12-18-2025 10:19pm

Landsman Statement on Deadly Antisemitic Attack in Australia

Beth Callahan Editor

WARREN COUNTY, OH – On Sunday, Congressman Greg Landsman released the following statement after nearly a dozen people were killed in Australia in an attack targeting a Jewish celebration:

The terrorist attack on Jews in Australia celebrating the first night of Hanukkah was horrific. I’m praying for the victims, families, and the entire community. For context, there are around 100,000 Jews in Australia. The recent rise of antisemitism has gotten so bad that many feel like they may have to leave Australia.

Since October 7th, there have been more than 1,500 reported incidents against Jews in Australia, including arson attacks on Jewish synagogues, childcare facilities, and small businesses. This is how the Holocaust started. The Nazis vandalized and destroyed Jewish spaces.

That was the start.

Almost all of the 15.8 million Jews in the world (fewer Jews in the world than Americans on the ACA, just for perspective) live in two places – here and Israel. No one else wants us.

*Jews represent only 0.2 percent of the world’s population, which someone on X reminded me of when they wrote, in a much used Antisemitic trope, that the concentration of wealth and power was a specific number, “0.2 percent.”

If Jews in Australia have to leave, some may be able to get here. Some. But, like Jews that have had to leave every other country they were living in, Israel is the only place that will take all of them. In the end, Jews have one place they can go. Israel, which is surrounded by terrorist armies that want to destroy it.

I have enormous empathy for all people, especially those who have been marginalized and left out. I have empathy for everyone hurt in Australia. The same is true for those killed and hurt at Brown University.

The same is true for all victims of hate and violence. My empathy extends to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. My empathy extends to those suffering in the Sudan, the Congo, Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan. Everywhere.

My empathy just also includes Jews.

Praying for peace today.