.

U's madrichah (group leader) in Garin Tzabar was murdered on Oct. 7 at the Supernova music festival. “The fear of the unknown kind of took me back to that time,” she said, “but it was a very different fear of the unknown.”

G. summed up the atmosphere in the Australian Jewish community in one word: “tense,” saying that everybody is on edge, afraid of another antisemitic attack.

He heard rumors that people are taking mezuzot off of their doors, and hiding Jewish symbols on themselves, such as school logos or kippot (skull caps). “From personal experience there has always been antisemitism, but it’s never been this bad.”

U. added that “our whole lives, we’ve always known that countries hate Israel and countries hate Jews, and it’s never been a thing that’s been really hidden.

“I think it was always in the back of our mind that we always want to be with the Jewish people and help wherever we can and however we can,” the lone soldier said, “but I think families and friends… no one expected it to reach Australia and the shock factor was… 10 times what anything should have been.”

Until this attack, the concern was always when and how they could help Israel. Now the roles have been flipped, and “it’s struck close to home” – both literally and figuratively.

Y. spoke about the community feeling let down or failed by the Australian government, saying that there’s a big sense of betrayal. He noted that people had been expressing concerns about antisemitic incidents for the last two years, which they felt the government had failed to appropriately address.

“People were surprised that the attack happened in such a public way… at a very public beach with lots of non-Jewish people and tourists,” rather than at a shul, school, or other Jewish place.

In the hours after the news of the attack broke, many Australian news sites were still not reporting on the attack’s antisemitic nature. Y. described trying to find more information after learning about the attack from his family, and not seeing that a Hanukkah event had been targeted.

“It was a terror attack in Bondi, a mass shooting, but it didn’t really specify [it’s antisemitic nature] unless you scrolled down. That was really concerning,” he said with a sigh.

The Nahal soldier also addressed the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s failure to launch a Royal Commission into the shooting until almost a month after it happened, explaining that the delay felt like a further betrayal.

Such a commission is Australia’s most authoritative, independent form of public inquiry, established by the government to investigate matters of significant public importance.

Albanese initially argued that “a short, sharp probe” conducted into intelligence and law enforcement failures would provide faster answers for victims’ families and the Jewish community than a Royal Commission, which can take months and even years.

The commission is expected to report its findings by December 14th, 2026 – a year after the attack.

Y. felt that Albanese’s announcement of a Royal Commission was “a bit in bad taste.” He was skeptical of the motives behind the commission, asking, “Do you really want to do it or are you doing it because you want to save your job?”

On the other hand, the young Australian felt that Chris Minns, the New South Wales premier, had supported the community. He said that they “feel like he was actually trying to come and fix what happened, and was a lot more on their side.”

“If I could get a message to all the Jews all over the world, and explain to them about being a soldier right now,” G. said, “it would be that there is absolutely nothing that is easy about making that decision.”

He spoke about the importance of showing Israel to children and allowing them to understand “what Israel is and why it’s so important for all the Jews.” Before he came to the Jewish state, he never really had a strong connection to it, but once he visited, his whole life was massively changed.

U. said that experiencing fear and uncertainty that is coming from Australia, not from Israel, left her feeling helpless. While she was on the other side of the world helping the only Jewish country, her home country was under attack.

“What really helped a lot of us during the war since Oct. 7, that we didn’t have when this happened in Australia, was being with friends,” she said.

“As lone soldiers in Israel, we have each other through messages but it’s not the same as getting to see people every day, because we are all in different roles, in different areas of the country.”

U. explained that “it’s a really beautiful part of life here, that if I need help, I can tell a group chat and someone will immediately jump in to help: there is a really nice community.”

Despite the distance, the power of community is still strong. Y., U., and G. all acknowledged the importance of having a strong support network both in Israel and worldwide.

G. put it clearly: “Jewish people around the world and Jewish people in Israel: it doesn’t matter who you are, where you are from, what you’ve done, or what you choose - we all stand together, no matter what.”

When these young people came to Israel, they believed they were leaving safety behind and traveling across the world to fight for the Jewish state. After the Bondi attack, they learned that safety in Australia was never guaranteed – it was a fragile idea, one that could be shattered in an instant.