Penembakan di Australia

“There was very little knowledge of either of these men by the authorities,” Mr. Lanyon said, adding that the police did not currently have any indication that they had any history of previous criminal offenses.

The attack, which targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, a tourist spot packed with visitors and locals, horrified Jews in Australia and beyond at the start of the festival of lights, and drew condemnation from leaders around the world.

Mr. Lanyon had declared the attack a terrorist incident on Sunday night. But on Monday, he declined to comment on whether police had any indications of the gunmen’s motives, ideological leanings or ties, saying investigators needed more time to dig.

Mr. Lanyon said that the elder gunman had a firearms license dating back about 10 years and that six weapons were registered in his name. Six firearms were recovered from the crime scene and investigation, Mr. Lanyon said, adding that the authorities would conduct ballistics and forensics tests to determine whether the weapons matched those registered to the elder suspect and used in the attack.

The police also recovered two “rudimentary” but “active” improvised explosive devices at the scene, Mr. Lanyon said.

Details are still emerging about the victims of the attack, which authorities said targeted attendees of a Hanukkah celebration held on Bondi Beach, one of Australia’s most iconic beaches.

Here’s what we know.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger

Rabbi Schlanger, the assistant rabbi in Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event, was killed in the attack.

His death was confirmed by Chabad, a global organization based in Brooklyn dedicated to strengthening and enriching Jewish life by providing religious, educational, social and cultural services around the world.

The organization said in a social media post that Rabbi Schlanger had served the Bondi community as a rabbi and chaplain for 18 years, since his marriage to his wife Chaya.

The event he organized, Hanukkah by the Sea, was intended to be “the perfect family event to celebrate light, warmth, and community,” according to a social media post on Instagram.

Rabbi Schlanger had recently said that in the face of darkness, the way forward is to “be more Jewish, act more Jewish and appear more Jewish,” according to Chabad.

In 2023, he was among a delegation of rabbis who visited Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, according to the Australian Jewish News.

Dan Elkayam

Dan Elkayam, a French citizen, was among the victims of the attack, President Emmanuel Macron said on social media on Sunday.

“It is with deep sadness that I learn of the death of our compatriot Dan Elkayam in the antisemitic terrorist attack in Sydney,” he said. “My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.” Mr. Elkayam had been celebrating Hanukkah at the event in Sydney, Chabad said in a social media post.

Alex Kleytman

Mr. Kleytman, a native of Ukraine, was killed in Sunday’s shooting, Chabad said on Sunday. A survivor of the Holocaust from Ukraine, Mr. Kleytman had attended the event with his children and grandchildren, the organization said.

He died shielding his wife, Larisa, from the gunman’s bullets, the group added. He is survived by his wife, his two children and 11 grandchildren.

Reuven Morrison

Mr. Morrison, a businessman originally from the Soviet Union, “discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney,” Chabad said. He spent his time in between Melbourne, where he and his wife moved for his daughter’s education, and Sydney, where he did business, the group added.

The Injured

Arsen Ostrovsky, who told the news media that he had moved only two weeks ago from Israel to Australia, where he will lead the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, was wounded in the attack. He said in interviews with Australian news outlets that he had seen at least one gunman “firing randomly in all directions.” A bullet grazed his head, he said later in a post on X, but added that he would make a full recovery.

Aaron Boxerman and Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting.

“It’s not a new thing to wake up and read stories like this. It feels almost normalized,” said Rabbi Rachel Simmons, 38, of Temple Beth El in Portland, Maine, who said preparations were already underway to protect a communitywide Hanukkah party later this week. “We will definitely have armed guards, and we’ve spoken with local police about increasing their presence.”

Antisemitic hate crimes have risen swiftly in the United States since 2021. Attacks in Boulder, Colo., and Washington this year stoked anxiety among Jews around the country, and the violence in Australia seemed likely to escalate the tension.

By noon on Sunday, many of the rabbis contacted by The New York Times had communicated with congregants, sending messages of sadness and hope, and drawing connections between the attack and Hanukkah, a holiday that celebrates the Jewish people’s resilience in the face of adversity.

Rabbi Rafi Spitzer, 35, of Schenectady, was up late on Saturday when he learned the news. His wife was set to return from a weeklong trip, and at 11:30 p.m. the rabbi was cleaning the kitchen, where dishes had piled up over the course of the Shabbat holiday.

