How will we view the Bondi Terror Attack in 50 years?
In the aftermath of the horror attack on Jewish attendees at the Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach our community needs to assess how will we document and memorialise these shocking events. It’s now 50 years since the dismissal of Gough Whitlam. While there are many living who remember that day, they are less than 20% of the Australian population.
| There is video coverage, media articles and a multitude of photos from before the firing of the first shot through the weeks following which can be found by an online search. But what of the thousands of floral and other tributes and messages placed outside the Bondi Pavilion, alongside the lifeguard tower and on the bridge from where the killers let loose their fusillade of fire? Floral tributes have a limited life. During the week of Hannukah, there had been periods of drenching rain followed by hot sun and the earliest tributes were beginning to rot. Cards were becoming a soggy mess. The decision was made by Waverley Council and the NSW Premiers Department that these tributes should stay in place till the end of Hanukkah and then be respectfully removed. |  |
| SJM CEO Kevin Sumption photographing the hannukiah drawn on the bridge with the shamash over a bullet hole. (Michael Fischer) |
| At 5:00 AM on 22nd December, a group made up of Waverly Council, Sydney Jewish Museum and Australian Jewish Historical Society staff with many volunteers gathered to collect the tributes which now covered 400sqm. | |
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| Gathering Tributes outside the Bondi Pavilion (Anastasia Glushko) | |
| Artist Nina Sanadze who created an installation of burnt items from the fire-bombed Adass Synagogue in Melbourne, asked that a selection of the flowers be collected and stored so that they could be the basis of a memorial. | |
 |  Drying Flowers (Peter Philippsohn) |
| Nina Sanadze (Allanah Sciberras/AAP PHOTOS) | |
| Jewish tradition is to light candles in a house of mourning and to place stones when visiting a grave. Many of the tributes reflected these practices. | |
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| 15 stones, one per victim. (Sheila Philippsohn) | Stones with Messages (Shannon Biederman) |
The Sydney Jewish Museum (SJM) undertook to take in all the three-dimensional objects – Matilda bees, toys, flags and more. The Australian Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) took responsibility for two-dimensional items – over 2000 cards, letters, messages on scraps of wrapping paper.
The next steps will be for SJM curators to assess and catalogue the items and for AJHS to scan and document all the messages. The digitisation process will be undertaken by senior school students during their holidays.
These tributes will form the basis of permanent memorials to the attack.
It is also planned for interviews to be recorded and documentary films made.
May their memories be a blessing.
| Michael Eisman President | Peter Philippsohn OAM CEO |
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