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Since becoming CAM’s Public Affairs Advocate for Australia following the murder of her father in last December’s Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre, Sheina Gutnick has faced a torrent of antisemitic abuse, including a message expressing regret she had not been killed in the attack as well.
Gutnick’s father, Reuven Morrison, was shot dead as he heroically confronted the terrorist gunmen by throwing bricks at them.
In the aftermath of losing her father, Gutnick turned grief into action, building a global platform dedicated to fighting the evil that took his life. Earlier this month, Gutnick was the first witness to testify before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.
Read Sheina Gutnick’s full Royal Commission testimony HERE.
Gutnick’s transformation into a public figure almost did not happen. In the first hours after the attack, she refused all media requests. Then, at 11:30 p.m. that night, she received a message from a CBS journalist. “We need to tell the world what your dad did,” it read.
“My father doesn’t have a voice,” Gutnick replied. “I have to speak for him and say what he did and what happened.”
By morning, her story was in every major news outlet in Australia.
Gutnick’s sudden visibility came at personal cost, turning her into a target for antisemitic invective. Countless vitriolic messages have been addressed to her online. The worst, posted from an active, identifiable social media account, wished that Gutnick had been murdered at Bondi alongside her father.
“I’ve seen hundreds of them,” she recalled, “and that was the only one that managed to rattle me. I feel like that says a lot, because we’re so used to it, and it’s become so normalized.”
The venom has taken many forms. One message read: “World will be a much better place when they kill all you dirty… Truly a scum to humanity… rest in piss.” Another: “F*** you, satanist c***.” Others called Gutnick a “drama queen” and mockingly compared her to Holocaust victim Anne Frank.
One commenter posted a “Victim Card: Declined” image, and another wrote, “Victim time again.” Some ignored Gutnick’s father’s murder entirely, responding to her grief with demands that she answer for the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Furthermore, antisemitic conspiracy claims that the Bondi massacre was a false flag operation orchestrated by Israel continue to proliferate online, nearly half a year after the attack.
When Hatred Leaves No Room for Jewish Grief
According to Gutnick, a single post featuring her drew more than 3,800 comments, the majority antisemitic. Some posted images of a boot stomping on an Israeli flag and labeled the flags of Israel and America “flags of terrorism.”
One wrote, “Intifada is not only appropriate, it is necessary to stop the genocidal maniacs in Israel. It should be fully globalized.”
Post after post included language such as “baby killer Israelis” and “Fuq Israel. Parasites,” as well emojis of middle fingers and laughing faces mocking the Bondi victims.
For thousands, a daughter’s account of her father being shot dead at a Hanukkah celebration was not an occasion for grief, sympathy, or an outpouring of love and support. Instead, it offered simply another opportunity to demonize the Jewish people and state. When people become so consumed by hostility toward Israel, they no longer respond to Jewish grief or trauma with basic humanity.
Gutnick points to social media itself as the cause. “Society normally had checks and balances to keep racist, antisemitic, bigotry behavior in check,” she noted. “Now there are absolutely no checks and balances. Every thought is given legitimacy and celebrated. And we’re bearing the brunt of that.”
Journalists covering Gutnick’s story have told her they felt they were living in a twilight zone, observing a hatred that defies rational explanation.
Gutnick has not been deterred. “What keeps me going,” Gutnick said, “is the fact that I now carry my father’s legacy forward as he cannot do anymore — as he was murdered in the most horrific antisemitic attack in the Diaspora we’ve seen in a very long time.”
Watch Gutnick’s Royal Commission testimony HERE (beginning at around 1:01:00):
Read more:
Daughter of Bondi Massacre Hero Joins CAM Australia to Fight the Hate That Killed Her Father
