‘We must strengthen each other’

The mayor of an Israeli region devastated on October 7 visited the site of the Bondi Beach massacre on Tuesday morning, before presenting Waverley Council mayor Will Nemesh with a medal from his council.

Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council mayor Ori Epstein, who lost his mother, two brothers-in-law, his nephew and his eldest son Netta on October 7, was given a tour of Archer Park by Nemesh.

“I feel we have a common experience, even here in Australia, because the basic reason for that attack, the October 7 attack, is that we are Jews,” Epstein said. “We must strengthen each other.”

He said the two councils could work together, particularly on mental health. “I see that after October 7 there is so much knowledge about how to deal with trauma and post trauma, and how you deal with it not as a hospital but as a process in the community. That is the new knowledge that we bring.”

Asked for a message for Australian Jews, Epstein said,”You are not alone.”

Nemesh said the visit meant a lot to the community and to him personally.

“Despite the fact that our communities live tens of thousands of kilometres apart, we were both struck by tragedy, horrific massacres that occurred both in Israel and here at Bondi Beach,” he said.

Epstein, a lifelong resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza who was elected mayor in December 2024, is in

Australia for JNF Australia’s annual campaign, which also features international lawfare expert Natasha Hausdorff and former Israeli hostage and pianist Alon Ohel.

Speaking at a major donors event on Monday night, Epstein told guests he wanted to begin not as a mayor but as a son, and above all as a father. Netta was killed when he jumped on a grenade to save the woman he loved.

“As a father there are no words that can describe that loss,” Epstein said. “There is the life before that moment, and there is the life after it.

“But I have learned that leadership in moments like these is about choosing, every day, to keep going.”

Epstein invoked the vision of his predecessor Ofir Libstein, who was killed defending Kfar Aza on October 7 and had visited Australia with JNF in 2022.

“We do not want simply to return Sha’ar HaNegev to what it was on October 6. We want to build the Sha’ar HaNegev of the next generation,” he said.

This year’s JNF Australia campaign is raising funds for the Sha’ar HaNegev Community Village.

“We do not see your donations as charity. We see it as partnership,” Epstein said.