He came to Bondi beach with words, with “goodwill”, and with stones in his pocket.

For two months, this place has reckoned with what happened here, struggled to comprehend the enormity of the massacre that unfolded on a Sunday afternoon.

Since the targeted antisemitic killings, in which gunmen claimed 15 lives, much remains the same: the water is warm and clear, the surfers and swimmers and sand-runners are back in their domains.

But much has changed, perhaps irreparably.

A large menorah stands in the park as a constant reminder. The bridge from where the gunmen wreaked their murderous havoc is chalked with drawings. Daily, police patrol the boulevard on foot, helicopters swoop overhead.

But beyond that, there is an abiding sense that what happened here can and did happen – that evil erupted in this usually joyous place, leaving it for ever altered.

A step in finding the language for what transpired has been the visit of the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog.

He arrived in Bondi on Monday under leaden skies, carrying a message of goodwill, and two small stones from Jerusalem.

“In Jewish tradition, we place stones on to represent the endurance of memory, the weight of loss, and the unbreakable bond between the living and those we have lost,” he said.

“These stones from Jerusalem … will remain here at Bondi for eternity.”

But Herzog carried, too, a warning, that a rising tide of antisemitism represented a “global emergency”.

“Antisemitism here in Australia is not a Jewish problem – it is an Australian problem and a global problem. Over the generations, one thing has become clear, hatred that starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.

“This is why the current rise in antisemitism around the world is a global emergency, and we must all act to fight against it.”

Herzog paid tribute to those who rushed to the aid of Jews being brutally slaughtered on a Sunday afternoon.

“In the face of this evil, we saw the very best of humanity. Suddenly, here, on Bondi, surfboards became … stretchers as extraordinary, ordinary people ran into the danger and saved innocent lives.”

Within the awkward confines of the memorial ceremony, hemmed in by marquees, security cordons and steady rain, Herzog sought to offer some comfort to the families of the victims of the attack: an official focal point for their grief and fury, a national mourner-in-chief.

“When one Jew is hurt, all Jews feel their pain,” he said. “That is why I’m here today – to embrace and console the bereaved families.”

But Herzog has been a controversial choice as the focus for that healing. Even those who wholeheartedly support his invitation to Australia have come to recognise that.

The son and grandson of men who served as chief rabbis of Israel, he is not a faith leader, he is a politician.

Herzog is head of state of a nation prosecuting a brutal war against Hamas, across the occupied territory of Gaza.

And he has been accused by a UN commission of inquiry as having incited genocide against the Palestinian people when he said that all Gazans were responsible for the 7 October attacks against Israel. He has denied the accusation and says his words were taken out of context.

The office of president of Israel carries little overt power, but it holds great influence – and Israeli soldiers have echoed the sentiment.

On his first of four days in Australia, the war prosecuted by the state which Herzog leads was never far away.

As he spoke, a flag was unfurled to his left bearing the picture of an IDF soldier next to a Star of David.

Herzog was asked directly what he made of thousands of people promising to take to the streets of cities around Australia to protest his country’s war.

“Standing here at the solemn site where 15 people were killed indiscriminately, there are protests planned today in Sydney for people who are mourning 70,000 killed in Gaza, including 20,000 children. Can you reflect and what is the message to protesters, if you have one?”

Herzog replied the demonstrations “undermine and delegitimise” his nation’s “mere existence”.

“We did not seek that war on October 7,” he said. “People were butchered, murdered, raped and burnt and abducted.”

A handful of kilometres away, in the centre of Sydney, the supreme court heard arguments as to why a pro-Palestine march should be allowed to go ahead.

Under extraordinary powers, New South Wales police have declared almost all of central Sydney, and the city’s eastern suburbs – home to Bondi beach – as designated areas where protests are restricted, with marchers facing arrest.

In defiance of the declaration, a march was planned from Sydney Town Hall to NSW parliament on Monday evening. A challenge brought before the court from the Palestine Action Group argued the declaration was “overbroad, uncertain and unreasonable”.

But lawyers for the state government won their case, convincing the court there were other venues for a protest march, not subject to restrictions.

Protestors were unbowed, promising to hold their rally, despite the risk of arrest.

At Bondi, Jewish-Australian mother Yvonne, injured during the massacre sheltering her two-year-old son, said Herzog’s visit “from the other side of the world” was a vital symbol of unity and support.

“It’s really important,” she said, as she stood on crutches. “It shows solidarity. It made us realise no matter where we are in the world we’ll still be supported … that we’re not alone.”