14-Year-Old Chaya Dadon Was Shot While Shielding Children in Bondi

By COLlive reporter

As terror erupted at a Chanukah gathering on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, 14-year-old Chaya Dadon heard the terrified cries of a mother, begging for someone to help save her children, who were unshielded.

A frantic woman begged Chaya to save her children as gunfire rang out across the beach. Two gunmen aiming in her direction, two people shot right next to her.

“I was hearing: ‘Save my son, please save my kids. Please save my kids, I beg you guys, please save my kids.’ And no one was doing anything,” she said.

In a moment of selflessness and bravery, Chaya jumped out from under the bench where she was hiding with a friend and ran towards the children.

“Everyone was screaming, get down, get down, save yourself, save yourself,” Chaya said.

“I could not watch those little kids die, so I climbed up from under the bench, and I jumped on top of the kids, and I grabbed them from their mum. It was horrific.”

She threw herself over the two young children, using her own body as a shield as the terrorist attack unfolded around them.

Seconds later, Chaya was struck by a bullet in her leg.

The brave teenager is now recovering in the hospital as Australia’s Jewish community mourns the victims of what authorities have described as the country’s deadliest antisemitic terror attack, aimed at a joyous Chanukah celebration.

Her parents, Rabbi Menachem and Shternie Dadon, are Shluchim in Sydney, and worked alongside Rabbi Eli Schlanger HYD on organizing the Chanukah by the Sea event.

Rabbi Yaakov Lieder, Chaya’s grandfather, said he later saw footage circulating online showing his granddaughter protecting the children amid the chaos.

“She is not giving up,” he said. “While terrorists were trying to take lives, her instinct was to save them. That contrast says everything.”