The worst fears of Jewish Australians have been realised but faith leaders are urging the community not to retreat in the face of the "unspeakable evil" of anti-Semitism.
The tight-knit community is reeling after Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid Akram, 50, opened fire on a Hanukkah festival at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday night.
Two rabbis, a Holocaust survivor, a French football player and a 10-year-old girl were among the at least 15 civilians who lost their lives, with dozens more wounded.
Flowers and tributes were being laid at a memorial site at the rear of Bondi Pavilion on Monday, as well as synagogues across the country.
"This has to be a turning point for all of us," Rabbi Daniel Rabin told reporters at Melbourne's Caulfield Shule.
The Jewish community across the country was united but collectively grieving, St Kilda Hebrew Congregation's Rabbi Yaakov Glasman said.
"The bodies of the victims are still warm," he said.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the head of Bondi's Chabad mission, lost his life leaving behind wife Chayale and their children, including a two-month-old baby boy.
The "treacherous act of terror" reflected a climate of Jew-hatred and demanded accountability, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement leader Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky said.
"The Jewish response to terror has never been to retreat," he said.
Federal Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, called for the community to stand together after Australia's worst massacre since Port Arthur and the deadliest anti-Semitic act in its history.
The most pressing immediate issue was to ensure Australia's Jewish community was safe and then snuff out anti-Semitism, the Macnamara MP said.
"Not every act of hatred ends up in violence but every act of violence starts with intolerance and hatred," Mr Burns told AAP.
Alex Ryvchin, co-chief of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said he understood the fear of Jewish Australians and he wasn't going to downplay it to them or his "petrified" 12-year-old daughter.
"There is something to be feared when we can't go to the beach to mark Hanukkah in public, as we have for the 30 years, without being mowed down like animals," he said.
The hatred of some people toward all Jews was an "unspeakable evil" that must be repudiated by every Australian, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher said.
The reverend, whose great-grandmother was Jewish, said an atmosphere of public anti-Semitism had festered for more than two years leading to intimidation, division and the normalisation of incendiary language.
"Christians are children of the Jews," he said.
"And so, an attack on the Jews is an attack on all of us."
The National Imams Council condemned the attack, declaring it ran counter to the teachings of Islam that forbids killing innocent people.
The Australian Islamic Medical Association called for the Muslim community to respond with compassion, service and action by donating blood, as requested by NSW Premier Chris Minns.
