Long before the attack at Bondi Beach, the unceasing rhetoric — whether demonizing Israel or peddling conspiracy theories about Jews — created an environment in which violence was likely to take root.

Tragically, it has.

"Globalize the intifada,” many continue to insist, is simply a nonthreatening rallying cry. But we remember the intifadas in Israel. We remember the years when buses, cafés, nightclubs, and pizzerias became scenes of frequent carnage.

The latest consequence of this incitement became horrifically clear when a father and son opened fire on Jewish families celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney, killing at least 15 and injuring many more.

This is a globalized intifada.

After such violent attacks, political leaders often offer condemnations and extend thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families. That’s no longer sufficient. These same political leaders around the world — including here in New York — must loudly and clearly condemn the hateful rhetoric and demonization of Israel that incite violence and drive these attacks.

Following the events in Sydney, law enforcement officials in London and Manchester, England — the site of a recent deadly attack against Jews in shul on Yom Kippur — announced they would now arrest protestors chanting “globalize the intifada.” The same rule should be adopted by our lawmakers here. While the First Amendment protects a very wide range of speech, including abhorrent political expression, it does not protect speech that incites physical harm against a particular person or group.

And if words matter, so do our actions.

On Sunday evening, the first night of Hanukkah, we joined with Chabad, Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, and many other local synagogues and elected officials to hold a community candlelighting and vigil at Carl Schurz Park. Many hundreds of community members, far more than would normally attend a menorah lighting, gathered in the frigid cold to say clearly: We will not retreat from Jewish life.

Of course, communal safety remains a top priority. Which is why this week, in addition to the many millions of dollars we’re now spending annually for communal security, we allocated $100,000 to our Community Security Initiative (CSI) to support microgrants for enhanced security at outdoor Hanukkah events.

This week also brought further pain with the horrifying deadly shooting at Brown University, where many families in our community have children studying, as well as the related killing of a professor at MIT. We still do not know the motive of the shooter, but the anxiety is very real. With UJA’s support, our partner the Jewish Board mobilized quickly to offer one-on-one consultations and virtual support groups for students and parents with licensed mental health professionals.

And back to Sydney…this time for an incredibly inspiring act of heroism and courage. Ahmed al Ahmed, a Muslim, risked his own life to stop the attack against Jews — wrestling the gun away from one of the shooters and sustaining two gunshot wounds. He undoubtedly saved many lives and serves as an extraordinary example of humanity and hope.  

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All of this happening in a single week aligns with a year, now drawing to a close, that felt like history unfolding in fast-forward. Who can forget that this time last year, Israel was still at war, and the hostages remained trapped in the tunnels of Gaza. Or how in June, a fierce 12-day war erupted with Iran.

And who will ever forget how on October 13, 2025, miraculously, they came home. After 738 harrowing days, we watched as the last 20 living hostages returned. Even as our hearts soared, we grieved for those who did not come back, including Ran Gvili, z”l, whose body remains in Gaza.

During my last visit to Israel in November, I heard from the head of JDC-Israel, our longtime partner, about the 800,000 newly vulnerable in Israel since October 7, a stark reminder that returning to anything resembling normalcy will take many years.

As one of the first and largest funders on the ground, UJA has allocated more than $300 million since October 7, now focused on helping rebuild Israel’s hardest-hit regions, expand trauma care, support bereaved families, and ensure long-term recovery. 

This year, we also saw antisemitism surge across the globe. Sydney was no outlier; it came on the heels of attacks in Washington, D.C., Colorado, and Manchester — and almost daily antisemitic incidents on the streets of New York. In response, we’ve continued to expand our work fighting antisemitism across K–12 schools, college campuses, and workplaces — strengthening education and building bridges with other communities. And we’re significantly increasing the security capabilities of CSI.

We’re also dramatically scaling our efforts to spur Jewish civic engagement at every level of state and local government.

Across our community, rising costs and food insecurity grew into a more urgent challenge in the face of government reductions. This year, UJA allocated $14 million to address poverty and hunger, and when the shutdown strained basic services, we added $1 million in emergency funds to keep food pantries stocked and provide urgent cash assistance. We’re also allocating an additional $4 million in workforce development and volunteer programs to help people meet the new federal work requirements to maintain food subsidy benefits.

In parallel to all these challenges, something extraordinary happened: Jewish pride grew. Synagogues filled. Shabbat tables expanded. Young people sought out community wherever they could find it. We increased access to Jewish day schools through our Day School Tuition Fund, and we invested $80 million overall to support Jewish life in all its expressions — from food festivals to summer camps to a world-record-breaking Shabbat dinner.

As we reflect on the incredibly turbulent and challenging year that was, Hanukkah should remain our north star. At its core, it’s a story of a small community that refuses to give in. Rededicates itself to its values. And continues to bring much light to the world.

As should we.

So let’s rededicate in the coming year to becoming even more engaged with communal needs, more involved in growing allyship, more committed to working across difference in our own Jewish community.

If we do this, we take our Jewish future into our own hands. We decide how our community lives in 2026 and far beyond. And we emerge a stronger and more united people.

Shabbat shalom, happy Hanukkah — and an early happy new year