Bondi has long been the spiritual home of Sydney’s Jews. Now it will be a place of remembrance and grief | Michael Visontay

The magnet that first drew émigrés, including my own parents, was the opportunity to pray and congregate in a beautiful, innocent new environment

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or as long as anyone can remember, Bondi beach has been the symbol of Australia’s sunkissed lifestyle, its sweeping crescent of sand attracting busloads of tourists, backpackers and locals all year-long.

But for Sydney’s Jews, Bondi has always been something more. The suburb is the spiritual home of the community, a hub where Jews from all generations gather to eat, meet and schmooze.

On any given morning, as young walkers pound the promenade in gym gear to get their steps up, you can see groups of older men and women padding along while they discuss bypasses and hip replacements, East European and South African accents wafting behind them. Their children, now middle-aged and with better bodies, march along talking about property and school pickups.