Final day of Royal Commission hearings

Bringing all Australians into the synagogue ‘one heart and one mind at a time’

A program that invites all Australians into a synagogue to bake challah, meet a rabbi, and learn about Jewish life has expanded significantly since the Bondi Chanukah terror attack.

Witness AEC, who manages Chabad of Bondi’s Project Noah program, told the Commission the initiative follows a five-part format. Participants begin by braiding challah dough together, hear from a guest speaker, take a tour of the synagogue, participate in an open question-and-answer session with a rabbi, and finish by writing anonymous reflection cards.

The witness said the challah bake was consistently reported by participants as the highlight.

“The braiding of the three strands of dough into a plait symbolises the coming together of separate identities,” the witness said. “The process of preparing, baking, and eating warm challah together creates a relaxed and welcoming environment, and reinforces a common value to many cultures, and that is that food really does bring people together.”

The witness said questions during the rabbi Q&A sessions ranged from “Why do rabbis have beards?” to more complex questions about how to respond to someone with strongly antisemitic views.

“Nothing was ever off limits,” the witness said, noting the late Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who created the program, wanted conversations to be open and honest, “particularly with young people from different religions and cultural backgrounds, because he really recognised how easily misunderstandings can arise when knowledge of another community comes only from social media stereotypes and prejudices”.

The witness described the anonymous reflection cards as the most powerful element. Each card begins with the prompt “Today inspired me to …” and the witness said responses showed the program’s ability to “reduce misunderstandings, challenge stereotypes, foster mutual respect and social cohesion”.

“Most of the people that come to the synagogue have never met a Jewish person before, let alone been in a synagogue or even met a rabbi,” the witness said.

Originally designed for non-Jewish school groups, the program has since expanded to include universities, government agencies, local councils, faith-based communities, sporting teams, and corporate groups. A Victorian branch has also recently launched.

The witness said their hope was to continue the work Schlanger “began but did not see completed”.

“Every participant who takes part in Project Noah leaves with a deeper understanding that there is far more that unites us than divides us.” 

Late rabbi believed ‘shared humanity’ was best way to combat antisemitism

The late Rabbi Eli Schlanger believed that prompting people to remember their shared humanity was one of the most powerful ways to combat antisemitism, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard.

Witness AEC, who worked as Schlanger’s personal assistant at Chabad of Bondi for two years before his death in the Bondi Chanukah attack, told the Commission the rabbi created Project Noah in August 2025 as a way to build bridges between Jewish and non-Jewish communities.

The witness, who now manages the program, said the name stood for Nations of All Humanity, and was also a reference to the seven Noahide laws, which the witness described as “the ancient Jewish framework that outlines basic moral and ethical responsibilities shared by all humanity, which form the foundation of a peaceful and just society”.

The witness said the principles covered “unity in diversity, the sanctity of human life, empathy and social responsibility, and systems of justice”.

“Eli believed that prompting people to remember our shared humanity was actually one of the best ways to combat antisemitism,” the witness said. “He was someone that worked with people in prisons and hospitals. Through his pastoral care as a rabbi, he knew that meeting people face to face and making these human connections was one of the most powerful and profound ways to change hearts and minds.”

The witness told the Commission that Schlanger used the Noahide laws as “a conversation starter, a way to build bridges and to open dialog”, noting the laws “transcend religion and provide a common, universal language between people of different faiths, cultures, and backgrounds”.

Project Noah was designed to put that philosophy into practice through immersive, hands-on learning experiences.

“At the heart of his work was always that human connection element, knowing that the world can change through a single conversation and a single interaction at any given time,” the witness said.

The witness said the approach was grounded in research showing that meaningful in-person contact between groups with shared activities and goals was “the most effective and enduring way to reduce prejudice and build lasting, resilient cross-cultural understandings”.

“Rather than seeking to counter antisemitism solely through education about persecution or the Holocaust, Project Noah is fun,” the witness said. “It fosters positive personal interactions with Jewish people, culture, and community life, and it proactively builds personal bonds that withstand societal pressures.”

One Mitzvah campaign gave Australians ‘an outlet to do good’

The One Mitzvah for Bondi campaign gave everyday Australians a way to walk alongside the Jewish community in the aftermath of the Bondi attack, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard.

