Royal Commission staff return to Project Noah

Royal Commission staff returned to Chabad of Bondi to braid challah, share food, tour the synagogue and put their questions to Rabbi Yehoram Ulman.

It was the second time staff from the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion have taken part in Project Noah, the cultural education program founded by the late Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was killed in the Bondi Chanukah attack on December 14, 2025.

Project Noah manager Evie Summers said the first visit took place during the hearings, although many Commission staff missed out. This time, staff asked to come themselves, after interest in the program grew.

“I think their willingness to return and engage again is really meaningful,” Summers told The AJN. “It shows a genuine interest in listening to and understanding the Jewish community at a grassroots level.

“They aren’t simply hearing about antisemitism in an abstract way. They’re sitting with members of the Jewish community, having conversations and experiencing the type of education and connection that we believe can be part of the solution.”

Sorelle Abrahams, of Abraham’s Tent, led the challah session. She said Schlanger believed hate and division often come from “a lack of knowledge”, and that bringing groups into Chabad of Bondi to share Jewish traditions could help break down barriers.

Abrahams said that making challah is a tangible way to connect women through the generations, and show generosity by baking for others. 

The braid, she said, is a lesson in diversity, saying people should stay true to their beliefs, faith and traditions “and then bring them to the world with respect”.

“As Jews, we’re not looking to make the whole world Jewish,” she told those in attendance. “We just want to live in respect and be able to practice our religion with freedom, and we want everyone else to have the same.”

Participants then shaped their own loaves, before putting their questions to Rabbi Ulman. Topics ranged from the pathway to becoming a rabbi to what Chabad means. Asked how he was coping, Ulman said he had to put his own grief aside to be there for the community, but “the more a person does for others, the easier it is for himself”. 

Asked what non-Jewish Australians could do to be good allies, Ulman said asking the question was a good start. He encouraged people to seek the truth and not to stay silent when they see injustice.

On young people, Ulman said the community should be encouraged “not to live in fear”, and should become more visible and more proud.

The morning ended with everyone making clay vessels for Sharing Light, an installation that will run at Bondi’s Archer Park over Chanukah as a memorial to the attack.

A Royal Commission statement said staff were introduced to Project Noah during a meeting with Chabad of Bondi and invited to take part in a cultural education session. It said staff described the experience as “welcoming, engaging and insightful”, and came away with a deeper understanding of the importance of initiatives that encourage education, dialogue and respectful connections.

“It’s incredibly rewarding, but also very emotional,” Summers said of watching the program grow. “Every time I see someone walk into Project Noah knowing very little about Judaism and leave having connected with us as people, I feel like we are achieving what we set out to do.

“I wish more than anything that Eli was here to see it.”

Summers wants the program to reach more schools, universities, workplaces and government departments. 

“Project Noah is a grassroots educational program that highlights the fact that as humans we are more alike than dissimilar regardless of religious beliefs,” she said.

The program is looking beyond Bondi, including to Melbourne, where Schlanger’s sister, Perele Goldhirsch, is leading an arm of the program.

“The challenge now is making sure that as we grow, we don’t lose what makes Project Noah special. It isn’t meant to feel like a lecture or a presentation. It’s personal, grassroots and conversational.”

“He believed very strongly that the answer to hatred wasn’t more hatred. It was education, connection and bringing people together,” Summers said of Schlanger.

“After everything that has happened, it would be very easy for our community to turn inward. Project Noah is about doing the opposite. We’re opening our doors. We’re saying, come in, meet us, ask us questions, learn who we are, and let us learn about you too.”