“It’s hard to ignore the feeling of being under siege,” Rabbi Spizter said. His Conservative synagogue, Congregation Agudat Achim, is already in touch with local law enforcement officials and the F.B.I. about its scheduled holiday events.

“We already had a security plan that was more extensive than anything we’d done before,” he said, “because it already was the case that that felt necessary.”

Rabbi Robbie Schaefer of the Har Shalom synagogue in Missoula, Mont., expressed concern about his own slate of holiday events, though he said there would be an armed guard at the synagogue, as there is every time his congregation gathers.

“Given the small size of the community and the small size of the town, we don’t have much of an option to increase security on short notice,” he said.

New York City’s police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon that there would be increased security for Hanukkah-related gatherings in the city.

“This is not an isolated incident,” she said of the Australia attack. “It is part of a wider assault on Jewish life. Jewish communities are being forced to confront a threat that is persistent, adaptive and, as evidenced yet again today, global in scope.”

Several rabbis were eager to talk about the broader political context of the attack, connecting it to Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza, which over the course of two years has ignited fierce protest around the world. Some of the rabbis said that the political atmosphere in the United States, and the increasing acceptance of slogans that they saw as calling for the destruction of Israel, had paved the way for attacks like the one at Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, 66, of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a reform congregation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said that while criticism of Israel was entirely legitimate, calls for abolishing the Jewish state had led to “increased hostility toward Jews and Jewish institutions.”

“We have to agree on certain basic red lines,” he said. “We cannot normalize and tolerate the destruction of Israel.”

But others urged caution and careful analysis when asked to situate the attack in a broader global context.

Rabbi Daniel Kirzane, 40, who leads the reform synagogue of KAM Isaiah Israel in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, said that while there was often a temptation to paint all antisemitic acts as fundamentally similar, there were key differences that could lead to broader understanding. He noted, for example, that earlier this year, Australia accused Iran of directing arson attacks on Jewish institutions in the country.

State-sponsored antisemitism, he said, was a world away from what he experienced “in diverse, sleepy Hyde Park,” where this year there have been several instances of anti-Jewish graffiti that have demanded a very different response.

KAM Isaiah Israel was scheduled to hold a rededication ceremony Sunday evening for its newly restored sanctuary. Four hundred people had registered to attend, and the synagogue had already planned to have heightened security and a major police presence.

“I wonder if some people will choose not to come, and I wonder if some people will make a point to come,” Rabbi Kirzane said.

Almost every rabbi interviewed dwelt on the resonance between the attack and Hanukkah itself and emphasized the importance of celebrating the Jewish people, even in dark times.

Sarah Fort, a rabbi at Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, which she said was the largest Conservative synagogue in the country, said that the holiday was a time when “we have to be publicly Jewish.”

“We are commanded to bring light to the darkness,” she said. “And the time when Jews feel most scared to do so is a time like now.”

Chelsia Rose Marcius contributed reporting.

Officials have not identified the bystander and The New York Times has not verified his identity.

Chris Minns, the premier of the state of New South Wales, told reporters on Sunday that he had seen the video. “That man is a genuine hero,” he said. “And I’ve got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery.”

At a news conference on Monday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia commended emergency medical workers and ordinary civilians who had risked their lives to help others.

“People rushing toward danger, to show the best of the Australian character, that’s who we are, people who stand up for our values,” Mr. Albanese said.

Responding to the footage on Sunday, Mr. Minns shook his head and said: “Unbelievable. It’s the most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen. A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and single-handedly disarming him. Putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people.”

President Trump, speaking at the White House on Sunday afternoon, echoed that praise. “A very, very brave person,” Mr. Trump said. The man, he added, “saved a lot of lives.”

Several cities with large Jewish populations said they would increase police protection at synagogues and public celebrations.

Both the New York Police Department and the Metropolitan Police in London said they would increase patrols for Jewish celebrations on Sunday night.

“We are deploying additional resources to public Hanukkah celebrations and synagogues out of an abundance of caution,” the N.Y.P.D. said in a statement on social media.

In Canada, home to the world’s fourth-largest Jewish population, the authorities said they would bolster security in Jewish communities on Sunday and throughout the Hanukkah holiday.

“This is a proactive measure to ensure the safety and security of the community,” the Toronto Police Service said in a statement.

There are just over 400,000 Canadian Jews, representing about 1.5 percent of the country’s population, according to the 2021 census. Anti-Jewish offenses were the most frequently reported hate crime in 2024 in Toronto, according to police data.

