Bondi commemoration ends with Hanukkah candle-lighting honoring first responders, victims’ families

The event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach marking one week since the terror attack at a candle lighting event on the first night of Hanukkah concludes with a candle-lighting on the festival’s eighth and final night.

The lighting is emceed by Jewish Australian Olympic gold medalist Jessica Fox and lifeguard Anthony “Harries” Carroll.

After blessings are recited, people are called up to light the menorah. Those honored include:

• first responders, including from the Jewish emergency service Hatzolah
• the police commissioner of New South Wales, the state where the beach is located
• children of two Chabad rabbis killed in the massacre, Eli Schlanger and Yaakov Levitan
• the father of one of those wounded in the attack, Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff
• the chevra kadisha, or Jewish burial society, that tended to the victims
• the father of Matilda, 10, the youngest victim of the attack

The shamash, which lights the menorah’s candles, was lit by the father of Ahmed al Ahmed, who was wounded as he rushed onto the scene and disarmed one of the attackers.

Following the lighting, Hanukkah prayers and songs are sung, along with the song “I Am Australian.”