A powerful final gathering

The rain cleared just in time for a moving memorial service at Bondi Pavilion on Sunday night, the last before future gatherings move to Archer Park itself – the site of the December 14 Chanukah massacre.

Addressing those present, Sky News host Chris Kenny said attending the Chanukah by the Sea event was “the very essence of being Australian”.

“They were celebrating friends, family and faith here at one of the most beautiful beaches in the world,” he said.

Journalist Sharri Markson paid tribute to the resilience of the community, telling those present that what they had lived through, survived, lost and endured was beyond horrific.

British commentator Brendan O’Neill said the attack “was first and foremost an Islamofascist assault on the Jewish people”.

“It was also an assault on the Australian nation, and it was a crime against civilisation itself,” he said.

Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh said the community still felt the shock and grief of seven weeks ago, but that the gathering itself was testament to something powerful.

“If you look around here, you can really see the spirit of this community, the spirit of Bondi and how much we care and how much we continue to love one another and be there for one another,” he said.

“That really needs to be the legacy of what has occurred here.”

Massacre survivor Revi Kadoury urged the community to hold onto hope.

“Those who are choosing to find hatred and evil — we pray for them, we pray they’ll find a way back to actually see that there is light, not darkness, and that’s the way we choose to live,” she said.

Sheina Gutnick, the daughter of Reuven Morrison, who was killed confronting one of the attackers, thanked Rabbi Yossi Friedman for his daily presence at the pavilion and thanked Markson for recognising her father’s final moments.

Vlad Kotlyar spoke of sheltering his son during the attack.

“I did everything to save the life of my child. This is what we are programmed to do as a human being,” he said.

“And the other two [the alleged gunmen] came there to die, and he brought his son to die there, and that’s what makes us different.”

Rabbi Friedman, who has organised and led all the pavilion services since the terrorist attack, read out the names of the 15 victims.

Music was performed by Ben Adler and Noy Ben Ami, including Ilan Kidron’s rewritten version of Waltzing Matilda.

Candles were lit at the conclusion of the service.