‘A day when evil truly walked this Earth’: Sydney’s Jewish community grieves Hamas attack, one year on

An early morning vigil has been held at Bondi Beach on the anniversary of October 7 Hamas Terror attack in Israel. Members of the Jewish community, dignitaries, MPs and survivors were in attendance.

Vigils are being held in Sydney for the victims of the October 7 Hamas terror attack that saw 1200 Israelis killed and more than 250 taken hostage in the largest loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust.

Memorials began on Monday with sunrise prayers at Biddigal Reserve in North Bondi, the grassroots gathering organised by the local Israeli Jewish community and attended by NSW Senator Dave Sharma, Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane, Waverley councillor Will Nemesh and representatives from the NSW Zionist Council.

At precisely 6.29am the service began, timed to coincide with the very minute Hamas terrorists broke into Israel to begin their murderous assault, with the Shofar – a horn which has significant cultural and religious significance to Jewish people – being blown.

Religious memorial prayers were spoken and sung in both English and Hebrew, and the event closed with the names of all 101 hostages who remain captive being read aloud.

Stand With Us Australia executive director Michael Gencher estimated more than 3000 people attended the service, despite the event’s location being kept secret from the general public for safety reasons.

Sunrise prayers this morning, at North Bondi.

“It’s sad to say that for a memorial event of this type … marking the worst atrocity Jews have faced since the Holocaust, our top priority is how to have an outdoor event when you’re worried about external actors potentially disrupting, or causing harm,” he explained.

“With the climate of credible threat we had to have a secure space.”

The Shofar is an ancient Jewish horn with religious and cultural significance.

Dave Sharma speaking to those who attended.

In the Jewish tradition, the first week of intense mourning (Shiva) is followed by a further month of grief – shloshim – where life begins to return to normality. One year on, ‘yahrzeit’ traditionally marks the end of mourning, and closure.

“Today there is no sense of closure, this is still ongoing,” Mr Gencher said.

But while the grief of the community gathered was palpable, so was their sense of hope.

“The overwhelming takeaway was the sense of resilience, the hope that one day this will all end … that the Middle East finds peace and Israel will find peace,” he said.

Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon (left) joined other Jewish and Israeli leaders, as well as survivors and relatives of hostages, at a dusk vigil in Rose Bay on Sunday. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Senator Sharma told Channel 7’s Sunrise his message to the Israeli community today “is that Australia stands with you”.

“We stand alongside you as you mourn your victims. We pray very much for the recovery of those 101 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza,” he said.

On Sunday evening, dignitaries, MPs and terrorism survivors, together perched on white chairs overlooking Sydney Harbour, grieved the anniversary of Hamas’ terror attack in one of the world’s first vigils – fewer than 10 kilometres but worlds away from the day’s pro-Palestine rally.

At a sunset memorial in Rose Bay, 1 year since the attack on the Nova Festival in Israel, Sydney’s Jewish community mourns. Picture: Thomas Lisson

A DAY EVIL WALKED THE EARTH

In a solemn, emotional and private ceremony at Rose Bay, members of the Sydney Jewish community and Israeli embassy in Australia paid tribute to those killed, injured and taken hostage in the attack.

Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said October 7, “was a day when evil truly walked this Earth”.

“We are still processing this modern-day pogrom.”

Survivor Michal Ohana lit a three-metre tall sand-sculpted candle “to bring the light, and bring hope” as the sun set over the city.

In the long hours of October 7 2023, the 27-year-old Israeli woman barely survived Hamas’ murderous attack on the Nova music festival, shot in the leg by the terrorists as she hid beneath an IDF tank.

Members of Sydney’s Jewish community gathered in Rose Bay for the private vigil. Picture: Thomas Lisson

“I was just there, bleeding. I called my mum, I said ‘mum, I love you, but I think I’m going to die’,” she said.

Ms Ohana lost ten friends that day. Two others were taken hostage, and remain in Gaza.

“I’m here to share my story, and to make sure people understand what happened to us, to fight for my friends and to bring home all the hostages,” she said.

Sydney woman Melissa McCurdie also lost members of her family, her cousin’s husband’s family killed in their beds in kibbutz Be-Eri. Seven were taken hostage. One remains captive.

The response in Australia – and in Sydney – “scares” her – as a Jewish migrant, she “never believed that we would feel anxious” to wear the Star of David.

“It is unbearable that this could happen in our lifetime, when we so fervently hoped and believed that the Holocaust was not going to happen again,” she said.

Terror attack survivor Michal Ohana lights the candle at the Sunset Memorial for 1 year since the attack on the Nova Festival. Picture: Thomas Lisson

“The level of anti-Semitism (in Australia) since then is shocking – my late mother came from pre-war Poland … and in a strange way, I’m grateful my mother isn’t around to see what happened.”

Former senator Nova Peris, who gave a welcome to country, took aim at anti-Israel protesters who co-opt the language of Indigenous oppression to suit their own cause in a manner that is “hugely” personal to the Aboriginal Olympian.

“To deny Israel and Jewish people’s connectedness to that land is a huge mistruth, and it must stop,” she said.

Originally published as ‘A day when evil truly walked this Earth’: Sydney’s Jewish community grieves Hamas attack, one year on