Heartbroken all over again
Eva Geller’s death deepens Bondi’s grief and raises an urgent question: has Australia learned anything?
We thought all our tears had been shed.
Almost 11 months on from the Bondi terror attack, we have cried, comforted one another and stood shoulder-to-shoulder at vigils. We can never forget, but we have tried to get on with life. We had memorised the names, faces and stories of the 15 people we lost. We did not expect there would be another. Now our hearts have been broken all over again.
We cannot imagine the pain Eva Geller’s family must be feeling. She defied the odds to not only survive in the immediate aftermath of the shooting but to walk again, only to ultimately succumb to medical complications related to her injuries.
What a remarkable human being she must have been.
The timing of her death also cannot be ignored, coming on the eve of the anniversary of Kristallnacht, an event which foreshadowed the darkest chapter in the history of the Jewish people. It is a cruel irony that Eva fled Romania with her family to escape the Holocaust, only to fall victim to the same hatred that led to it.
And it is that message which must jolt our fellow Australians awake before it is too late.
According to the Scanlon Foundation Research Institute’s Mapping Social Cohesion 2026 report, the proportion of Australians with a negative attitude towards Jewish people has more than doubled in four years. The report describes anti-Jewish sentiment as “a society-wide problem”.
At the same time, a new Holocaust education announcement has sadly yet predictably brought the conspiracy theorists and antisemites on social media out of the woodwork.
The rot must be stopped. We saw last December exactly where unchecked hate can lead.
Now, another name will be on the list when the names of the Bondi terror victims are read out at the one-year commemorations next month.
We cannot assume this scourge has reached its nadir. ASIO keeps warning that the terror threat is probable. The same rhetoric that preceded Bondi in the wake of October 7 is still present. We await the findings of the Royal Commission but we cannot assume they will provide a wholesale solution.
With the first anniversary of the massacre almost upon us, has Australia learned anything?