Continuing his testimony, La Posta, who served as co-coordinator general for the Bondi community response, told the Commission the campaign grew from conversations with Jewish community leaders who wanted solidarity to be expressed through action.

“There was a sense from the Jewish community that while those sentiments were welcomed, there should be a way to turn it into actions,” La Posta said. “The Jewish community wanted the wider community to walk with them.”

La Posta said the concept emerged at an emergency meeting of the NSW Faith Affairs Council on December 15, 2025, convened by the NSW Minister for Multiculturalism. He told the Commission that Chabad House North Shore Rabbi Nochum Shapiro made two requests of the faith communities. First, to stand with the Jewish community and demonstrate unambiguous support, which led to the pledge, and second to undertake one mitzvah to “bring light to the world”.

The campaign was launched on December 19, 2025, with support from Multicultural NSW and the NSW government.

La Posta said the campaign’s strength was its simplicity and accessibility, with no sign-up requirement and no barriers to participation.

“It just captured an act of kindness of any type aimed at making Australia a better place,” he said. “The campaign used a simple, symbolic Hebrew word, the mitzvah, for people doing tangible things to make a difference.”

Approximately 3000 people registered their acts of kindness via the campaign website, though La Posta said the true reach was far greater.

“The measurement was never how many registered on the website,” he said. “It was more around inspiring a movement of people to do good.”

He told the Commission that media company NBC Universal also created an advertisement supporting the campaign, which ran on major commercial television stations.

La Posta said the campaign had led to the establishment of Mitzvah House, a community hub at Bondi Beach where Jewish community members come to pray and members of the public visit “just to sit with those feelings and reinforce to the community they’re not alone”.

Concluding his evidence, La Posta stressed the importance of sustained investment in social cohesion, citing advice that it is “very much like a bank account, where one needs to regularly make deposits before it makes withdrawals”.

“Our Jewish people are Australians. They belong here,” he said. “Now is the time for us to act, and create a society of people who are kind, curious, and understanding.”

NSW government built ‘no wrong door’ support model after Bondi attack

The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard how the New South Wales government established a coordinated support model to ensure the Jewish community felt “supported and embraced” in the aftermath of the Bondi attack.

New South Wales Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure deputy secretary Joseph La Posta, who was appointed co-coordinator general for the Bondi community response in January 2026 alongside NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Michelle Goldman, told the Commission his role was “focused on providing care, compassion, and support to a grieving eastern suburbs and particularly Jewish Australian community”.

La Posta said the response was guided by principles supporting psychological recovery, promoting safety, fostering calm, strengthening connectedness, and sustaining hope.

“Government is a big and unwieldy beast, and for many people involved in the attack directly, they have very little interface with government,” he said. “So it was necessary to be able to help support them and concierge through the government services.”

He described a “no wrong door” service model designed to ensure individuals could access help regardless of which government agency they needed.

La Posta told the Commission that in the immediate aftermath of the attack, a sense of isolation within the Jewish community became “pretty apparent very quickly”.

“The first initiative that we wanted to prioritise was to reassure our Jewish Australian community that they were not alone,” he said.

On December 17, 2025, the NSW government called on faith and community leaders to sign a pledge against antisemitism, racism and hate, titled “We Are Stronger Together”. La Posta said more than 3000 signatories signed the pledge within days, and the Minister for Multiculturalism presented it as a bound booklet to the Jewish Board of Deputies approximately one week after the attack.

On the same day, an interfaith ceremony was held at St Mary’s Cathedral, led by the Archbishop of Sydney. La Posta said approximately 7000 people attended, along with 300 officials and representatives from 20 to 30 faith groups.

The Commission also heard how a community hub was established, initially at the North Bondi RSL and later at Bondi Pavilion in partnership with Waverley Council, operating as a one-stop shop for government services.

La Posta said it became apparent the space needed to feel accessible to the Jewish community, so organisers worked with rabbinical leadership to install a mezuzah, ensure kosher catering, and set up a rabbinical table as a touchpoint.

“Pretty quickly, we made that space effectively a safe drop-in centre for anyone, but particularly those members of the Jewish community,” he said.

“It was also a constant reminder of the fact that we should never become numb or immune to these things, and that suffering cannot be in vain.”

