My fellow Australians
Tonight should have been nothing more than a regular Thursday night, our beautiful city brightened by the light of another 15 lives.
Fifteen lives illuminated by possibility, opportunity, and dreams.
Tragically we are gathered here because on the 14th of December, everything changed. And for that, I am sorry.
We cherish the promise that this country is a safe harbour. But sadly that promise was broken.
You came to celebrate a festival of light and freedom and you were met with the violence of hatred.
I am deeply and profoundly sorry that we could not protect your loved ones from this evil.
We gather here tonight, drawn together in one Australian icon to mourn the devastation inflicted at another.
Tonight we stand in solidarity with Jewish Australians. And affirm the shared values of unity, compassion, and resilience that define Australia.
When we look to Bondi, we see it not just as a beach, but as a part of our promise to the world. A welcoming embrace. That famous crescent of sand and water where there is room for everyone.
A place where nothing should break but the waves.
And yet there on that most fateful of evenings, our hearts were collectively shattered.
The attack was anything but random. Jewish Australians were targeted because they were Jewish.
Let me say this clearly: An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on all Australians.
It was an atrocity perpetrated in the heart of this city, in a place that dwells in the very heart of our identity.
Tonight, in this building that has seen so many displays of carefully composed passion play out across its stages, we are joined in a grief that is all too real.
A grief with no ending, only a beginning.
Grief is love wrapped around an absence.
The imagined silhouette in the doorway.
The longed-for footsteps in the hallway that never come.
It is the voice desperately held on to as it passes into the realm of memory.
It is the unanswerable desire for one more conversation, one more embrace, even just one more glimpse.
It is the glow that shines - bereft - through the cracks of broken hearts.
That is the love those 15 souls inspired. That is the love they created.
Love is the light that brightens our days and lifts our hearts, yet in grief we feel its weight.
And for that weight to be felt like this by a community that has carried such a burden of suffering across generations is a cruelty beyond measure.
As we look back on those most difficult days, when the lighting of each candle in the menorah felt like an act of defiance in the face of evil, we return to the messages of Chanukah.
The message of hope. Of resilience. And of the need to keep sending the glow of those candles out into the world.
Those who attacked you did not count on your spirit.
In the weeks since the world was upended, you have not retreated. You have not hidden away in fear. Instead, you have shown profound strength.
You inspired a movement that has swept across this country.
The "One Mitzvah" campaign - where everyday Australians are taking on a single act of kindness - was sparked by your example.
As Rabbi Ulman, Rabbi Wolff and Sheina Gutnick have mentioned to me in recent days, mitzvah doesn't just mean a good deed, it also means a connection.
In just two syllables, that one powerful Hebrew word tells us how good deeds can bind a society together.
You showed us that resilience is so much than survival - it's about defying hate with unstoppable goodness.
You have taught a grieving nation that the only way to defeat darkness is to add the light.
And through the sheer power of your example, you have reminded us that just as modern Australia was born out of an instinct to unify, that same instinct is the one that guides us still.
The great Australian urge to pull together will always be stronger than those who seek to drive us apart.
The reason they cannot succeed is a simple as it is powerful.
You do not stand apart from us. You are a part of us.
The Jewish community is at the very heart of the Australian story.
From the moment Esther Abrahams stepped off the First Fleet - barely a handful of metres from here - Jewish Australians have been part of the remarkable story of our continent.
You gave us our greatest soldier, Sir John Monash, whose very name is a byword for the courage we see at the heart of our national character.
You gave us intellect and dignity in leaders like Sir Isaac Isaacs and Sir Zelman Cowen.
In every field of human endeavour, Jewish Australians have helped build this nation.
Generation after generation. With energy. With creativity. With generosity.
A vital thread that runs through the fabric of this nation is Jewish.
And just as Jewish Australians have been a crucial part of our history, you are essential to the even greater future within our reach.
You are not just accepted. You are valued. You are cherished.
You have the right to pray, to learn and to live as proud Jews without looking over your shoulder.
Australians are committed to driving antisemitism from our shores because it stands in opposition to all we are as a country, the nation we have built together - with care and compassion - over generations.
A week after the massacre, when Rabbi Ulman spoke of the fifteen souls we mourn tonight, he described the light that each had brought into the world.
May their memories be a blessing.
And in their name, we will work to open all eyes to that light.
Because that is the light that will win.
