Editorial: We choose the light

For the vast majority of Australians, the horrific shooting at Chanukah by the Sea at Bondi Beach on Sunday night is just something they saw on TV.

For those who were there, it is a very real and heavy trauma that will forever reshape their lives. Some will be devastated, some will be driven to do great things, many more will just figure out how to cope and try to get on with it. None will forget it.

I personally fall into a third category. I wasn’t there, but I knew people who were. I knew people who were killed. I know people still in hospital. I keep seeing photos, like the one above, and recognise the people and places – because I met Alex Ryvchin at synagogue and his wife was in some classes with me, and I used to walk past the Pavillion all the time, not because of what I’ve seen on TV. It’s not as visceral and confronting as those who heard the shots and the screams, but it still affects you deeply.

Tragedy and trauma like this often brings out the best in people. We praise the heros, thank the first responders, console those who have lost, and rise to unite and care for our community.

For the politicians, however, it brings out the worst. Performative press releases and social media posts, knee-jerk policy reactions, claims and counter-claims. With information still broken and incomplete, and not knowing how to respond to such terror, they lurch from issue to issue in search of more well trodden ground and ‘something they can do’ – or at least be seen to be doing. Immigration, gun laws, policing levels, anything to fill the void and hide their weakness and incompetence. (The only real leaders I have seen this week are the Rabbis – with a nod to Julian Leeser as possibly the only dignified response from a politician thus far.)

The media have not done much better. Asking really stupid questions, digging obsessively for someone or something to blame, a gotcha moment or exclusive. So many clearly unbriefed talking heads asking Jews really offensive things, and two days into rolling coverage still mispronouncing terms like Chabad, teffilin, even Chanukah, like we live in a world where you can’t type ‘how to pronounce’ followed by literally any word into google and get both phonetics and a video.

For those who weren’t there and don’t have any connection to anyone who was, particularly those who have been on a ‘Jews are evil’ kick for the last couple of years, the confronting nature of the event causes reactions of the ugliest kind. The ambulances were still on scene when people started claiming the event was faked. Watching the obsessive outrage to every little morsel of misinformation on social media is like drowning in a flood of misdirected anger. And those objecting to shows of support for the Jewish community like it’s some kind of affront to the non-Jews caught in the cross fire is honestly the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.

Most media agencies would see this kind of tragedy as an opportunity to delve into saturation coverage and rack up the clicks. I have chosen to pass on that, instead instructing my team to do no more than one story a day, and to try and focus on the light, not the dark.

New England Times will not be delving into conspiracies and wallowing in grief. We will not be forensically examining everything that is said and done with timelines and commentary. We most certainly will not get sucked into the vortex of defining antisemitism or diagnosing the ‘real problem’, nor analysing the visa status of all of those involved and affected.

We will cover the events when there is something to report. We will not let this story, as horrific as it is, to block out everything else.

Chanukah by the Sea is like Jewish Carols by Candlelight – a family friendly night out with presents and food and joy. We owe it to the lives lost and irrevocably changed by this tragedy to bring the light of Chanukah back to defeat the darkness.

We need to grieve, we need to bury our dead, and we need to remember why they were there in the first place and fight to get that joy back.

Our site may be only one tiny corner of the internet, but we choose the light.

May you all enjoy a peaceful and happy holiday, whether Chanukah, Christmas, or just a well earned break.

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