Witness Tells Antisemitism Commission of Daughter's Bondi Beach Trauma

Dina, a witness at the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion on Tuesday, shared a striking account from her youngest daughter. A few weeks earlier, the girl burst into tears as the family headed to Bondi Beach for dinner. When Dina asked what was wrong, she replied, "now when I go to Bondi I think about dying." Dina realized her daughter had reason for that fear. "They came to kill all of us, we just weren’t there," Dina told commissioner Virginia Bell.

The family had skipped the Bondi Beach Chanukah event because they attended a mutual friend's Bat Mitzvah. A friend and colleague called from the event that December day to say he had been shot in the back and thigh. Dina stood nearby as the call came. The group had just discussed their sadness at missing the first Chanukah event since the end of the Israel-Hamas war and the release of Israeli hostages.

This royal commission holds deep personal meaning for Sydney's small, close-knit Jewish community. Nearly every member lost someone they knew in the attack, took a bullet, fled for their lives or lay still amid corpses, hearing shots ring out. They recognize that different plans could have put them or their children among the dead. And they know another attack could strike anytime.

Dina joined other Australians who testified about their experiences, fears and hopes. Her story resonates widely among Jewish Australians. She spoke of Holocaust survivors who arrived in Australia with nothing but awareness that they lived while others died, a mystery they could never fully grasp. Others descended from Iraqi-Jewish refugees who fled the 1941 plunder of Iraq's Jews, or from Soviet refugees treated as lesser than peasants under communism.

These migrants built lives here. Some entered professions or public service, like the author's mother. Others drove cabs, like the author's father, or started businesses. Some struggled, some thrived. They sought and received only a fair chance to prove themselves on merit, not the race on their papers.

In the commission's early days, witnesses recalled a time before Jews faced labels like baby-killers and "Zios" who deserved violence, unless they rejected Israel. They described terrorism drills in schools, armed guards at temples, gunboats at sea and police snipers on roofs at outdoor Jewish gatherings.

Witnesses could have shown anger at ignored warnings, mocked claims and buried bodies. Instead, they displayed humility and strong character. This community of layered survivors wants only to restore fair ground for peaceful lives, the right of every Australian.