Bondi to mark one year since attack with largest ever Jewish gathering

Thousands are expected on Bondi Beach on Sunday, December 6 for “We Are One”, a community-wide Chanukah celebration marking one year since the terror attack on the Chanukah by the Sea celebration at Archer Park.

Announced by Chabad of Bondi, JCA, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Rabbinical Council of NSW, the event falls on the third night of Chanukah. Organisers say it will be the largest Jewish community gathering held in Australia.

Fifteen people were murdered in the attack on December 14, 2025, the first night of the festival.

The evening will feature a mass menorah lighting led by survivors, first responders and families of those killed, alongside Australian and international performers. A community choir drawn from synagogues, schools and youth movements across Sydney will lead the crowd in song. Federal and state political leaders from across the spectrum will attend. Headline performers will be announced in October, when tickets go live. The event is supported by the federal and NSW governments.

“For 35 years this community has lit the Menorah on Bondi Beach. Twelve months ago we saw the darkest of moments on that same sand,” Chabad of Bondi spiritual leader Rabbi Yehoram Ulman said.

“On December 6 we’ll show the world how Australians respond to darkness. We bring more light. We’ll gather, we’ll sing, and we’ll light one more candle. Nobody is going to take this beach, or this festival, from us.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president Greg Joffe said the country had provided a safe haven to Jews and many others from war and strife. “The best response to last year’s terror attack is to stand together, as a nation, and not allow our social bonds to crack,” Joffe said. “Together we mourn those killed and injured in the attack on our fellow Australians, and we light candles, together, looking forward to an even better future.”

JCA chief executive officer Alain Hasson said the attack was not only on the Jewish community but on the Australian community. “An act of terror, driven by hatred and racism, took place on our soil and challenged the values that we all share,” Hasson said. “What has followed has shown the strength of those values. Australians from every faith, every background and every part of our community stood with us.”

Rabbinical Council of NSW president Rabbi Shua Solomon said the festival’s message was unchanged. “The Menorah is lit in the window, not behind a curtain,” Solomon said. “That has been the message of Chanukah for more than 2000 years. This year, Bondi will be that window.”

The celebration is one of several commemorations planned for December. Waverley Council last month adopted a mayoral minute establishing a 13-member committee, chaired by the mayor and including representatives of Chabad of Bondi, the Board of Deputies, the ECAJ and the Rabbinical Council, to deliver a permanent memorial artwork in Archer Park within a $500,000 budget. The council has a $2 million NSW government grant covering the artwork and an upgrade to Bondi Park.

A temporary work, Sharing Light, will also be installed in Archer Park in December, with 5000 handmade clay vessels each housing a solar-powered light laid out in a grid and illuminating at sunset. The vessels are being made by the public at workshops at Bondi Pavilion this month.