By Hilary Whiteman, CNN
Bondi Beach, Sydney (CNN) — For Australia’s tiny Jewish population, Bondi Beach was a refuge within a vast country that offered sanctuary to families fleeing a seething hate that killed six million of their kind within the lifetime of some of their oldest members.
For decades, they laid roots in a Sydney suburb built around a white sandy beach where each year millions of tourists kick off their shoes to be transported to a postcard world of beautiful people and friendly lifesavers wearing red and yellow caps.
It’s the image Australia wants to project to the world – of a multicultural haven where the conflicts of countries thousands of miles away are left at the shoreline.
But last Sunday horror and hatred rained down onto a Bondi lawn, where 15 people were shot dead by two gunmen with six licensed firearms.
It was Australia’s worst mass shooting since a lone gunman killed 35 people in an attack on tourists in Tasmania almost 30 years ago. This time was different.
“They wanted to kill Jews,” said mourner Carole, through tears near a carpet of flowers at Bondi Pavilion, a local landmark that now marks the site of a massacre.
“All we want to do is live in peace, work hard, pay our taxes and love our fellow Australians,” said Carole, whose daughters begged her not to give her last name for fear of retaliation.
“Jewish people always feel they are the country first,” Carole said. “As well as being strong Jews, we are never just Jewish. And now that’s how we feel.”
“Australia has let us down,” she said, angrily. “It’s actually beyond belief.”
‘This country has changed’
Australia notes with pride that it has the biggest population of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel. Most live in Sydney and Melbourne. Many call Bondi home.
This week, Jews in this picturesque pocket of Australia’s eastern coast buried their dead in funerals livestreamed to the diaspora worldwide.
The youngest victim, Matilda, was 10 years old. Among the flowers at Bondi Pavilion, toys and images of bees could be seen – a nod to Matilda’s middle name and the “sting” in her vibrant personality.
Dorienne Light wore an Israeli flag across her shoulders as she paid her respects at the memorial on Wednesday. Her son had handed her the flag as she walked out the door.
“I felt satisfied that the symbol wasn’t subtle – it’s who I am,” said Light, who this week has struggled to distract herself from heartache.
“This country has changed,” she said. “I used to be so proud of where we lived. We need to reclaim that.”
Do you think it’s possible? “Yes, I do.”
Under this leadership? “No.”
A community in grief directed its anger squarely at the Australian government, accusing it of allowing antisemitism to fester for two years before Sunday’s devastating attack.
Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg, a member of the opposition Liberal party, whose mother arrived in Australia as a refugee from the Holocaust, channeled deep feelings of betrayal in a speech at the memorial.
“Our prime minister, our government, has allowed Australia