As we all try to process the horror of yesterday’s Chanukah mass shooting at Bondi Beach, Australia, one story — encapsulated in this photo — stands out.

It is a picture of a bystander — a Muslim man named Ahmed al Ahmed — risking his own life to wrestle a semi-automatic weapon from a shooter attacking a group of 1,000 Jewish people celebrating the first night of the joyous Chanukah season.

Ahmed sustained accidental injuries in doing the right thing — what we would hope any able-bodied person would do. He saw evil, and he ran to stop it. The religion of the people involved did not matter to him . . . as it should not matter to anyone.

Ahmed al Ahmed is a true hero: a human being who saw other human beings in danger, and didn’t stop to categorize them. In so doing, he likely saved many lives. But he also gave us something else, something of equal importance: he gave us all a ray of hope that the decent people in this world — people of all races, faiths and ethnicities — still outnumber the evil.

So, as we mourn the loss of the 15 people who did not survive the attack, and pray for the speedy recovery of the many wounded, we should also give thanks for Ahmed and the others who helped to stop the bloodshed.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
12/15/25