A week after Bondi, is there anywhere Jewish people can feel safe?

Bondi is almost exactly how you imagine it to be.

- Jack Kessler

They really do surf there. The water really is that blue. And the people really are in a seemingly permanent state of beach body readiness. Almost, but not entirely.If you gaze beyond the metronomic crash of waves and the hordes of backpackers, you might notice the area is also home to one of the largest Jewish communities in Australia. One that is, like a growing number around the world, grieving.

When I first heard the news: “Shooting in Bondi”, I knew instantly. I'm no clairvoyant, but come on. Who else is hated so much, by so many?

Jewish existence has long been securitised to within an inch of its life in places like France and Sweden. But Australia was different. In the aftermath of the second world war, almost 30,000 Holocaust survivors migrated Down Under, wanting to get as far from Europe as possible. Their bet paid off - for both Jews and the nation.

Jews have been active across the whole of Australian public life, contributing two governors-general as well as working in the arts, law, business and healthcare. The country has been just about the best place to be Jewish in the history of space and time. But that has changed.