President headlines moving evening of reflection
'In the wake of the horror at Bondi Beach, we felt we must come to Australia to look you in the eye. To show up for you,' Herzog says
“We have come here not simply to tell you we are with you, but to show you that we are with you,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told a packed ICC Sydney Theatre on Monday night.
As hate-fuelled protests against his visit with calls to “globalise the intifada” raged just blocks away, inside the theatre the mood was one of unity, family, strength in togetherness, and of a yearning for peace.
“There are certain emotions one can only fully convey through action. Only by doing. By showing up. And so, in the wake of the horror at Bondi Beach, we felt we must come to Australia to look you in the eye. To show up for you,” Herzog said.
“We have come to be with you, just as you have always shown up for us.
“Australian Jewry has been with us in our greatest hours of need. This community is inspirational in its connection to Israel, in its proactive Zionism.”
The President said the hatred that triggered the Bondi terrorist attack on the first night of Chanukah last year “is the very same, age-old, plague of antisemitism endured by our parents and grandparents”.
“It began long before October 7, generations before even the State of Israel was born. Yet somehow- the October 7 massacre, the greatest mass murder of Jews since the Shoah, emboldened closeted antisemites, here in Australia and around the world,” he said.
Herzog also paid tribute to all those who helped in the aftermath of the massacre.
“To all the heroes of Bondi, those who lent a hand, those who prayed for their wounded neighbours, those who gave blood, those who brought flowers and wrote letters, those who sent a meal, those who embraced this incredible community—each and every one of you has the deep admiration, the respect and the prayers of the Israeli people—for you are the finest of Australia,” he said.
“And I am here also to re-invigorate the important relations between our two strong democracies. I know that by working together we will find the way to expand collaboration and increase understanding and upgrade our relations. During my visit, I intend to discuss it with your national leadership.”
Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler, who recalled being a child when Herzog’s father Chaim Herzog made the first ever Israeli presidential visit to Australia in 1986, praised the President and First Lady Michal Herzog for embodying the spirit of Jewish resolve in the face of hate.
“In Israel, they have been a source of strength and unity during one of the darkest periods in the nation’s history,” he said. “They have stood with hostage families, the wounded and the bereaved, and they have held the nation together when division threatened to tear it apart, carrying sorrow with strength and meeting pain with purpose by coming here tonight.”
Introduced to applause, NSW Premier Chris Minns recalled a speech made by Chaim Herzog to the United Nations 50 years ago.
“He said, It has fallen to the lot of my people to be the testing agent of human decency … a nation’s level of humanity could invariably be judged by its behaviour towards the Jewish population. It always began with the Jews, but never ended with them,” Minns said.
“As Australians, we have always accepted that test of human decency, and for the most part, it hasn’t required great national debates or bouts of painful soul searching. It had come naturally to us.
“The murderous ideology of antisemitism is a test of every society, and it’s one that weighs heavily on me. We have to be able to say openly and clearly and without excuse or reservation that we failed that national test of human decency on December 14 at Bondi, and things must change in our state and our country.
“Thank you, Mr President, for your warm and empathetic embrace of the victims of Bondi. I and the rest of Australia saw this morning that it meant so much to have you grieve with them, coming from 10,000 kilometres away, and yet a member of their family. It’s our sincere hope that this is a step towards healing and a world without hatred or fear, a world of hope and of peace.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said it was a “tragic irony” that the support the Australian Jewish community offered to the people of Israel immediate after October 7 “would ultimately need to be reciprocated”.
“Our destinies are intertwined with Israel, and we know that hatred of Israel is merely a smoke screen for antisemitism,” he said.
“Those who had the audacity to claim that President Herzog’s visit would lead to more antisemitism or undermine social cohesion are the same people who have poured fuel on the fire of antisemitism over the past two years, or who haven’t uttered a word as antisemitism has run rampant after 2000 years.
“President Herzog, your visit here to Australia at this defining moment reminds us of the difference in the contemporary Jewish condition that we do not confront this latest barrage of antisemitism alone.”
Sheina Gutnick, the daughter of Reuven Morrison, who was murdered while trying to stop one of the Bondi gunmen, made an impassioned speech about her father’s legacy.
“When my seven-year-old asked me if her zeida was killed because he was Jewish, I think about a man who had already lived through hatred for being Jewish and who still chose to live his life visibly and proudly as a Jew, a man who in his final moments, gave his life protecting others, who faced evil with his faith and his bare hands. This is the legacy I must give my children,” she said.
“Grief may bend us, but it will not break us. Hatred may wound us, but it will not define us. Terror may strike us, but it will not write our story. We will.
“We will answer with life, with our unwavering faith, with unity, with the courage to stand even when it feels impossible. My father’s story is now my responsibility to carry forward. It’s my children’s inheritance, flowing through their DNA, and it’s part of the story of Australia. I carry that responsibility with pride, I carry it with love, and above all, I carry it as Reuven Morrison’s daughter.”
Jewish university student Mimi Baron paid tribute to the victims of the December 14 attack and to the strength of the community with a haunting spoken word composition.
“Dear Matilda, we are not the same Australia we were, we will never be the same Australia we were. For years now we have felt afraid, we have felt silenced, we have felt alone. On campus, I have not felt seen,” she said.
“But there’s a part of me which does not accept this, a part of me which holds onto light. Recently I have felt the light, the light over darkness. I have felt the power of my Jewish community, the power of my Bondi community, and most importantly, the power of my Australian community.
“You will never be forgotten, and we will honour you as we continue to protect Jewish life and Jewish way of life. May their memories be a blessing. Am Yisrael chai.”
Delivering the Acknowledgment of Country at the start of the evening, Former Olympian and Senator Nova Peris said, “Tonight, I stand with you, and I will not stand stop standing with you. We stand together in remembrance, and I mourn with you.
“We shall never forget the beautiful, innocent lives taken in the Chanukah terror attack here on Australian soil. We shall never forget those who were injured, those who risked their own lives to help others and to shield them. We shall never forget the families, the Bondi community, our Australian community, and the deep trauma that such an act of hatred leaves behind.
“From one ancient people to another, I say this: We see you, we stand with you, and we welcome you to this ancient continent under the southern sky.”
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