Gal Gadot, Ashton Kutcher, Mandy Moore, Rebel Wilson and more responded to the devastating mass shooting in Sydney, Australia on Sunday. The attack, which local authorities described as a terrorist attack against Australian Jews, took place on the first night of Hanukkah and thus far left at least 16 individuals dead and three dozen more injured.
“My heart is shattered,” Gadot wrote on Instagram. “Following the antisemitic terror attack in Bondi Beach, Australia, the grief is immense … It is easy to feel defeated. But let us be clear: Our strength is not in despair, but in the light we fiercely choose to create in this terrible void.”
A father and son pair of gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach on Sunday. Wilson, who was raised in Sydney, wrote via social media, “Just waking up to the news about what’s happened on Bondi Beach. An absolute tragedy that is the most un-Australian thing to have happen. We shouldn’t have gun violence in Australia, we shouldn’t have antisemitism — it’s not us! Thinking of everyone affected by this devastating violence.”
Former president Barack Obama also commented on the shooting Sunday. “On this first night of Hanukkah, Michelle and I are praying for the families mourning a loved one after the horrific terrorist attack against Jewish people in Australia,”‘ he wrote on X. “For everyone lighting a candle tonight, may the glow of the menorah brighten your darkest moments. Chag Sameach from our family to yours.”
“Antisemitic rhetoric is not abstract—it carries a cost, and my brothers and sisters continue to pay it,” Kutcher wrote on X. “May this devastation somehow spark a hidden miracle, one our eyes do not yet have the merit to see.”
“This Is Us” Star Mandy Moore shared a news update about the shooting in her Instagram Story and wrote, “On the first night of Hanukkah and in a country with very strict gun control laws. Absolutely devastating. My heart is with all my Jewish friends around the world.”
The attack was “horrible,” wrote singer Maren Morris in her own Instagram Story. “My heart goes out to Australia right now.”
Singer Kasey Musgraves shared a video of Ahmed El Ahmad, the man who grabbed one of the Bondi Beach shooters during the terror attack and captioned it, “Hero.”
Ivanka Trump addressed the shooting in a lengthy post shared to X. “As Jews around the world gather around our menorahs on this first night of Hanukkah, we are reminded how desperately the world needs more light and more Kiddush Hashem,” she wrote.
“The heartbreaking tragedies in Bondi Beach, Australia and at Brown University weigh heavily on all of us. It is unimaginable to fathom the pain these families are enduring, and our hearts are with every loved one affected.”
Gadot concluded her post: “Send light into darkness. Let’s make sure love is the loudest voice. I will light my Chanukah candle tonight in their honor and for a world of light. Only light.”
