Oprah Winfrey Ignores Jewish Victims in Shocking Sydney Massacre Response

The Israeli-American Council (IAC) has sharply criticized Oprah Winfrey for her social media reaction to the deadly antisemitic terror attack at a Sydney Chanukah celebration, accusing the media icon of deliberately omitting any mention of Jews, Hanukkah, or antisemitism in her posts. With 21 million followers on Facebook and 22 million on Instagram, Winfrey wrote: "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. My heart breaks for the victims, their families and loved ones, and all you Aussies." The IAC called this a "misguided obfuscation" that hides the attack's true nature as a targeted slaughter of Jews during their holiday.

IAC CEO Elan S. Carr, former U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, stated: "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. 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 extended an invitation: "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. All decent people must take a principled and forceful stand not only against all forms of hate, but against Jew-hatred specifically."

This criticism comes amid a global explosion of antisemitism since Hamas terrorists' October 7, 2023, massacre that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251 others, with attacks on Jews spiking 400% worldwide. The Sydney shooting, where a gunman murdered 15 Jews lighting the first Chanukah candle, exemplifies how hatred festers when public figures refuse to name it. It is ignorant and, frankly, antisemitic in itself to acknowledge a terror attack yet erase its root cause: blatant Jew-hatred targeting innocents during a sacred holiday. Why do so many influential voices, like Winfrey's, tiptoe around this reality, failing to call out the antisemites and Islamists fueling such carnage? Their silence or vagueness only emboldens the perpetrators, from Hamas rocket launchers to lone wolves inspired by their propaganda.

Winfrey's posts, focusing on Australia's "peace" shattered by "terror," avoid the specifics that define the atrocity: Jews as victims, antisemitism as motive. This pattern of omission normalizes the hate, allowing it to spread unchecked while Jewish communities from Amsterdam to Milan face assaults and protests glorifying terrorists. Carr's call for dialogue highlights a path forward: use massive platforms to confront Jew-hatred head-on, not dilute it into generic "hate." Especially after horiffic anti-Semitic attacks such as these, the world needs clarity, not evasion.