Memory moves to joy

This year, Yom Hazikaron carries a weight that Australian Jews understand more deeply than ever before.

For Jewish communities around the world, Yom Hazikaron has always been a solemn day. A moment to honour the fallen soldiers, police officers, first responders and civilians murdered in acts of terror who paid the price for Jewish sovereignty and survival.

In Israel, the names read aloud are not strangers, nor are they are from the past. The Israeli government says 170 soldiers and security personnel have been killed since Yom Hazikaron last year. They are siblings, parents, children, friends.

The sirens that bring an entire nation to a standstill demand that we feel the full cost of what it means to exist as Jewish people in the world.

But this Yom Hazikaron, our community brings its own grief after 15 of our own were murdered at Bondi Beach four months ago.