source : the age
The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion will resume at 10am today, headed by former high court judge Virginia Bell.
Stream day three of the hearing here.
Sydney writer Nikki Goldstein was in an unsurvivable coma when she was given “last rites” by Rabbi Eli Schlanger in 2022, who blew his shofar, an ancient ram’s horn sounded on special days to stir the soul.
Twenty-four hours later, Goldstein’s lungs began to repair, and within days, she was moved to a general ward in the hospital, where she recovered.
Three years later, it was Schlanger who would die, killed in the Bondi Beach massacre on the first night of Hanukkah on December 14, 2025.
Godlstein started writing a book based around conversations between a questioning Jew and a guiding one, Conversations with My Rabbi, which was launched on Tuesday at Chabad Bondi.
Read the article by the Herald’s Alexandra Smith here.
There are just two witnesses scheduled to appear at the royal commission today. They are NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Investigations and Counter-Terrorism David Hudson, and Assistant Commissioner Police Prosecutions and Licensing Enforcement Command Kirsty Heyward.
As the commission heard yesterday, a taskforce set up to combat antisemitism, share intelligence and patrol high-risk Jewish events was dismantled by NSW Police in the lead-up to the terror attack.
Jewish community leaders said they were not told Operation Shelter had been wound back in 2025 to focus on protests only.
The commission has heard from Jewish security group CSG that police had declined entreaties to permanently station officers at the Bondi Beach gathering after their warning of a probable risk of terror attack.
The royal commission into antisemitism resumes at 10am today in Sydney. Senior police, including the deputy commissioner of investigations and counterterrorism, David Hudson, are again expected to give evidence about the lead-up to the terror attack at Chanukah By The Sea that killed 15 innocent people at Bondi Beach in December.
If you missed yesterday’s hearing, here’s what emerged:
- The superintendent and commander of Eastern Suburbs Police Area – witness “ABQ” (a pseudonym) – emailed command inspectors days before the festival, telling them that there was “no need” to stay the entire duration of the Chanukah By The Sea event.
- Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna, commander of the Central Metropolitan Region, appeared and told the commission, “Australia has changed since this horrific terrorist attack”, and changed policing with it.
- Operation Shelter, designed to protect Sydney’s Jewish community following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, had been dismantled in the lead-up to the Bondi attack
- Jewish security group CSG told the commission that police had declined entreaties to permanently station officers at the festival despite their warning of a probable risk of a terror attack.
- Jewish witnesses said they had been intimidated by “online hate” after providing evidence, with offensive social media posts.
