Victoria premier booed at Melbourne vigil amid ire at Labor party over Bondi attack
Jacinta Allan heckled while attending Hanukkah candle lighting and memorial at local synagogue, day after deadly antisemitic terror shooting at Jewish event in Syndey
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The premier of one of Australia’s states was booed and heckled at a Hanukkah event in her constituency Monday evening, as Australian Jews took their anger out at a government representative for policies that allegedly helped lead to the massacre a day earlier at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Jacinta Allan, who leads Victoria, attended a Hanukkah candle lighting and memorial vigil held at a synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of Caufield, and was promptly greeted by heckling from the congregation, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The report did not specify what the congregants said to Allan.
Allan is a member of the Victoria branch of the ruling Labor Party, which many have blamed for a lack of action in response to warnings and cries for help from Australian Jews over rising antisemitism in the two years since the start of the war in Gaza.
Critics, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have also blamed the devastating attack on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state earlier this year, as well as his “appeasement” to growing anti-Israel sentiment in his country. Albanese categorically rejected the assertion that the shooting was linked to his decisions.
Allan, who is seen as a close compatriot of Albanese, did not speak at the vigil.
Thank you to Rabbi Rabin and Caulfield Shule for hosting tonight’s moving vigil.
Let light defeat hate. pic.twitter.com/6cjCt4zrG0
— Jacinta Allan (@JacintaAllanMP) December 15, 2025
Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson also attended the event, though she was greeted comparatively warmly.
According to the Morning Herald, the biggest ovation was reserved for members of the Community Security Group, a Victoria-based Jewish organization that guards Jewish schools, events and synagogues.
A number of other local politicians also attended the Caufield vigil.
Elsewhere in Melbourne and across the rest of Australia, several other vigils and events were held as thousands gathered to mourn the victims of Sunday’s attack in Sydney, during which two terrorists opened fire on the Chabad-hosted “Chanukah by the Sea” event at Bondi Beach, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens.
The Times of Israel Community.