Crowd jeers PM while Minns and Sloane receive warm reception at Bondi Beach

Anthony Albanese was met with boos and jeers from sections of the crowd as thousands gathered on the grass at the southern end of Bondi Beach on Sunday night for a memorial marking exactly one week since the massacre that killed 15 people during a Chanukah celebration.

In sharp contrast, NSW Premier Chris Minns received a sustained standing ovation, while NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane was repeatedly applauded and described as a hero for her bravery during the horrific event last Sunday.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived wearing a kippah and sat in the front row, but his presence drew audible anger from parts of the audience. Many attendees blame the federal government for what they see as a failure to act decisively on antisemitism following a series of attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues and businesses in the lead-up to the killings.

The memorial was held under heavy security, with police deployed throughout the area, with a large uniformed presence on the ground, boats patrolling offshore and snipers positioned on nearby rooftops. The service formed part of a broader National Day of Reflection, with vigils and commemorations held elsewhere around the country.

A minute’s silence was observed at 6.47pm, the exact time the attack began, followed by the national anthem and a sequence of prayers, psalms and songs led by Chabad rabbis and chazans from across Sydney and overseas. The service included traditional Jewish memorial prayers, a prayer for the wounded naming those injured, and musical interludes reflecting both mourning and national solidarity.

New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip told the crowd the Jewish community had warned for years that escalating antisemitism was creating real danger.

“Up until two years ago, Australia was always the lucky country for Jews, but sadly no more. We’ve lost our innocence,” Ossip said. “Last week took our innocence; like the grass here at Bondi was stained with blood, so too has our nation been stained.”

Gesturing towards the Prime Minister, Ossip reiterated calls for a Commonwealth Royal Commission and said the moment represented a crossroads for the country.

“Countries don’t just happen or prosper by default,” he said. “They come together and flourish or fall as a result of deliberate choices.”

He singled out Kellie Sloane for her actions during the attack, describing her decision to go to the scene while gunfire was ongoing as an act of courage.

“I want everyone to know that last week, Kellie made the choice in the midst of the attack to go down to Bondi Beach, to go to where the incident was taking place, and she provided assistance to those who were injured and gave shelter to those who needed it,” Ossip said.

“I am a personal witness to the choice she made. That is bravery. That is courage.”

When Minns addressed the gathering, he apologised directly to the community and acknowledged the failure of government to keep people safe.

“My heart is heavy for the lives that were taken here,” he said. “I want to say this clearly. We are sorry. The government’s highest duty is to protect its citizens, and we did not do that one week ago.”

Minns said the attack had exposed what he described as a deep vein of antisemitic hate in Australia and warned against dismissing it as an isolated event. He announced the launch of the One Mitzvah for Bondi campaign, encouraging Australians of any faith, or none, to commit to practical acts of kindness and responsibility in honour of the victims.

“If hatred spreads through words and actions, then so does goodness,” he said, describing a mitzvah as a concrete act that helps make society more humane.

Minns said the response to the attack could not end with the final candle of Chanukah, announcing the launch of the One Mitzvah for Bondi campaign as a practical way to carry the message forward.

The campaign, he said, was open to Australians of any faith or no faith and invited people to actively choose kindness and responsibility, arguing that just as hatred spreads through words and actions, so too does goodness.

Kellie Sloane then addressed the crowd, delivering a detailed and emotional account of riding from the Dover Heights Chanukah celebration in a Hatzolah ambulance, arriving at the scene while shots were still being fired and assisting in the immediate aftermath.

She spoke of bandaging the injured, holding the hands of people in shock and covering those who could not be saved, saying the scenes would stay with her forever.

“I saw the terror,” she said. “But I also saw extraordinary bravery.”

“Let there be no doubt. Antisemitism has now led to the spilling of blood on our nation’s most iconic beach.”

Co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, told the crowd he had been thinking all week about choice and responsibility, drawing on the Ten Commandments as a framework for how people decide to live with meaning.

He spoke movingly about his long association with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, saying Schlanger chose to live each day by packing in as much good as possible and measuring his life not in money but in friendships and deeds. Ryvchin contrasted those choices with those made by the attackers, saying what mattered now was how Australians chose to respond, and vowed he would not hide his identity as an Australian Jew, committing to return to Bondi Beach next year with his daughters to light the Chanukah candles again in defiance and remembrance.

“We are each given the power to choose how we live. The killers made their choice. What matters now is the choice we make, how we replace the light, decency and love that was torn from this place, and whether we refuse to hide who we are,” he stated.

ECAJ president Daniel Aghion said the Jewish community had endured years of escalating hate and violence, including firebombings and vandalism, and warned the consequences extended far beyond one community.

“Our answer to the terrorists is this. We will not be silenced. We will not hide. We will not live in fear,” he said.

Some of the loudest applause of the night was reserved for Ahmed Al Ahmed, a bystander credited with disarming the gunman and preventing further loss of life. Al Ahmed, who is recovering from his injuries in hospital, was repeatedly praised from the stage for his actions.

Rabbi Yehoram Ulmann, Chief Rabbi of Chabad Bondi, named each of the 15 victims and offered a lesson drawn from each life, urging the crowd to “live a life inspired by their memory”.

The memorial concluded with an emotional communal singing of “I Am Australian”, led by David Campbell and a group of singers from the community, followed by Oseh Shalom, as prayers and song carried across the packed grass overlooking the beach.

As the crowd slowly dispersed, the message repeated throughout the night was clear: remembrance alone was not enough, and the responsibility for confronting hatred and protecting social cohesion rested with the entire nation.

with AAP reporting