Team JCA runs to Bondi in solidarity

More than 400 people ran with Team JCA at this year’s City2Surf, raising more than $110,000 while sending a powerful message of remembrance, resilience and solidarity in the wake of December’s Bondi beach terrorist attack.

Wearing special JCA T-shirts that read “Remembering Bondi”, the runners made their way along the 14km course finishing at massacre site Archer Park, where JCA and the Mitzvah House held a kosher BBQ.

“This is how our community responds to hate,” Jewish Communal Appeal NSW (JCA) CEO Alain Hasson said.

“We don’t hide from it and we don’t run away from it, we literally ran to it, in remembrance, in love, and to bring our community together.

“In thirteen years at JCA and six as CEO, this is the best event I have ever been part of. It showed me exactly what this community is capable of when it stands together.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip fired the starting gun for the charity wave, while along the way, Hasson said, spectators thanked the runners in their recognisable T-shirts for remembering the December 14 tragedy.

JCA was a platinum charity sponsor this year for the annual fun run, Hasson said, “To make sure Bondi was recognised and commemorated the way it deserved to be, and to build the biggest team our community has ever put on that course.

“The money raised matters, but it was never the point, showing up, together, in the largest numbers we could, was the point,” he said.

“This wasn’t just a Sydney response to Bondi. It was a national one,” he added, noting that runners from Melbourne travelled to Sydney to join the team, while in Perth, a young Jewish Australian plans to run her own City2Surf race to raise funds for JCA.

Melbourne participant Darren Krawitz flew to Sydney with his son, father, brother and two of his brother’s children to join Sydney-based family in the race.

“Being in Melbourne and watching all the events from afar was was very hard for any Jewish Australian,” he told The AJN.

“In a way it was actually quite comforting to see how we can actually move on and be able to return to a place that I’m sure has lots of dark memories for people.

“It was just a great a great experience. We we all loved it, and certainly plan to come back next year.”

More than 10,000 Matilda Bee pins were distributed in the lead up and throughout the event, honouring Matilda, the youngest victim of the attack. The pins were worn widely by runners and spectators alike.

Michael Britvan, father of 10-year-old victim Matilda Bee, said it was “really special seeing everyone come together again in Bondi, smiling, supporting each other and celebrating at Archer Park”.

“It was a beautiful reminder of how strong our community is,” he told The AJN. “A huge thank you to JCA for making and distributing thousands of Matilda Bee pins — seeing them worn by so many people meant a lot to us.”

Shooting survivor Arsen Ostrovsky said it was a “profoundly powerful and empowering experience”.

“There is also something especially meaningful about our finish line being Archer Park, the very place where the attack happened … and I myself got shot,” he said.

“But we arrived there together, as a community, as one group, showing the strength, spirit and resilience that define us.”

Mitzvah House founder Rabbi Noach Koncepolski said, “Watching Jewish people joyous and happy, and putting on tefillin, celebrating, eating, and socialising at the same place where this tragedy happened inspired me.”

Jewish House CEO Rabbi Mendel Kastel called it a historic event. “Everybody came together as one community to honour Bondi, but really to work together as as a cohesive community, and I think this is the future,” he said.

“And in in the actual park where Bondi happened, standing together proudly with the rest of Australia, celebrating our Judaism proudly, and I think that was again very momentous.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin, who also ran, told 2GB radio on Monday, “Even though it was tinged with sadness, yesterday was about celebration.

“It was about revelling in the beauty of Bondi and being an Australian, and to have Matilda’s parents there with us as well, standing on that hallowed ground, again celebrating and smiling. It was uplifting and beautiful, and it’s just a small tribute that I was very happy to participate in.”