(JEWISH GROUP) Voices: I won't be intimidated by the Bondi attacks into hiding my Jewishness

[Behind the Aegis]

I was with my children when the news about the Bondi Beach massacre broke. Minutes earlier, we'd been discussing what time we’d light candles that night, who would get which present… the kind of excited chatter that fills Jewish homes on the first night of Hanukkah. And then my phone lit up.

Within seconds, the room felt like it belonged to another world. My screen filled with messages: a shooting, Bondi Beach, a Hanukkah celebration, Jews targeted – again.

The images were horrifying, but the sensation was worse because I already knew this feeling. It was October 7th all over again. And Manchester. And Amsterdam. And Washington DC. That same spike of panic, that same grim recognition, that same thought I wish I could unlearn.

Not again. Please, not again. But of course – again.

And then the distance vanished entirely. Because my daughter’s oldest school friend, aged just 12, had been at the Hanukkah event on the Sydney beach. A child who has grown up in my home, around my table, who we share so many happy memories with.

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