Just as there was one last hostage, Ran Gvili, to bring home, world Jewry was again shaken as terrorists turned Hanukkah, the festival of light, into a bloodbath of darkness. Despair was momentary, as Australian Jewry, while mourning the victims and praying for the wounded, declared their determination to overcome.
Updates were broadcast throughout the day on Monday on Israeli radio and television, and news related to the assault was reported in the following days.
Speakers at events in Israel and the Diaspora condemned the attack, mourned the victims, and asked all present to pray for the wounded.
This was also the case on Sunday evening at the National Library, where the World Jewish Restitution Organization held its Restitution, Remembrance, and Justice conference.
Every speaker said something that linked the antisemitism of yesteryear with that of the calamity on Bondi Beach, and stressed the importance of memory.
'Remember what Amalek did to you'
For Jews, that hearkens back to biblical times when the Israelites were exhorted to “remember what Amalek did to you.”
There have been countless Amaleks throughout the centuries, and Hanukkah is a reminder of another who tried to eliminate Jewish religious heritage and traditions. Despite their best efforts, Jews as a people and Israel as a nation have continued to survive and thrive.
Because he was hosting a candlelighting event of his own, President Isaac Herzog, a former co-chair of the WJRO, sent a video in which he acknowledged that what was lost cannot be restored, but that its importance can be brought to audiences.
“Justice must be pursued,” he insisted, adding that stolen property must be restored to individuals and communities.
Herzog also mentioned the IHRA, whose leaders he will be meeting on Wednesday, and said that it symbolizes the significance of the work done by the WJRO.
WJRO president Gideon Taylor, who was unable to be in Israel at this time, also sent a video message in which he underscored the importance of justice and dignity to the Jewish people, and remarked that too often the emphasis is on stolen property.
Jewish Agency chairman Doron Almog, also speaking via video, said that restoration applies not only to assets, but to identity, memory, and dignity. “We must bring back a measure of justice,” he said.
Yad Vashem and IHRA chairman Dani Dayan said, “We cannot open this gathering without expressing our deep shock and outrage over what happened in Bondi. We mourn the victims, pray for the wounded, and stand in solidarity with the Jewish community of Australia.”
Dayan declared that hatred should be confronted with remembrance and education, and demanded that the Australian leadership take decisive action. “Far more must be done. Words are not enough anymore.”
As in the remarks of previous speakers, one of the key words in Dayan’s address was justice. “It restores not only assets, but truth,” he stated. He also maintained that “remembrance is an active responsibility. By confronting what was taken from us, we also confront what cannot be taken.”
In a panel discussion featuring Ambassador Yossi Levy, Israel’s special envoy for Holocaust era Restitution; Ellen Germain, US Department of State envoy for Holocaust issues; Ambassador Colette Avital, chairperson of the Center for Holocaust Survivors in Israel; Dr. Wesley Fisher, director of Research for the WJRO and the Claims Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, one of the truths behind the work of the WJRO emerged again and again that behind every claim, there is a story.
This was verified by Daniel Lipson, reference and digital resource librarian at the National Library, who cited objects such as photographs, books, and artifacts as pieces of identity, memory, and history.
He gave an example of a book in which attempts had been made to trace the heirs of the author or to whom the book had been given as indicated by a handwritten dedication by the author on the flyleaf.
Seeking restitution for the Holocaust
It was one of the thousands of books about the Holocaust that are in the archives of the National Library. It had traveled through at least three countries, and painstaking efforts had been made to trace its provenance, bringing other Holocaust information to light in the process.
Several speakers pointed out that one of the difficulties in seeking restitution was tracing provenance, due to law changes in different countries and changes in wording during negotiations.
Germain pointed out that while agreements were reached in immediate post-war negotiations, today’s negotiations are followed by declarations that are not legally binding.
Avital, who is a child Holocaust survivor from Romania, said that most of the research and negotiations relate to Eastern European countries.
Avital was somewhat pleased that Romania is responding better than most other countries. She also offered some balance to charges against Poland, saying that Poland was conquered first by the Nazis and then by the Communists.
Thus, she concluded, Jewish ownership of homes before the war was difficult to prove, as people had been living in those stolen or abandoned homes for 80 years or more. Fisher concurred that finding proof of provenance is not always easy.