And still, this unspoken bargain continues to trade Jewish safety for sociopolitical convenience.
by Nadav Eyal
The bakery is in a fashionable Sydney suburb, and Halmagyi is a television personality and a well-known figure in Australia’s food scene. Avner’s was supposed to open in September 2023, but its opening was delayed until October. This week, I spoke with Halmagyi.
“For two years, we were dealing with vandalism, harassment, posters that were anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, or straight-up antisemitic. Graffiti on the windows or around the shop. Basically, that was our reality almost every week — five or six days out of seven — for two years.”
Think about that: five or six days a week. Every week. For two years.
“The bakery is in one of Sydney’s more progressive suburbs. That wasn’t by accident. I wanted to open a business that wasn’t in the shtetl. A place that was both Jewish and Australian. Something that celebrated that identity. But as time went on, more and more people just wouldn’t come on principle because it was a Jewish business. You can’t underestimate how deeply this idea has taken hold: that we, as Jews, as a collective, are responsible for every strategic decision made by the Israeli government and everything that happens in Gaza.”
A typical threat, he told me, would be someone stopping outside the shop and saying: “All Jews are the same. You should all be killed.”
“The threats against me and the business were serious. One person tried to set the place on fire, but used diesel — you need heat in order to ignite diesel — so I managed to stop him. On Sunday, police came to brief us that there was a real, immediate threat against us. After that, someone drove past with a Syrian flag, circling and shouting that he was going to come back and kill the Jews. A few hours later, the massacre happened at Bondi Beach.”
“After Bondi, everything changed forever. The question now isn’t whether someone will show up with six guns and his kid, like at Bondi; it’s whether someone comes with a single gun. Or a knife. Everyone knows something else will happen. The only question is how. There aren’t many high-profile Jewish businesses in Sydney. As one of them, I can’t guarantee anymore the safety of customers, my family, or myself anymore. The world changed.”
He spoke about the dream that ended.
“I wanted to show what it means to be Jewish and Australian. A place that was part of the local community. You wouldn’t find a better bagel anywhere in Australia, maybe only a handful better in the United States. Our challah was exceptional. Our babka was world-class. No one needs honey cake — it isn’t essential — but people buy it because it makes them happy. I wanted to make people happy. Parents came in the morning after dropping their kids at school. In the afternoons, we’d draw with chalk on the pavement with the kids.”
