Shmooze With the Blues hears of a year of renewal

Victoria Police and Jewish communal leaders gathered at Elwood Shule on Wednesday for the annual Shmooze With the Blues, where CSG Victoria volunteers shared a meal with the officers they work alongside.

CSG Victoria chief executive Justin Kagan said the community “went through frankly hell” in the years since October 7, and described being in Cape Town, visiting his father, when the Bondi attack occurred.

A week earlier he had been in London debriefing British colleagues on the Manchester attack.

He read out the first message he received from his CSG NSW counterpart, sent at 6.46pm Sydney time, reporting that something had happened and that police had fired shots.

In Melbourne, a Chanukah event was under way at Caulfield Racecourse and a shift handover had just taken place.