Torah to Unite Jews Worldwide in Memory of the 15 Bondi Kedoshim

Chabad of Bondi launches the Bondi Unity Sefer Torah, a worldwide initiative in loving memory of the 15 precious lives lost in the Chanukah terror attack. With two of the kedoshim having been Chabad shluchim, the initiative takes on special significance at this year’s Kinus Hashluchim.

Chabad of Bondi launches the Bondi Unity Sefer Torah, a worldwide initiative in loving memory of the 15 precious lives lost in the Chanukah terror attack. With two of the kedoshim having been Chabad shluchim, the initiative takes on special significance at this year’s Kinus Hashluchim, where shluchim from around the world will have the opportunity to write letters on behalf of their communities. The Torah will be completed on the first anniversary of the tragedy.

Nearly one year ago, on the first night of Chanukah, Bondi Beach, a place known around the world for sunshine, surf and easy joy, became a place of horror. Fifteen lives were taken. Families were torn apart in an instant. A community was left to grieve, and Jews everywhere felt the blow as if it had landed on their own doorstep.

As the first anniversary approaches, Chabad of Bondi is answering that darkness the way the Jewish people always have: with light.

Today, Chabad of Bondi announces the launch of the Bondi Unity Sefer Torah, a worldwide initiative to write a Sefer Torah in loving memory of the 15 kedoshim.

The Sefer Torah will be completed exactly one year after the attack, transforming a date of unimaginable heartbreak into a moment of Jewish unity, remembrance and hope.

Behind each of those 15 lives was an entire world. A family who loved them. Friends who cherished them. Dreams, hopes and plans for a future they would never get to live.

There are empty chairs at Shabbos tables. Voices that will never again be heard singing zemiros. Families who will light their Chanukah candles this year with someone precious missing beside them.

For those families, the pain does not fade when the headlines do. There is no moving on from a loss so devastating. There is only learning to carry it, day after day, with the memories of those who should still be here.

Nothing can bring back those who were taken. Nothing can undo the heartbreak of that day. But we can make sure that their names are never forgotten, that their lives continue to inspire, and that something beautiful and lasting grows from the love the Jewish people carry for them.

Under the banner “BOUND AS ONE: One People. One Sefer Torah.”, the initiative invites Jews from every corner of the world to take part in writing this Torah, each dedicating a letter, word or portion in memory of the kedoshim.

A child in Melbourne. A family in Brooklyn. A community in London. A grandfather in Yerushalayim. People separated by oceans, who may never have met the victims or one another, will become connected through the very same Sefer Torah.

That worldwide connection is already beginning to take shape at this year’s Kinus Hashluchim.

Among the 15 kedoshim were two Chabad shluchim, individuals who had dedicated their lives to bringing Yiddishkeit, warmth and light to others. Their loss was felt especially deeply throughout the worldwide family of shluchim, whose shared mission is to reach every Jew, wherever they may be.

Now, as thousands of shluchim gather from across the globe for the annual Kinus Hashluchim, they will have a deeply meaningful opportunity to honour their fallen fellow shluchim, together with all 15 kedoshim.

The Bondi Unity Sefer Torah will be present throughout the Kinus, allowing shluchim to personally participate in the writing of its letters on behalf of the communities they represent.

Each shliach carries with him the Jews of his community, whether a bustling Jewish neighbourhood or a small, far-flung community with only a handful of Jewish families. Through the letters written at the Kinus, those communities will become part of the same Torah, united in memory of the 15 lives lost in Bondi.

It is a particularly moving expression of the mission to which the two fallen shluchim devoted their lives: connecting Jews to their heritage and to one another, no matter the distance between them.

There is something profoundly meaningful about choosing a Torah as their memorial.

Throughout Jewish history, when everything else was taken from us, the Torah remained. It travelled with our ancestors through exile, survived persecution and destruction, and was passed lovingly from parents to children through generations of uncertainty. It is the one thing that has always bound us together, wherever in the world we have found ourselves.

And now, in the aftermath of a tragedy that shook Jewish communities across the globe, it will once again become a source of connection and strength.

The timing of the Torah’s completion carries particular significance.

On December 14, 2025, families gathered at Bondi Beach to celebrate Chanukah, the festival that reminds us of the power of light over darkness. What should have been an evening of joy became a nightmare that would change their lives forever.

Exactly one year later, as families and communities remember those terrible moments, the final letters of a Sefer Torah will be written in their memory.

Where there was destruction, there will be creation. Where there was hatred, there will be love. And where 15 precious lights were so cruelly extinguished, countless Jews will come together to ensure their memory continues to shine.

The 15 kedoshim were robbed of the opportunity to write the next chapters of their lives. But together, we can write something eternal in their memory.

It will be carried with joy, opened with reverence and read from week after week. Children who were not yet born when the tragedy occurred will one day stand before it, learning about the 15 precious souls in whose memory it was written.

Their legacy will live not only in the memories of those who knew them, but in the sacred words that future generations will continue to read.

Chabad of Bondi is calling on Jewish communities, families and individuals across the world to become part of this historic undertaking. Every dedication, large or small, will be another expression of love, another act of unity and another promise that these 15 lives will never be forgotten.

Reserve your dedications today at torahforbondi.com

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