Jewish school leaders gather in Sydney

At a memorial walk over the Bondi site, Rabbi Menachem Dadon told Australian Council of Jewish Schools (ACJS) conference delegates that despite the Bondi Beach terror attack on Chanukah by the Sea on December 14, he looks at Archer Park as a holy site, and a place of simcha and bringing people together, and he hopes the Jewish community does too.

On the second day of the ACJS annual Presidents and Principals conference, interstate delegates met at the site of the attack, where Dadon, who was with Rabbi Eli Schlanger when he was killed, shared his experiences of what happened.

Being Israeli, Dadon explained that he immediately knew the sounds were gunshots, recalling the bullets whipping by him as he huddled behind a car for safety. He described the moment he moved right when Rabbi Eli went left, how he helped Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff and Constable Scott Dyson, the phone call from his daughter saying she had been shot and the final conversation he had with Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, who he described as “happy” during those moments.

The ACJS, which represents 15 Australian Jewish day schools that enrol 9,700 students from ELC to Year 12 across Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane, holds an annual conference to promote collaboration among Jewish day schools, providing an opportunity to share experiences and learnings across the network.

The conference was held in Sydney this year to show support for the community following the terrorist attack, specifically the Kesser Torah College community.