The brother of a healthcare volunteer shot during a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community at Bondi Beach has urged his community to remain brave and resist hiding or minimising their identity and faith despite rising antisemitism in the country.
Yaakov “Yanky” Super, 24, was injured while working at the Chanukah by the Sea event for Hatzolah, a medical service dedicated to providing emergency care at Jewish events and to members of the community.
Two gunmen, father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram, opened fire into the crowd, killing 15 people and injuring 40 during the worst mass shooting in Australia since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
Yaakov “Yanky” Super was shot in the back while volunteering at the Chanukah by the Sea event in Bondi. (Supplied)
Yaakov’s brother, Mendel Super, says Yaakov was shot in the back while another bullet grazed his shoulder.
“His life was saved by other members of Hatzolah who were there at the scene and risked their lives running under fire to help him and to help others,” Mendel said.
Read more on the Bondi Beach shooting:
While his lungs were damaged by the bullet’s impact, Mendel said his brother was now “on the long road to recovery”.
The brothers grew up in Melbourne and Yaakov had moved to Sydney for work, while Mendel is now serving as a rabbi in a US synagogue.
Sense of betrayal
Mendel says while the violence was shocking, it was also not surprising to many in the Jewish community.
“Australian Jews have been warning the government about this for three years now, and, you know, the action has been very slow and not enough,” Mendel said.
“I think there’s just an overwhelming sense of betrayal, people are telling me, and I myself, as an Australian citizen, I feel like we’ve been betrayed by our government.
“If there’s one job the government has, it’s to keep the citizens of the country safe and [on Sunday] the government failed the Jewish citizens of Sydney, and they failed my brother by not taking heed to the warnings.”
Floral tributes placed at the scene of the Bondi attack. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)
He also urged his community not to resile from representing their faith and culture in the Australian community, despite the fear of being targeted.
Video shows second civilian confronting Bondi gunman
“The response that Jews need to have when things like this happen can never be to cower, to lay down, to try bury ourselves, to hide who we are,” he said.
“I think that when we, as Jewish people, react in that way, this is giving terrorists the victory that they want.
“The response that we as Jews need to have is to be more Jewish, and to act more Jewish and to do more Jewish things, not less.”
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