‘Our family has been shredded’: Sydney’s Jewish community in mourning

• Follow our live coverage of the Bondi Beach shooting

Sydney’s Jewish leaders have led a vigil and prayers outside the Bondi Pavilion as they returned to the iconic beach to mourn those killed in the deadly mass shooting at Sunday’s Hanukkah event.

Flowers piled up outside the pavilion as mourners, including many Jewish people and rabbis, arrived on Monday to pay their respects to the 15 people, including a 10-year-old child, who were killed in the father-son attack on Sunday. One of gunmen was also killed.

Community leaders said their long-held fears that Sydney Jews would be targeted by terrorists had played out in the most devastating way on the first day of Hanukkah, the festival of lights.

NSW Board of Deputies president David Ossip said the Bondi terror attack was the “day that we have long dreaded”.

“We, as a community, have warned repeatedly that it was only a matter of time until blood was spilt during the summer of terror earlier this year,” Ossip said on Monday. “Last night, tragically, our luck ran out when our community was subjected to a heinous terrorist attack.”

Ossip said antisemitism had “well and truly” found a place in Australia, and pleaded with leaders across the country to increase efforts to tackle hate speech against Jews.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the attack represented an “almighty blow” to the Jewish community and he feared the community would “never recover”.

“A community is but a family, and our family was ripped apart,” Ryvchin said. “Our family has been shredded.”

A vigil of about 50 people broke out in prayer and Jewish song just after midday as many others watched on in silence. Bondi man and respected music scholar Kim Cunio sang the Kaddish, a hymn recited in Jewish prayers sessions.

Prayers were led by Rabbi Yossi Friedman. He arrived in Bondi early on Monday morning after a sleepless night.

“I just wanted to be here,” he said.“I found a way to get through the police bollards with many others. I wanted to do my prayers here and pray for the victims and those who are trying to heal.”

In a video message from Jerusalem overnight, Coogee Rabbi Elozer Gestetner said he was “shocked and heartbroken” by the news.

“Who would have believed and expected such a thing,” Gestetner said.

He urged the members of his synagogue to “stand tall and proud, you are the characters and heroes of history being made in Australia and it’s a sad, sad history”.

“If you can ride horseback on Bondi Beach with a Palestinian flag, this is what happens as a follow-on,” he said.

Marc Hochstadt, the son of a Holocaust survivor, said he was experiencing a mix of anger and sadness as he sat alone near the lifesaving club in North Bondi.

“We were a lucky country,” the 58-year-old said.

The Paddington resident broke down in tears as he asked why the Jewish community continued to be persecuted, especially in a country like Australia.

“We have three-metre-high fences around schools and security guards outside synagogues. Who lives like this?”

Synagogues, including the Great Synagogue in Sydney’s CBD, remained shut on Monday after the NSW Board of Deputies recommended that all “communal institutions are closed until further notice”.

Flowers were also left outside the Great and Coogee synagogues while police were stationed at the Randwick Jewish school Emanuel and the Caro Synagogue at Bondi.

Many kosher cafes and restaurants in Sydney’s eastern suburbs also remained closed on Monday.

More coverage on the Bondi terror attack

• Updates: At least 16 dead after father and son launch terror attack on Bondi
• What we know so far: All the details of the mass shooting and the victims
• Elias Visontay: I was 100m away when the shots rang out. All hell broke loose
• Alleged gunman: Recently unemployed bricklayer, 24, told family he was taking holiday
• Watch: Moment a hero bystander tackles one of the gunmen