‘We feel like history is repeating’: Jewish Australians speak of increased sense of danger on first day of antisemitism royal commission

Sheina Gutnick, whose father was killed in the Bondi beach terror attack, has said the place holds a ‘really heavy weight in our community’s heart’. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

For Sheina Gutnick, Bondi holds both treasured memories and torment. The place where her parents met, where she spent happy childhood summer days, is today, also the place where her father died defending his people.

“Bondi holds many complicated and conflicting feelings for me,” Gutnick told the opening day of public hearings of the royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion.