Beach ceremony sparks healing for Sydney eastern suburb
Speeches were made on the beach before rowing.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt (center right) is embraced after addressing the crowd and praying for hundreds of people gathered for a paddle at Bondi Beach.Credit: KATE GERAGHTY
“It doesn’t take a tragedy to bring people together,” Fox, who is also Jewish, said through tears.
Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt was at Hanukkah by the Sea Sunday when gunmen began shooting into the crowd, and he said today’s prayer was a step toward healing.
“We pray three times a day, and today we were just praying and trying to cheer up the spirits and people and pray to bring healing to this area that is contaminated with evil and hatred,” he said.
Tributes poured in from the footbridge where gunmen fired indiscriminately at Sajid and Naveed Akram’s Hanukkah celebration by the Sea.
People walk past flowers and a chalk drawing of a menorah on the pedestrian bridge at Bondi Beach, where gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah crowd by the Sea. Credit: KATE GERAGHTY
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley earlier walked over the footbridge, where a fully lit menorah, a visiting stone, flowers and a sticker, and a chalk drawing of a bee for 10-year-old Matilda, who was killed in the shooting.
On the walls in front of the chalk drawing is written: “The people of Israel are alive, may their remembrance be a blessing.”
“I was not prepared for the emotions that hit me when I crossed the bridge,” Ley said. “I saw that bridge on TV the night it happened and, like all Australians, I was in shock and horror.”
Liberal leader Susan Ley on Bondi Beach on Friday morning.Credit: Kate Geraghty
A bullet hole in the window of a red VW Golf parked on Archer Park beach in Bondi.Credit: KATE GERAGHTY
“Then I heard directly from people who took shelter under that bridge and saw the gunmen, and I will never be able to walk through that part of Bondi again before all those emotions come back.”
A Volkswagen Golf sits on the beachfront with bullet holes stretching from its rear window to its windshield, an eerie remnant from Sunday night.
Bondi Beach incident helplines:
- Bondi Beach Victim Services 1800 411 822
- Bondi Beach Public Information and Research Center 1800 227 228
- NSW Mental Health Line 1800 011 511or Lifeline is open 13 11 14
- Child Helpline is open 1800 55 1800 or chat online at: kidshelpline.com.au
More news on the Bondi terror
Spartan and small: This is the dusty Philippine hotel room where the Bondi gunmen hid for a month
The identity of the hero police officer has been determined: A Bondi-based detective, who has been on the job for more than 15 years, shot at the gunmen from around 40 meters away
Anthony Albanese had a choice to make: Furious over Bondi massacre, prime minister has drawn up a plan to tackle antisemitism
Bondi attacker’s interview with ASIO: Circa 2021, one of Bondi gunmen placed on ‘known entity management list’
