Herzog halts lone immigrant ceremony to condemn Sydney Hanukkah attack

President Isaac Herzog paused a ceremony honoring lone immigrants to condemn the Hanukkah attack in Sydney and urge Australia to take stronger action against rising antisemitism.

President Isaac Herzog on Sunday disrupted an awards ceremony for outstanding lone immigrants at the President’s Residence to notify all present of the terrorist attack on a Chabad Hanukkah candle-lighting event at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia. Herzog urged the Australian government to take greater action against the huge wave of antisemitism sweeping across the island continent.

Bondi is a suburb with a large Jewish population and several synagogues and other Jewish religious and secular institutions. At the time that Herzog was speaking, the total number of fatalities and wounded had not yet been released.

Other speakers who joined Herzog in condemning the scurrilous attack were Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer and WZO chairman Yaakov Hagoel.

Sofer, who was in Australia last month, said that even though the Australian Jewish community is geographically far away, it is very close to Israel in its Zionist ideology, and there is a strong desire among many to make aliyah.

Hagoel said that Jews should have the same rights as other people to live wherever they want, though he would encourage them to come to Israel.

The Lone Immigrants Prize

The Lone Immigrants Prize is awarded annually by the aliyah and integration minister to young people who have taken the courageous step to leave their families and countries of origin to link their futures with that of the State of Israel.

They join the Israel Defense Forces, on both the battlefront and the home front, or sign up for civilian National Service. They continue to contribute to Israel on completion of their service by engaging in volunteer activities. They also join the workforce, and many become university students.

Of those who joined the IDF, several unfortunately fell in battle.

Prizes were also awarded to NGOs that care for lone immigrants to provide them with a social environment and to ensure that they are not alone. One NGO also helps new immigrants with professional backgrounds in technology.

Herzog, as a former chairman of the Jewish Agency, said that he is always emotionally moved when he sees a new immigrant alight from a plane and bend to kiss the ground.

He compared immigrants to the hanukkiah: One candle is lit, and then each night, another, and another. He referred to immigrants as the “menorah of Israel.” (The menorah is Israel’s symbol of state).

“We have immigrants from all over the world who add to the menorah of Israel,” he said.

Relating specifically to lone soldiers, Sofer emphasized the importance of honoring them on the festival of the Maccabees.

He had met many lone soldiers over the past two years, he said, and regretfully noted that he had met parents of those who had paid the supreme sacrifice only after the soldier’s death. Some of those parents, he added, subsequently made aliyah.

The committee that had examined all the nominations was headed by Israel Prize laureate Miriam Peretz, who is known as the “Mother of the Soldiers.”

Peretz, who lost two of her soldier sons, has for years been visiting soldiers on army bases to bring them food, comfort, and pep talks.

Usually a dramatic and compelling orator, Peretz on this occasion lowered her tone so as not to distract from the stories of the immigrants.

She has chaired many committees, she said, but when invited by Sofer to chair this one, it was the highlight of the various positions she has held because she herself came to Israel with her family, in 1964, as an eight-year-old child.

Born to illiterate parents in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, she recalled that every night before she went to sleep, her father would talk about going to Jerusalem, where one could find milk and honey beneath the trees.

One day, he said that everyone must get ready because the Messiah had come. The children had expected him to come dressed in white robes and riding a white horse. But he wasn’t riding anything. He was wearing a tricot T-shirt and shorts. He was the emissary from the Jewish Agency who had come to take them and others to Israel.

They did not initially go to Jerusalem, nor did they find the milk and honey. They were sent to a transit camp where they lived from 1964 to 1969. They faced many hardships, “but what was important was that we were in Israel.”

Peretz acknowledged that her family paid a heavy price for living in this land and said that she knew that latter-day immigrants have struggled and continue to struggle with an uneasy reality, yet so many put out a helping hand to others to ensure that they do not feel alone.

“You are a light in the tower of the state,” she told the award recipients.