Cindy Yin
2026-01-11 12:11:00
Thousands raised their torches to the sky in a unified display of grief, love, and support for the 15 victims of the Bondi massacre for the final daily vigil at Bondi.
A rainy Sunday night marked the end of “shloshim” – the 30-day Jewish mourning period, which saw Bondi Pavilion awash with crowds who came clad in raincoats and clutching umbrellas, undeterred by the rain.
The audience fell into a hushed silence as performers sang a special rendition of Waltzing Matilda dedicated to ten-year-old Matilda, the youngest of the victims who died after being shot at Bondi on December 14.
“Once the little bright girl, laid by the ocean shore, under the shade of the tall pine tree. And she sang, and she laughed with the dancing flames of Hanukkah, you’ll come a Waltzing Matilda with me,” the performer sang.
“Up in the night sky, a smile is shining bright as day, here on the fields of flowers and dreams. If you listen close you’ll hear the buzzing of a bumblebee, you’ll come a Waltzing Matilda with me.”
Matilda’s father Michael, mother Valya, and little sister Summer attended, and in their speech described Matilda as a “typical 10-year-old girl who loved to laugh, dance, and sing”.
Since the first day after the attack, Rabbi Yossi Friedman has held vigils at Bondi Pavilion three times a day at 7.30am, 1pm, and 7:30pm. He prefers calling the 15 who were shot dead heroes, rather than victims because “many of them did not die running away from the bullets, but actually running towards the bullets and covering others.”
“I don’t call them victims, because they didn’t die helpless. They were heroes – beacons and ambassadors of light. That is how each and every one of them lived their lives,” Friedman said.
He recalled feeling quite touched at one of these vigils after seeing Holocaust survivors give a standing ovation to a group of 100 NSW ambulance staff.
“We have certainly seen the best of Australia come through here over these past four weeks. Australians standing side by side as one, as one humanity – doesn’t matter what faith, background, creed, the colour of our skin, we are one humanity.”
Governor-General Sam Mostyn, Waverley Mayor Will Nemesh, and Governor of NSW Margaret Beazley were also in attendance.
Beazley asked all attendees to join hands with the person standing next to them, and observe a minute of silence.
The flowers and tributes outside the Bondi Pavilion were removed more than a week after the attack, following a notice from the NSW government and Waverley Council that tributes would be collected and preserved for display at the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Australian Jewish Historical Society.
The vigil comes after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday bowed to weeks of pressure and called a federal royal commission into the circumstances that led to the Bondi attack, in which alleged terrorists targeted a Hanukkah celebration and killed 15 people.
Albanese appointed former High Court justice Virginia Bell to lead the national inquiry. Bell has been asked to complete her report before December 14.
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