A Holocaust survivor. A long-serving rabbi. A 10-year-old girl.
These are among the 16 people killed when two gunmen opened fire on hundreds of people celebrating Hanukkah in Bondi Beach, Sydney.
The terror attack yesterday was one of the deadliest attacks on the Jewish community in the nation’s history.
Details are still emerging on the victims, who had gathered that afternoon with their children and grandchildren to celebrate the festival of light.
Here’s what we know so far.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger
Rabbi Schlanger, the assistant rabbi in Chabad of Bondi, an outreach group, helped organise the event yesterday.
Chanukah by the Sea 2025 was advertised online as a free, family-friendly celebration with doughnuts, a petting zoo and a giant menorah lighting.
Schlanger, 41, was a father of five who grew up in Temple Fortune, north London.
Rabbi Benjamin Elton, chief minister of Sydney’s Great Synagogue, told Metro that he worked with Rabbi Schlenger.
‘Just a very hard-working, dedicated, committed rabbi and family man,’ he said.
Alex Kleytman
Alex Kleytman, a retired civil engineer who survived the Holocaust in Ukraine, was among the dead, his wife told The Australian.
Larisa Kleytman said she and Alex were celebrating on the beach when shots rang out.
She said: ‘At this moment, he was behind me and at one moment, he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me.’
Matilda
The youngest known victim of the Bondi Beach massacre was Matilda, 10.
Her aunt Lina told Australia’s public broadcaster, ABC, that the youngster was ‘very friendly, she loves school and has a lot of friends’.
She was a student of the Harmony Russian school of Sydney – her teacher said on a GoFundMe that she was a ‘bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to everyone around her’.
Dan Elkayam
Dan Elkayam, a French citizen and football player, was confirmed as one of the dead by French president Emmanuel Macron.
He said on X: ‘It is with deep sadness that I learn of the death of our compatriot Dan Elkayam in the antisemitic terrorist attack in Sydney.’
Dan, 27, was a member of Rockdale Ilinden football club’s Premier League One team in southern Sydney.
‘Dan was a valued and deeply respected member of our football community,’ the club wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post.
Reuven Morrison
Originally from the Soviet Union, Reuven Morrison was a businessman who spent his time between Sydney and Melbourne, according to Chabad.
His wife moved to Melbourne for his daughter’s education, while he carried out business in Sydney.
He told ABC last year that he came to Australia because he saw the nation as ‘safe’ for Jewish people.
Rabbi Yaakov Levitan
In Sydney’s Jewish community, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan was a household name.
He was secretary of the Sydney Beth Din, coordinator for Chabad and worked at the BINA Library, a Torah learning centre.
Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, Rabbi Levitan also founded tapNgive, which introduced tap-and-pay donation kiosks to Jewish donation drives, according to Matvaz.com.
Peter Meagher
Peter Meagher, also known as Marzo, was a ‘beloved’ volunteer at Randwick rugby club, which confirmed his death.
Meagher was working as a freelance photographer at the Chanukah By the Sea event when he was fatally shot.
The club wrote on Instagram: ‘Peter was a beloved member of the Galloping Greens, dedicating countless hours as first grade team manager and a volunteer referee, and followed in the footsteps of his father Ron and grandfather Wally, a Wallabies Hall of Famer, in serving the club.’
Tibor Weitzen
Tibor Weitzen, a sound engineer at ABC, died shielding his wife and grandchildren from the gunman’s bullets.
The 78-year-old was a member of Bondi’s Chabad Synagogue. His grandson, a paramedic, found his grandfather’s body.
‘I was one of the first responders, my family were there for the event and my wife called me so I ran down to the beach with my defibrillator and the shooting was still going,’ grandson Mendy Amzalak told The Australian.
‘I started treating people and then I came across his body.’
An Israeli citizen
According to Israeli media, an unnamed person from Israel was among those killed.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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