A piece of Bondi scattered at Nova

Sand from Bondi Beach was carried across the world in a Sydney mother’s luggage and scattered on the ground at the Nova Music Festival site in southern Israel, in memory of those murdered in the terror attack in Bondi on December 14, 2025.

The women were from Sydney’s ORAH group, taking part in the Momentum program, a global movement connecting Jewish mothers through shared experiences and values. Each of them left with a stone from Nova to place at the Bondi memorial back home.

Hamas terrorists attacked the festival on October 7, 2023. Momentum Sydney leader Sue Morris had gathered the sand from in front of the park where the Bondi attack took place, in line with the Chanukiah memorial.

Standing among the eucalyptus trees, which reminded the group of home, Morris addressed the women before they scattered the sand.

“Bondi is somewhere that means a lot to all of us. It’s the heart of our community. It ripped Sydney apart. And it also showed our community at its absolute best. It’s not about what happens to us; it’s how we respond to it,” Morris told the group as they gathered.

Each woman scattered her sand in front of the memorial to Ben Shimoni, whose father the group had heard from earlier that day. Morris then recited Kaddish for the 15 souls lost at Bondi.

The day began in Herzliya, where about 200 mothers heard from Meirav Gonen. Her daughter Romi was taken hostage from Nova and returned home after 471 days in captivity. Orah participants Jenna Pinchuk and Tali Roomer said the talk, on the theme of human dignity, moved the room.

“In a room of 200 mothers, we all felt the heartbreak and deep despair as we contemplated the helplessness of a mother whose most fundamental instinct is to protect her children, yet who finds herself unable to do so,” they shared.

The group then travelled south to a site where about 300 burnt and bullet-riddled vehicles, including ambulances, have been gathered. Another 1300 line the surrounding area.

“Every car tells a story: of a person, a family or a group of friends who simply wanted to live and did everything they could to escape. The overwhelming feeling of senseless loss was tangible,” Pinchuk and Roomer wrote.

Over lunch near the festival site, guide Elad played guitar as the women sang quietly, and Gonen rejoined them to share the healing journey she and Romi are still navigating.

“It was a true honour to hear from such a strong and powerful woman.”

At the site, the women realised there were exactly 15 of them from Sydney, matching the number of lives lost at Bondi. It was a moment Pinchuk and Roomer called “a sign from a high power”.

After the sand was scattered, the group said the prayer for IDF soldiers and sang Hatikvah together.

The day continued with a reflection circle in Sderot, beside the police station destroyed in the attacks, and ended in Jerusalem with dinner on Ben Yehuda Street and a toast to life.