Witnesses urge love, cohesion in wake of Bondi attack

A Muslim doctor and a Jewish trauma-informed educator have told the Royal Commission how a children’s book inspired by the Bondi Chanukah attack is being has been used to promote healing, belonging and social cohesion.

Dr Naba Masad Alfayadh, a medical doctor and chief executive of public health charity Rama Health, appeared alongside a witness whose name is subject to a non-publication direction. Dr Alfayadh, who came to Australia as a refugee from Iraq in 2003, told the commission she had experienced racism and Islamophobia after arriving in Australia but was also “overwhelmed by the love that exists in Australia”.

She said that experience shaped her response to the 2025 Bondi attack, which she described as “one of the greatest tragedies in Australian history”.

“As a Muslim who’s experienced the Christchurch trauma, I could only imagine the fear, the alarm, the palpitations, the sense of disconnection that the Jewish community must have been experiencing,” Dr Alfayadh said.

She said that, after Christchurch, government regulations and police provided important protections, but it was “love and connection” that ultimately made her feel safe. “I wanted to use that knowledge and that experience to extend love towards the Jewish community,” she said.

Dr Alfayadh and her young daughter subsequently created the children’s book Kookaburra Kindness, designed to help children understand the Bondi attack in a developmentally appropriate way. The book acknowledges the Jewish victims and the people who responded to the attack, while using the Chanukah symbol of a small candle shining against darkness to promote kindness and connection.

“I wanted people to see that the light of love on that day was really bright and was brighter than the darkness of violence that day,” Dr Alfayadh told the commission. She said she wanted Australians to understand that “every single candle counts”, with individual acts of kindness helping build a better society.

The concurrent witness in the session, a Jewish mother and trauma-informed education specialist, told the commission she had been looking for a social story to help children process what she described as a “collective cultural trauma event”.

She discovered Kookaburra Kindness in April this year and contacted Dr Alfayadh. “I was so relieved and amazed by her kindness, love, and healing language,” the witness said. “To me, the book was perfect.”

The witness said the book’s inclusion of Jewish and First Nations voices made it particularly meaningful and she subsequently worked with Dr Alfayadh to develop a classroom resource known as the Kookaburra Kindness Box.

The resource is designed for lower-primary classrooms and incorporates trauma-informed education, cultural responsiveness and community-building activities. The witness said it would include a reading circle, colourful battery-operated tea lights referring to the Chanukah message of bringing light, and a collective art activity.

The initiative has received support from Jewish organisation Stand Up and Monash University, with a pilot program planned for government schools in Term Four and evaluation by Monash’s Faculty of Education.

She told the commission her own husband had left a government school after feeling unsafe in the workplace, despite wanting to become part of the school community. “If we want to keep our choice of sending our child to a government school, then I need to utilise my knowledge and experience to support teachers to create classrooms in which my child and other children from culturally diverse backgrounds will be safe,” she said.

Dr Alfayadh also warned that discrimination could have lasting psychological consequences for children. “When children encounter discrimination, antisemitism, Islamophobia, we’re teaching them that a part of them is unwanted,” she said.

She said Australia needed a “sustained, forever commitment to social cohesion” to protect children.

In an emotional closing message, Dr Alfayadh told Jewish children: “You are loved because you exist.”

“You are Australian. You are Australia. You belong,” she said. “Every child — Jewish children, Muslim children, Palestinian children, Israeli children, First Nations children — I want every child to know that they are unconditionally loved.”

She said the work was ultimately about creating “a better country and a better society together” by encouraging Australians to shine their “little candles” wherever they could.

Sikh volunteer leader tells RC of ‘harmony and mateship’ after Bondi attack

The founder of Turbans for Australia has told the Royal Commission examining the Bondi attack that the community response to the tragedy demonstrated the strength of social cohesion, with volunteers from different faiths and backgrounds coming together to support grieving residents.

Amar Preet Singh, who founded the Sikh-led charity in 2015 and serves as its president, said he was deeply affected by the December 14 attack and travelled to Bondi with his wife and a team member to lay flowers.