Community leaders have been raising the alarm over growing instances of antisemitism, including attacks on synagogues and schools and damage to Jewish-owned businesses.

“This response reflects the gravity of the current threat environment,” said Rabbi Saul Emanuel, director of the Jewish Community Council in Montreal, speaking of the local police response. He said there was a “clear need for visible, proactive policing to protect Jewish families gathering publicly during Hanukkah.”

Across the world, offenses against Jewish people and property have doubled or even tripled since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

In Australia, Jews have endured a series of antisemitic attacks in the last 12 months. Synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne have been targeted with attempted arson and graffiti, while a Jewish day care center and an Israeli restaurant have been attacked.

In Britain, a man attacked a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. Two people were killed while worshiping, one of whom was accidentally struck by police bullets. The police also killed the attacker.

And American Jews have faced a year of violence.

In April, an arsonist set fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion on the first night of Passover while Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, slept upstairs with his family. In May, two Israeli Embassy employees were shot and killed as they left a reception at a Jewish museum in Washington, alarming Jews in the capital.

And in June, a man firebombed marchers who had gathered in Boulder, Colo., to express support for Israeli hostages. An 82-year-old woman who was injured in that attack later died.

Matina Stevis-Gridneff contributed reporting.

The group’s chapter in Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, was hosting a Hanukkah event on Sunday when gunmen targeted the celebration, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more.

Chabad began in Czarist Russia as a mystical movement about 250 years ago and spread across the country in the 19th century. Based for decades in a Russian town called Lubavitch, the group went underground after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and remained active in the Soviet Union, where its followers were persecuted, arrested and even executed.

The modern organization grew in the late 1940s after the Holocaust devastated Jewish communities in Europe. Today, Chabad says it runs a network of about 6,500 emissary families, with about 2,500 in the United States. Almost 200 emissaries are currently operating in Australia, according to Moni Ender, a Chabad spokesman in Israel.

Chabad is a Hebrew acronym for chochmah, meaning wisdom; binah, meaning comprehension; and da’at, or knowledge — three faculties at the heart of the movement’s religious philosophy. Male followers generally wear the black-and-white clothing of ultra-Orthodox Jews, while women cover their natural hair with scarves or wigs, in line with strict rules of modesty.

The organization’s institutions and emissaries have been the targets of attacks before. In 2008, the Chabad house in Mumbai, India, came under attack during a coordinated terrorist assault by gunmen in and around the city’s commercial center.

Gunmen held the occupants of the Chabad house hostage and killed the emissaries, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, and four other people. The couple’s infant son Moshe was saved by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel, who managed to escape with him.

In November 2024, an Israeli Chabad rabbi, Zvi Kogan, was abducted and killed in the United Arab Emirates in what Israeli officials said was an act of terrorism. Rabbi Kogan, a dual citizen of Israel and Moldova, was a Chabad emissary to Abu Dhabi. The Emirati authorities later sentenced three Uzbek nationals to death for what an Abu Dhabi court called a “premeditated murder with terrorist intention.”

A month ago, the Chabad of Bondi held a memorial service honoring the Holtzbergs and Rabbi Kogan.

Chabad has been led by a dynasty of charismatic rabbis. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, widely known as the Rebbe, revived and expanded the movement after World War II and led it until his death in 1994.

The seventh leader of the dynasty, he had succeeded his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who died in 1950. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson did not name a successor. Revered by many Jews as one of the most influential spiritual leaders of the last century, some followers consider him to be the Messiah.

“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”

The mass shooting came at a time when Australia’s Jewish community was already on edge, after enduring a series of alarming antisemitic attacks.

Some Jewish organizations say the episodes intensified after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the ensuing war in Gaza, which have also spurred Islamophobic episodes in Australia.

“Our figures for antisemitic incidents are off the scale — of a level that we’ve never seen in the more than 30 years that we’ve been monitoring and collecting data,” Daniel Aghion, the president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Sky News on Sunday, noting the recent spate of arson attacks.

“The last two years have been horrific for us,” he added, noting the rising instances of antisemitism around the world.

Australia is home to a significant number of Holocaust survivors. Late last year, the Australian police formed a federal task force to investigate antisemitic violence and threats.

In August, Australia accused Iran of directing arson attacks against a Jewish business and a synagogue. It severed diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled Iranian diplomats from Australian soil.

