President Isaac Herzog and his wife Michal joined Australians living in Israel, visiting Australians, bereaved relatives of last week’s Sydney terror attack, Chabad rabbis, and senior officials for a memorial ceremony in Jerusalem.
The event at the Weizmann Hall in the National Institutions building was held in tandem with a similar ceremony in Sydney, relayed live to Jerusalem via video.
The oldest person in the packed hall was Holocaust survivor and billionaire businessman Sir Frank Lowy, 95, who fought in Israel’s War of Independence, then went to Australia, where he made his fortune and was deeply involved in Zionist activities. Now living in Israel again, he is chairman of the Institute for National Security Studies.
Among the youngest people present were students from the Chabad Keter Torah School in Sydney, who would have been on Bondi Beach on the day of the fatal shooting had they not been in Israel. There were also students from the Bureau of Jewish Education schools.
Moriah Ben David, the representative in Israel of the Zionist Federation of Australia, was the moderator and noted that while the Australian Jewish community has for decades stood with and up for Israel, the bond is now in the opposite direction, and Israel is standing with Australian Jewry.
Light triumphing over darkness
Two female Jewish Agency emissaries speaking from Sydney spoke of their ordeal, saying that they had been standing in the line of fire. Behind them was a huge crowd, plus the ever-increasing mass of flowers on the site of the terrorist attack.
Commenting that in view of its geographic location, the Australian Jewish community is among the first in the world to light Hanukkah candles as a symbol of light triumphing over darkness, Herzog identified with the pain and courage under fire of Sydney Jews who had come to Bondi Beach to celebrate the lighting of the first Hanukkah candle, and instead of singing the Hanukkah songs, were placed in the position of reciting prayers for the dead.
”We share your sense of abandonment,” he said, sending his condolences to the bereaved and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured, adding that he hoped to be in Australia soon to convey those feelings.
Herzog characterized the massacre on Bondi Beach as “a global emergency,” adding that “combat antisemitism must become everyone’s motto.”
Citing the heroism of Ahmed-al-Ahmed, who tackled the terrorists, Herzog said that fighting antisemitism is the role of ordinary people. “We will not allow hatred to break us,” he declared. “Together we will defeat the darkness.” He then lit the first of 15 memorial candles.
The remainder were lit by Michal Herzog, WZO Chairman Yaakov Hagoel, bereaved relatives, and Lyndall Sachs, Australian Charge d’Affaires, in the absence of Ambassador Ralph King, whose departure and term in Israel concluded last Friday.
In a reference to the victims, Yaakov Hagoel stated that their only crime was being Jewish. “This was not an ordinary crime, but a crime of antisemitism, and hatred against Jews, Israel, and freedom of expression,” he said. “The goal was to harm Jews simply because they were Jews.
The incident poses the question of how the Western world will protect its minorities or simply express sorrow when they are killed, said Hagoel.
Speaking via video from Australia, Jeremy Leibler, the President of the Zionist Federation of Australia, underscored the time-honored belief that all Jews are responsible for each other, and that this continues to be a guideline in Jewish life.
Just as Australian Jewry had given enormous support to Israel over the past two years, Israel is now demonstrating its support for the Jewish community of Australia, he remarked.
For Herzog, his day of paying tribute to the victims of terrorism was not over. As soon as he returned to the President’s Residence, he had a meeting with OneFamily, the organization that for 25 years has helped survivors of terrorist attacks and bereaved families of victims of terrorist attacks to cope and to get on with their lives.
Chantal Belzberg, who, with her husband Marc, established OneFamily following a terrorist attack on the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem, in which 15 people were murdered and 130 were injured, told Herzog and his wife that OneFamily had sent a team of experienced therapists to Sydney to help in whatever way possible.
However, the meeting was to inform the Herzogs, who have met several times with survivors of terrorist attacks, of a relatively new project called “Bonei Chalom’ - Building the Dream, which was created for bereaved young adults, particularly bereaved siblings, for whom, for many years, there was no legal or social welfare concern.
Loss of a loved one, be it a parents, child, or sibling, is a traumatic experience, and the emotional pain of siblings was ignored.
Realizing this, OneFamily has introduced a seven-month healing program that supports bereaved siblings to find their way back to a purposeful existence and to rediscover dreams that were pushed aside during their grief.
Participants meet with therapists in individual and group sessions and learn to listen to themselves and each other.
Several of the people in the program were present, and some told their stories. Many stories are similar, but there is always an individual element that makes them different. Judging by the expressions on the faces of Herzog and his wife, there were things they had not heard before.
Michal Herzog said that, unfortunately, she and her husband meet many bereaved families, and the Blazberg name keeps coming up in conversations. As important as their work is in Israel, she acknowledged, it is now equally important to strengthen diaspora communities. She commended OneFamily for sharing its expertise with Jews in Australia.
President Herzog also spoke warmly of what Marc Belzberg, Chairman of OneFamily, has done and is doing, saying that they restore meaning to people’s lives, give them hope, and the ability to cope.