“Bondi is my beach as well, and I was so upset that somebody would, you know, take the liberty of other human beings, fellow Australians, away for being at the beach and celebrating what their faith tells them to do,” Singh told Jane Taylor, counsel assisting.

He said the attack felt particularly personal because of his organisation’s commitment to multiculturalism and community service. “I thought it could have been one of us or our team,” he said.

Following discussions with Waverley Council, Turbans for Australia established a food and support operation near the memorial, providing vegetarian Indian rice and curry, fruit and water to people paying their respects.

Singh said some grieving residents told volunteers the food was the only meal they had eaten that day. “That sort of made it worthwhile for us to put in the 14, 15 hours we were back and forth to make sure we’re there for our fellow Australians,” he said.

The operation continued for about five or six days and concluded with a barbecue featuring vegan sausages.

The response attracted volunteers from across Sydney and from a range of cultural and religious backgrounds. One volunteer travelled from Penrith, taking about an hour and 20 minutes to reach Bondi, while members of the Lions Club of Carlingford and local residents also joined the effort.

Asked about the backgrounds of those involved, Singh said: “Well, firstly, I would say they were all humans.”

He said local businesses also donated food, drinks, bread and other supplies, while two young Jewish girls gave the charity an envelope containing a donation after handing out chocolates carrying messages of hope and gratitude.

Singh said the girls’ actions were “very brave and beautiful” and reflected the importance of encouraging young Australians to participate in their communities.

He told the Commission that Turbans for Australia had developed its community service work in response to a range of crises, including drought, the Black Summer bushfires, COVID-19 and floods.

The organisation was established partly to encourage Sikhs to volunteer, but also in response to Singh’s own experiences of discrimination following the September 11 attacks in the United States.

He said Sikhs had repeatedly been subjected to hate because of their appearance and expressed concern about the experiences future generations could face. “I don’t want the same experiences for my next generation who are born here, but they’re going to look like me,” he said.

Singh said Australia faced a growing challenge over social cohesion, warning that people could be judged by their appearance or religious identity before they were known as individuals. “For me personally, social cohesion is something that we need to work on all levels,” he said, calling for Australians from “all walks of life” to come together.

He said the response to the Bondi attack offered a powerful example of what could be achieved when communities supported one another. “I think through our joint efforts, we can bring back to the Australia that we all belong to that we all have a right to be happy, safe, and excel in life,” Singh said.

Rabbi says dialogue can strengthen social cohesion

A Sydney rabbi has told the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion that sustained dialogue between Jewish, Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Australians can help combat racism and build a more resilient society.

Rabbi George Mordecai, who works within the Sydney Jewish community and co-founded the intercultural group Coming Together after October 7, 2023, said the initiative was established after relationships between communities had deteriorated following the Hamas attack and the subsequent war in Gaza.

“There was a sense that the relationships that had been cultivated over the decades had just fallen apart,” Rabbi Mordecai told the commission.

Responding to Tamara Phillips, counsel assisting, he said he and co-founder Jackie Parker decided they needed to use their networks to create opportunities for people from different communities to meet and talk. “My sense of it was that after October 7, antisemitism was going to increase as [would] Islamophobia and also anti-Arab hatred,” he said. “So I felt that we should make alliances across difference, even in this most tumultuous of times.”

Coming Together meets every six to eight weeks, with organisers seeking to maintain roughly equal representation between Jewish and Arab, Palestinian and Muslim participants.

Rabbi Mordecai said meetings often began with a shared meal before moving into discussion or a “listening circle”, where participants could speak without interruption. “We have to really listen to that person speak their truth, even if it hurts us, even if it’s hard to hear,” he said.

The approach had enabled participants to develop trust and empathy despite deeply held differences over the Middle East conflict. “We have very, very difficult discussions,” Rabbi Mordecai said. “But the fact that we’ve committed to come together regularly, we have developed trust and friendship too.”

He said participants had not necessarily changed their views, but had learned to remain engaged despite their differences. “To stay present to difference is really important,” he said. “It’s a really important first step to any kind of social cohesion or conflict resolution.”

Rabbi Mordecai also described the solidarity he experienced from Muslim, Arab and Palestinian friends following the Bondi tragedy, including members of the group accompanying him to Bondi, where Muslim participants read passages from the Koran and laid a wreath.

He told the commission that combating antisemitism could not be left solely to Jewish Australians, just as other forms of racism could not be confronted by individual communities in isolation. “I am convinced, through my experience mainly in Coming Together, that we will really only be able to fight racism and hatred together, and not in siloed communities,” he said.

Rabbi Mordecai said multiculturalism should encourage Australians to build bridges rather than retreat into ethnic communities. “The purpose of multiculturalism was never to retreat into ethnic silos. That was not the point,” he said.

He urged governments and communities to invest in dialogue initiatives, arguing they could turn social cohesion from an aspiration into a practical activity. “If we don’t support dialogue, if we don’t support communities like Coming Together to build trust, and if we don’t invest in that, I don’t think any of it can work,” he said.

Rabbi Mordecai said Coming Together was considering how its model could eventually be extended beyond its existing participants and into the broader Australian community. He concluded by thanking members of the group, saying their courage and humanity had given him hope.

“You, in Coming Together, have again given me courage,” he said. “You’ve given me hope in these most tempestuous of times that we can build a better tomorrow here in Australia for everyone.”

Paddle Out could become annual event

A Bondi community initiative held in the aftermath of the December 14 Bondi Beach attack could become an annual event and inspire similar gatherings across Australia, the Royal Commission has heard.

The Paddle Out brought an estimated 1500 to 2000 people into the water at Bondi Beach, with participants arriving from across Sydney. Witnesses described the event as a powerful display of solidarity, with participants forming a large circle off North Bondi Rocks.

“It was truly extraordinary,” said David Solsky, who organised the event. “We had somewhere between 1500 [and] 2000 people who within about three or four minutes had taken to the water.”

The solemnity of the event gave way to celebration after a minute’s silence, with participants splashing water, embracing and talking on the beach. “I think it was just that huge moment of a release for everybody,” Solsky told Jane Taylor, counsel assisting. “I think that feeling that, oh, we still have Bondi, we still have the beach, we have our community.”

The event also included Chanukah symbolism, including donuts, which he said helped create “a really nice interfaith, intercultural moment”.

Solsky said the paddle out’s strength came from allowing people to participate rather than simply observe. “It was about the community coming together at a grassroots level,” he said.

Organisers are now hoping to hold another Paddle Out, potentially making it an annual event, subject to discussions with council, police and other authorities.

Solsky also revealed plans for a broader initiative called “Ripples”, aimed at encouraging communities across Australia to hold similar gatherings. “We want to be able to take Bondi Ripples as a moment,” he said, describing a vision for an Australian tradition that could bring people together “away from politics, away from current events”.

He said the goal was to strengthen individual communities and ultimately create “a much stronger and much more cohesive Australia”.

Solsky witness also said Bondi itself had become calmer and more connected since the attack, with people appearing “friendlier, and more engaging” and more willing to talk to neighbours.

Bondi memorial could become an Australia-wide tradition

The man who organised last December’s Bondi Beach paddle out has used the closing day of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion to announce a plan to take the memorial national -several months earlier than he had intended.

David Solsky, a Bondi resident of more than 30 years, told the commission on Wednesday that he and the community groups he worked with had been quietly developing a project called Ripples, built around the idea that what happened at Bondi on 19 December could be repeated in communities across the country.

“We talk about how do we create Australia’s next tradition,” he said, describing a vision in which Australians gather on the Friday morning before the anniversary of the 14 December attack — on beaches where there are beaches, and in parks and open ground where there are not.

Solsky said the plan had not been due for public airing until talks with Waverley Council and government began in September.

“I guess today has sort of been formally announced,” he told the commission. “Given the events in the commission, I guess we are putting it out there now.”

He said the aim was to give people something “away from politics, away from giant events”, on the basis that “strong individual communities will ultimately create a much stronger and much more cohesive Australia”.

Solsky said organisers also wanted to hold the Bondi paddle out again, “ideally with a view to making it an annual event”, subject to approval from council and police. He acknowledged the first anniversary in December would carry a heavy program of official commemorations from Chabad, the broader Jewish community, the council and government.

The original paddle out was assembled in less than 48 hours. Solsky said he was approached three days after the attack by Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt of Central Synagogue, who had his details through the local surfing community.

