‘A day when evil truly walked this earth’:

A vigil was held on Bondi Beach to mark the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 terror attack in Israel, which killed innocent civilians and soldiers, kidnapped and raped girls and women and burned children.
The event was attended by members of the Jewish community, dignitaries, Members of Parliament and survivors of Hamas terrorist violence.
A vigil was held in Sydney for the victims of Hamas’s October 7 terror attack which saw 1,200 Israelis killed and more than 250 held hostage in the largest single-day loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.
The memorial events began on Monday with a sunrise prayer service at the Bedigal Reserve in North Bondi, a public gathering organised by the local Israeli Jewish community and attended by NSW Senator Dave Sharma, Vaucluse MP Kelly Sloan, Waverley Councillor Will Nemesh and representatives from the Zionist Council of NSW.
At 6.29am, the service, which coincided with the moment Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel to begin their deadly attack, began with the blowing of the shofar – a trumpet with great cultural and religious significance to the Jewish people.
Religious memorial prayers were recited and sung in English and Hebrew, and the event concluded with the names of all 101 hostages still held captive being read aloud.
Stand With Us Australia CEO Michael Genscher estimated that more than 3,000 people attended the service, although the location of the event was kept secret from the general public for safety reasons.
He explained: “It is sad to say that for a memorial event of this nature… representing the worst atrocities faced by Jews since the Holocaust, our top priority is how to hold an outdoor event when you are concerned that outside actors may disrupt or cause harm.”
“With the climate of credible threat, we had to have a safe space.”
In Jewish tradition, the first week of deep mourning (shiva) is followed by another month of grief – shloshim – as life begins to return to normal. After a year, yahrzeit traditionally marks the end of mourning and closure.

“Today there is no sense of closure, this is still ongoing,” Mr Genscher said.

But while the community’s grief was palpable, so was their sense of hope.

“The overwhelming conclusion was a sense of resilience and hope that one day this will all end… that the Middle East will find peace and that Israel will find peace,” he said.

Senator Sharma said his message to the Israeli community today “is that Australia stands with you.”

“We stand with you as you mourn your victims. We pray very much for the return of those 101 hostages still being held by Hamas in Gaza,” he said.
The images and stories of those captured, like teenage soldier Naama Levy, and murdered, like 22-year-old Israeli tattoo artist and festival participant Shani Locke, “will stay with us forever,” said Alex Rivchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

“In Jewish tradition, a year after a traumatic event and loss, we are forced to stop mourning,” he said.

“But it is impossible not to mourn, when 101 Israelis are still in that hell.”

On Sunday evening, dignitaries, members of parliament and terror survivors sat together on white chairs overlooking Sydney Harbour, in one of the world’s first vigils of the Hamas terror attack – less than 10 kilometres away but a world away from the barbaric pro-Palestinian demonstration.

In a solemn, emotional and private ceremony in Rose Bay, members of Sydney’s Jewish community and the Israeli embassy in Australia paid tribute to those killed, wounded and held hostage in the attack.
“October 7 was a day when evil really walked this earth,” said Jewish Board of Deputies Chairman David Ossip. “We are still processing this modern massacre.”

Survivor Michal Ohana lit a three-meter-high sand candle “to bring light and bring hope” as the sun set over the city.

In the long hours of October 7, 2023, the 27-year-old Israeli woman narrowly escaped the deadly Hamas attack on the Nova music festival, being shot in the leg by Palestinian terrorists while hiding under an IDF tank.

“I was just there, bleeding. I called my mom, and I said, ‘Mom, I love you, but I think I’m going to die,’” she said.

Ms Ohana lost 10 friends that day. “Two others were taken hostage and remain in Gaza.

“I’m here to share my story, to make sure people understand what happened to us, to pray for my friends and to bring all the hostages home,” she added.
A Sydney woman, Melissa McCurdy, also lost family members, and her cousin’s husband’s family, who were killed in their home at Kibbutz Be’e-Eri. Seven were taken hostage. One remains captive.

The response in Australia – and in Sydney – “scares” her – as a Jewish immigrant, she “never thought we would be worried” about wearing a Star of David.

“It’s unbearable that this has happened in our lifetime, when we so hope and believe that the Holocaust would never happen again,” she said.

“The level of anti-Semitism [in Australia] is still very high, and there are still a lot of people who fear that it will happen again.”

“It’s been shocking since then – my late mother came from Poland before the war … In a strange way, I’m grateful that my mother wasn’t there to see what happened.” Former senator Nova Peres has criticised anti-Israel protesters who exploit the language of indigenous oppression to suit their own cause in a “very personal” way. “Denying the connection of Israel and the Jewish people to this land is a grave mistake, and it must stop,” she said.