Mourning Israel and Bondi’s fallen

More than 1000 people gathered at the Central Synagogue for a Yom Hazikaron commemoration presented by the Zionist Council of NSW and JNF NSW – made all the more profound by it being the first since the Bondi Chanukah terror attack that killed 15 people on December 14.

Dr Orna Triguboff, president of the Zionist Council of NSW, opened the service by noting how Yom Hazikaron’s expanding circle of remembrance now includes Jewish victims of terror in the Diaspora, in addition to fallen Israeli soldiers and terror victims in Israel.

Rabbi Shua Solomon spoke of friend and IDF soldier Ari Zenilman – a father of a newborn baby – who returned to combat when called up after October 7, and was killed in Gaza months later while running towards an ambush in a bid to save lives.

“That’s the type of person Ari was,” Rabbi Solomon said, before paying tribute, too, to his dear friends and colleagues, Rabbis Eli Schlanger and Yaakov Levitan, who “had travelled to Israel on a mission after October 7 to support the chayalim … and then tragically got killed last December in the Bondi terror attack.”

Bondi survivor Chaya Dadon, 14, retold her harrowing story of shielding two children with her body, and getting shot in the process.