The Israeli American Council (IAC) criticized Oprah Winfrey on Monday for what it called a “misguided” response to the antisemitic terror attack at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney, saying her public comments failed to acknowledge that Jews were specifically targeted.
In a statement that Winfrey, who the IAC noted has tens of millions of followers on Facebook and Instagram, wrote after the attack, she expressed her sorrow for the victims.
“I just spent the last 2 weeks in Australia, walking Bondi just days ago, feeling the openness and ease that lives there. It’s hard to reconcile that sense of peace with the terror of last night," Winfrey wrote. "My heart breaks for the victims, their families and loved ones, and all you Aussies.”
The organization pointed out that her post did not mention Jews, Hanukkah, or antisemitism, even though the victims were Jews gathered for a Hanukkah celebration.
“Oprah’s neglect to name the actual targets and victims of the attack, Jews celebrating Hanukkah, conceals both the true nature of this horrific event and the appalling surge in antisemitism that gave rise to it,” said IAC CEO Elan S. Carr, a former US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. “For a public figure to express sorrow over the attack without saying that it was an antisemitic mass murder of Jews during their celebration of a holiday is precisely the sort of misguided obfuscation that allows antisemitism to flourish.”
Carr said he has invited Winfrey to meet with him and the IAC leadership to discuss the Jewish community’s concerns and the wider context of rising antisemitism since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.
'I invite Oprah to meet ,discuss ongoing epidemic of antisemitism,' Carr says
“I invite Oprah to meet with us and discuss the ongoing epidemic of antisemitism since Oct. 7, our response, and how she can use her enormous influence to make a difference in this fight,” Carr said. “All decent people must take a principled and forceful stand not only against all forms of hate, but against Jew-hatred specifically.”
The IAC, a US-based nonprofit that says it serves more than 100 communities nationwide, has stepped up its efforts since October 7 to combat antisemitism on campuses and in schools, while working to strengthen Israeli and Jewish American identity and the US-Israel relationship, the group said.