Jewish soldiers honoured at Anzac Day dawn service

Governor-General Sam Mostyn paid tribute to Jewish soldiers and the victims of the Bondi Beach massacre at the North Bondi Anzac Day dawn service, describing Anzac Cove and Bondi as “two iconic places in Australia’s history”.

Speaking just a few hundred metres from where 15 people were murdered four months ago, Mostyn said the service was “especially poignant as we think about the Anzacs making landfall on another shore at first light at Gallipoli, 111 years ago”.

“We must also think about the lives that were taken here in the summer dusk just four months ago in that unspeakable antisemitic attack,” she said.

“Our sense of peace was shattered, but our Australian spirit of community and belonging and service was not.”

Mostyn praised North Bondi RSL, which “became a significant first responder and opened its doors and hearts and became a safe place at the centre of recovery, not just that terrible evening, but in the days and months afterwards”.