Resilience on the Final Night of Hanukkah in Hamilton - Remembering the Victims of Bondi Beach

On the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, members of Hamilton’s Jewish community gathered alongside friends, neighbours, and allies for a celebration marked by both resilience and grief.

Between candle blessings and song, the community paused to remember the victims of the jihadi terrorist murders at Bondi Beach—an act of hatred that shocked many, but that Jewish residents warned was neither random nor disconnected from the broader rise of antisemitism facing Jews today.

Hamilton's Jewish community gathers to remember the victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack and commemorate the 8th night of Hanukkah, the triumph of light over darkness.

In Hamilton, as in cities across Canada, Jewish organizations and leaders have raised alarms about rising antisemitism and the normalization of anti-Zionist rhetoric that embraces open hostility toward Jews. Slogans such as “globalize the intifada” are not merely political chants; they are calls for unrepentant violence against Jewish people around the world. For a community still reckoning with generations of trauma, seeing such language echoed locally has served as a chilling reminder of how old hatreds reassert themselves when left unchallenged.

Hanukkah, at its core, commemorates the triumph of light over darkness and the victory of perseverance over persecution. It offers a moral frame through which to understand this moment: to reject extremism and to remember our shared duty to treat others as we ourselves would hope to be treated.

“Jewish families in Hamilton deserve to feel safe, respected, and fully at home in our city. Antisemitism has no place here—none of us should be silent in the face of hatred.” MP John-Paul Danko, Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas