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Later this year, just ahead of the first anniversary of the Hanukkah massacre that marked the worst act of violence targeting Jews in Australia’s history, municipal leaders from across the country will gather in Bondi Beach for the National Local Government Summit on Social Cohesion and Antisemitism.
The November 26-27 forum will be co-hosted by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and the Waverley Council (the municipal jurisdiction where Bondi Beach is located), in partnership with the New South Wales Government, Commonwealth Government, Office of the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, and the local community.
Participants will include mayors, councilors, senior council officers, interfaith activists, and community figures from every Australian state and territory, as well as federal and state government partners, representing the first time all three tiers of Australian government will formally convene for a national summit on antisemitism.
The event will build on the landmark 2025 Australian Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism, co-hosted by CAM and the City of Gold Coast last September, which drew more than 250 local government leaders from urban, regional, and remote Australia and catalyzed a wave of council-level strategies and resolutions around the country.
The Bondi summit will focus on practical, locally-led action — deradicalization and early-intervention programs, interfaith partnerships, community safety, and the translation of national commitments into initiatives councils can deliver in their own communities.
CAM Public Affairs Advocate for Australia Sheina Gutnick — daughter of Reuven Morrison, who died in the Bondi attack after he confronted the terrorists — said the summit would be a profound moment for the country.
“Holding this summit in Bondi, in the weeks before the first anniversary of the attack that took the life of my father and 14 other victims, is a deliberate and powerful statement,” she stated. “This is the community that bore the cost of antisemitism in its most brutal form — and this is where the national response has to deepen.”
“My father was killed because of hatred that was allowed to grow unchecked,” Gutnick added. “If this summit is to mean anything, it has to confront that hatred at its source — bringing councils together with interfaith leaders, educators, and youth workers to invest in the deradicalization, early-intervention, and prevention measures that stop the next attack before it is ever planned.”
“To Mayor Will Nemesh and the Waverley community — thank you,” she concluded. “Hosting this summit, alongside the grief this community continues to carry, is exactly the kind of leadership Australia needs right now.”
CAM Senior Advisor for Australia Alex Polson said the summit would scale a national movement already underway.
“Since the Gold Coast summit last September, councils from every state and territory have stepped up — adopting strategies, passing resolutions and building partnerships with their local communities,” he noted. “The Bondi summit turns that grassroots momentum into a coordinated national framework and, for the first time, brings every tier of government into the room with the councils doing the hard work on the ground. Waverley has written the playbook — Bondi is where we hand it to the rest of the country.”
The Waverley Council was the first council in Australia to adopt a Strategy to Combat Antisemitism in March 2025, and it released its Model Strategy — a template for other councils — last August. Mayor Nemesh will move a Mayoral Minute at Waverley’s council meeting this Tuesday committing the council to co-host the summit.
The summit’s two-day program will include keynote addresses, panel discussions, practitioner workshops, and the public release of shared frameworks councils can adopt in their own local government areas.
Registrations and the full program will be published at australia.combatantisemitism.
Read more:
Daughter of Bondi Massacre Hero Joins CAM Australia to Fight the Hate That Killed Her Father
At First Australian Mayoral Summit Against Antisemitism, Local Leaders Commit to Action Plans
