SYDNEY — Sheina Gutnick appeared as the first witness at the inaugural public hearing of the New South Wales royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion in Sydney. The commission's current fortnightly block of hearings is focused on defining antisemitism, its historical and contemporary manifestations and its current impact on Jewish Australians.

"Bondi holds many complicated and conflicting feelings for me," Gutnick told the commission. "And now Bondi holds a really heavy weight in our community's heart."

Gutnick spoke about Reuven Morrison, who was one of 15 people shot and killed at Bondi beach on 14 December during an antisemitic terror attack. Morrison was killed after he threw bricks at the gunmen during the attack. He had fled to Australia from Ukraine at the age of 14 and met his wife at Bondi beach. "He was deeply proud to have moved to Australia and been an Australian citizen, and grateful for a nation that welcomed Jews when so many others turned them away at that time," Gutnick said.

She also recounted an incident in December 2024, when a man pointed at her Star of David necklace in Westfield Bondi Junction and directed an expletive-laden slur at her, calling her a terrorist. "I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe. There were many people around me, but no one intervened," she said.

Former high court justice Virginia Bell addressed the commission on the broader pattern. "The sharp spike in antisemitism that we've witnessed in Australia, has been mirrored in other western countries, and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East," Bell said. "It's important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they're Jews. Displays of hostility that are sometimes expressed in images and sentiments that can sometimes be traced back to the middle ages if not earlier."

The royal commission issued its interim report last week, focusing on the intelligence and security response to the December attack on Bondi beach. Counsel assisting the commission Richard Lancaster SC said subsequent hearing blocks will interrogate the conduct of intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the lead-up to the attack and in light of the terrorism threat level. A third hearing block will examine institutions and industries of concern, hearing evidence on the role of social media and the radicalisation it may generate. The commission also granted the Jewish Council of Australia, which states it has more than 2,500 Jewish supporters across the country, leave to appear at its first hearing block.