The daughter of a Bondi terror attack victim has recounted her experience of being abused for being Jewish while in a shopping centre with her baby.

Sheina Gutnick’s 62-year-old father Reuven Morrison was killed after hurling a brick at one of the gunmen involved in the December 14 attack that left 15 people dead.

On Monday, she was the first witness in a series of public hearings for the Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion.

Gutnick said in December 2024 – a year before the deadliest shooting since the Port Arthur massacre – she was walking through Westfield Bondi Junction with her baby when a man pointed at her Star of David necklace and called her a “f—ing terrorist”.

“I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe. There were many people around me, but no one intervened,” she said.

As a result of this and other experiences, Gutnick said she lived with a constant fear and awareness that limited her willingness to move around in some public spaces.

Her father fled Australia from Ukraine at the age of 14 and met his wife, another Jewish refugee, at Bondi Beach, the inquiry heard.

“He was deeply proud to have moved to Australia and been an Australian citizen, and grateful for a nation that welcomed Jews when so many others turned him away at that time,” Gutnick said.

But after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered a furious Israeli assault on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, it became “socially, morally acceptable” in Australia for antisemitic comments to be made in public, she said.

“Growing up within Australia, unfortunately, we were always aware of the presence of antisemitism, but it did not play such a massive role in our lives that it does now,” she said.

Royal commission head and former High Court judge Virginia Bell said the inquiry was interested in getting as full a picture as possible of the experience of antisemitism.

“The sharp spike in antisemitism that we’ve witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other Western countries, and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East,” Bell said in opening Monday’s proceedings.

“It’s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they’re Jews.”

Bell noted a common concern expressed by those asked to give evidence to the commission was a fear they would attract hostile attention.

She said she had allowed those who wanted to to appear under a pseudonym.

Last Thursday, the commission released an interim report, focused on the intelligence and security response to the December Bondi attack. It made 14 recommendations for change.

While it found no areas “requiring urgent or immediate action”, the report’s recommendations included nationally cohesive gun-law reform and tighter security at Jewish events.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government would adopt all of the recommendations.

The commission’s initial hearing block will run until May 15.

A second hearing block will run from May 25 to June 12 and look into the circumstances surrounding the Bondi terror attack, including the conduct of intelligence and law enforcement agencies before the assault.

A third hearing block will address case studies of antisemitism with a particular focus on institutions and industries, including within the education sector.

The commission will hand down a final report before the end of the year.

-AAP