“I said I felt that it needed to be more than just a Jewish paddle out,” Solsky said. “It needed to be whole of Bondi.”

He approached the North Bondi Surf Life Saving Club, the surf school Let’s Go Surfing, the 4:40 Run Club, the Bondi Salties swim group and the Bondi Board Riders. All had been considering a paddle out of their own. All, he said, were emphatic that it should be Jewish-led and carry a Jewish theme, given the attack had occurred at a Chanukah event.

Organisers planned for between 500 and 700 participants. On the morning of 19 December, Solsky walked away from media commitments ahead of the 7am start and looked down over the sand.

“There was three, three and a half thousand people, you know, in their rashies with their surfboards, standing on the beach, looking up at many hundreds more on the promenade,” he said. Between 1500 and 2000 went into the water, forming a circle beyond the break for a minute’s silence.

The ceremony closed the traditional way, with the paddlers splashing the water. “You could hear the screams from the water coming back onto the beach,” Solsky said. “People came out of the water with these huge smiles on their faces.”

Four first responders spoke on the beach, among them two young people living opposite the beach who had tended to Rabbi Eli Schlanger in his final moments. Rabbi Eichenblatt recited a memorial prayer and a blessing.

As participants came out of the water they were handed bottles of water, Chanukah donuts and a small cloth bag containing two tea light candles and a message: light and love will always prevail over darkness and hate. Participants were asked to light one at home and give the other to a friend.

Solsky said a local baker had produced 700 donuts on a few hours’ notice.

Asked about the state of the suburb eight months on, he said Bondi’s usual edge had softened.

“Everybody seems to be in a little bit less of a rush,” he said. “It definitely feels like a better and stronger community than at any time in the 30 years that I’ve been living there.”

“I told you we weren’t exaggerating”

Danielle Jaku has told the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion she texted a prominent journalist after the Bondi Beach attack to say the Jewish community had not been exaggerating its fears.

Ms Jaku, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku, told the commission she had reluctantly agreed to be interviewed for a major news program in early 2025 about the rise of antisemitism in Australia.

She said she was normally a private person, but decided the interview was worth doing.

“I decided that if that well-regarded journalist thought that talking about my grandfather’s legacy could make a small course correction to the way Australia was heading, or somehow improve our social cohesion and connectedness, then it would be worth it,” she said.

The interview covered her grandfather’s story, the increased security at her daughter’s Jewish school, and the fears she and others in the community were experiencing. A discussion of about two hours was cut to a few minutes for broadcast.

Ms Jaku told the commission she did not believe the journalist had acted with any ill intent, but that she had been conscious of how she might appear.

“I was very mindful that I might have been portrayed or sounded like a dramatic and histrionic Jewish mother who was paranoid and overreacting,” she said.

She said the community had repeatedly been depicted in the media as overreacting to the prospect of an attack, and that this was in her mind during the interview even though her fear was real.

Fifteen people were killed and more than 40 wounded at Bondi Beach in December.

“When the Bondi attack happened, I couldn’t help texting the journalist to say, I told you we weren’t exaggerating. The Jewish community is terrified. It was just a matter of time,” she said.

She told the commission the pattern went well beyond a single interview.

“We have been made to feel like we’re overreacting. We’ve been portrayed as precious and hysterical and finger pointing and too willing to encroach on free speech, and we’ve been accused of unjustifiably labelling people as antisemitic,” she said.

“And yet, while our fears have been ignored, insidious Jew hatred has been allowed to become mainstream, and heightened security has become normalised.”

Ms Jaku said her concerns had begun on the night of 9 October 2023, when she watched footage of protesters at the Sydney Opera House.

She contrasted those scenes with the 1938 delegation led by William Cooper, who took a group of Aboriginal Australians to the German consulate in Melbourne to protest against the treatment of Jews during Kristallnacht. The delegation was refused entry.

Ms Jaku said she could not imagine Cooper’s group chanting for the death of Germans or burning German flags.

“I would imagine that they were able to protest and find a way to do it without using hateful, dehumanising language that put fear in other Australians,” she said.

She told the commission that agreeing to give evidence had followed from the same reasoning as the interview.

“It’s also one of the reasons that I’ve agreed to give evidence to the Royal Commission,” she said.