Safety not just security: the last word to the Royal Commission

At the heart of the Chanukah story is a decision to return.

More than two thousand years ago, after a period when Jewish practice had been outlawed, the Jewish people returned to their Temple in Jerusalem and found it desecrated. They cleared the Temple. They rebuilt the altar. And then they lit the menorah – a symbol of the “Eternal Light”, being God’s unending presence. The miracle of Chanukah is that only a single jar of pure oil could be found in the desecrated temple; only enough for one day, and yet, it burned for eight days until more oil could be sourced.

But before there was this miracle, there was a choice: to return, to rebuild, and to bring light back to a place that had known darkness.

As this Royal Commission draws to a close, Australia too, faces a moment of decision. Over these past months, you have carried a solemn burden: listening to the pain of a community, examining the health of our society, and helping chart a path forward. I thank you for this.

On Sunday, December 14 last year, close to a thousand of us gathered at Bondi Beach for the first night of Chanukah. Families came with their children. Friends found one another in the crowd. And at the centre, stood the menorah we had come to light.

We were there to celebrate Jewish life openly, in a place that for generations of Australian Jewish families, had simply been our home.

We did not get to light the candle that night. We all know why. Fifteen innocent people so tragically lost their lives. May their memories be a blessing.

Among them was a Holocaust survivor. Children lost parents. Parents lost children. Families were shattered, and the impact has rippled far beyond those who were there that night. More than 40 people were seriously injured, and countless others carry wounds that cannot be seen.