And in the past 12 months, synagogues in Sydney and Melbourne have been targeted with attempted arson and graffiti. Other Jewish institutions, including a day care center and an Israeli restaurant, have also been attacked.

“How many times did we warn the Government?” the Australian Jewish Association said on Sunday in a post on Facebook. “We never felt once that they listened.”

The police and the country’s leaders called the shootings a targeted attack on Jewish Australians. Law enforcement officials called the shooting a terrorist attack.

Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the police had found and disabled two improvised explosives devices in a nearby vehicle that is linked to the suspect who was killed. The suspects’ names have not been released yet.

One witness video shows dozens of people running out of the water and away from the beach as gunshots rang out. Another, verified by The New York Times, shows a bystander — who local authorities called a hero — tackling and disarming one of the gunmen.

Jewish people have increasingly been targeted since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In Britain, a man attacked a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. And American Jews have faced a year of violence.

Here is what we know so far about the Australia shooting:

Hundreds had gathered to mark the Jewish holiday.

The mass shooting happened around 6:45 p.m. at Bondi Beach, one of Sydney’s most popular tourist destinations that stretches over 3,000 feet long and draws hundreds of thousands of people each year.

An event hosted by the Chabad organization was taking place at the beach to celebrate the first day of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah when the gunmen opened fire.

“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia said in a televised address.

Witnesses said they heard many gunshots.

Ebonny Munro was at the beach with her 17-month-old baby when she heard gunshots. She dived under a metal barbecue with another man. She said she heard bullets ricocheting off the barbecue and smelled gunpowder from above.

She said the shooting lasted around 10 minutes and she witnessed at least one person being shot. “I was about to leave, and I just heard this pop,” Ms. Munro said.

Finn Foster, 18, a backpacker from Canada, said he and his girlfriend had been headed to McDonald’s to get ice cream when they heard what sounded like fireworks.

“Pow, pow, pow,” he said. “Like 15 or 20.”

Mass shootings are rare in Australia.

Mass shootings are rare in Australia because of the country’s strict gun laws. The nation has one of the lowest gun-related death rates in the developed world.

The country overhauled its gun laws after a massacre in 1996, when 35 people were killed by a single gunman in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur. Following the shooting, public anger prompted the government to ban assault rifles and many other semiautomatic rifles and shotguns.

It also imposed new registration requirements and imposed gun buybacks that removed up to a third of privately held guns from circulation and melted down up to a million guns.

Who were some of the victims?

As the authorities worked to notify the next of kin of those killed and injured — who ranged in age from 10 to 87, according to the authorities — some of their identities began to emerge.

Chabad, the Jewish movement that organized the event at Bondi, identified one of the victims as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, saying he was an assistant rabbi of Chabad of Bondi and a “devoted” chaplain who worked tirelessly as a Chabad emissary. Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, said on social media that Rabbi Schlanger had deep roots to the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Chabad also named two more people who were killed in the attack: Reuven Morrison, a member of the Chabad community who divided his time between Melbourne and Sydney; and Alex Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor who attended the event with his children and grandchildren.

Dan Elkayam, a French citizen, was among those killed in the attack, President Emmanuel Macron of France said on social media.

What we know about the suspects.

Investigators did not release the names of the suspects, but described them as a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son. The older man died after being shot by police and the younger man sustained “critical injuries,” the police said on Monday morning.

Although officials described the shooting as a terrorist attack, Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon of the New South Wales Police Force declined to comment on the suspects’ ideology, saying that investigators needed time to dig. The police were not searching for any other assailants, he said.

Although Commissioner Lanyon said that one of the suspects had been known to the police, he said investigators had no indication that either man had been planning the shooting.

Johnny Diaz contributed reporting.

The authorities essentially banned assault rifles and many other semiautomatic rifles, as well as shotguns. They imposed mandatory gun buybacks that took as many as one in three privately held guns out of circulation, and, according to some estimates, melted down as many as one million guns. They also imposed new registration requirements and restrictions on gun purchases.

It was unclear what types of guns were used on Sunday by two gunmen who killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday evening, according to the police. One of the gunmen was killed at the scene, the police said, and one was in custody.

For two decades after the 1996 attack, there were no mass shootings in Australia. In 2018, a man killed six members of his own family and then himself.

American supporters of gun control, including former President Barack Obama, have pointed to Australia’s strict regulations as a guide to limiting such events in the United States.