Menorah donated to Chabad of Bondi

“You brought the nation together,” NSW Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper told the Chabad of Bondi community in an emotional pre-Shabbat address last Friday.

Kamper told how, after the December 14 terror attack, he was advised to “embrace the community” as a way to show his support.

“But I felt the Jewish community wrapped their arms around us to help us during that difficult time,” he said.

“It was just the most amazing experience. As an individual, I thought ‘Why have I not gotten to know this community better over the years?’. You brought the nation together. You started a mitzvah campaign to let light shine over this darkness. There wasn’t a conversation about retribution, it was all about love and coming together as a community and as Australians.

“I’ve been inspired by the community so much. I and the Premier want to continue to wrap our arms around you.”

To mark three months since the Chanukah attack, a Menorah that stood at the Bondi Pavilion memorial was donated to Chabad of Bondi by Elliot Rusanow of the Scentre Group in the hope that it, “may it serve as our gesture of remembrance, but also our gesture at continuing to shine the light”.

Rabbi Yehoram Ulman said the support and love shown to the community had been “something quite extraordinary”.

“It is not a coincidence that the most terrible loss that we suffered happened on Chanukah and the Menorah became the symbol of our response,” he said.

“We, the Jewish people, are used to paradoxes. We can combine the feelings of grief and loss that cannot be filled, cannot be compensated, together with the fact that hearts can be broken but spirits are not.

“The light of Chanukah, that symbolises how darkness is dispelled and light prevails – that became the symbol of our response.”