Arya News - A young girl and two Holocaust survivors were among 15 people shot and killed by a father and his son at a Jewish Hanukkah festival gathering on Australia`s Bondi Beach.
A young girl and two Holocaust survivors were among 15 people shot and killed by a father and his son at a Jewish Hanukkah festival gathering on Australia"s Bondi Beach.
The elder gunman, 50-year-old Sajid Akram, was killed in a shootout with police. His 24-year-old son Naveed is in a coma in hospital.
Their victims in Sunday"s shooting were aged from 10 to 87.
The authorities have not named any of them, but these nine people have been publicly identified so far:
- Young girl "like sunshine" -
Ten-year-old Matilda died in hospital after the shooting, with her aunt recounting how the girl"s six-year-old sister witnessed the attack.
"She was with six-year-old sister Summer. It was on her eyes, and she saw everything," the girls" aunt Lina Chernykh told Channel Seven television.
"She is absolutely stressed and crying," she said of the younger sister.
"I hope people remember Matilda like a beautiful sweet child, beautiful like sunshine, like light in your life," the aunt said.
"My family will never be the same."
- Oldest victim -
Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, 87, was the oldest person killed.
"We were standing and suddenly came the "boom boom", and everybody fell down. 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," his wife Larisa told The Australian.
Kleytman was a native of Ukraine and Holocaust survivor, according to a website of the Chabad movement, which represents a branch of Hasidic Jews and organised the Bondi event.
- "Amazing" Holocaust survivor -
Another Holocaust survivor, Marika Pogany, was seated in the front row of the annual Hannukkah event when the gunmen opened fire, Chabad said.
Aged 82, she had lived in Australia for decades and was honoured in 2022 for delivering Kosher meals on wheels for decades, the group said, adding that friends knew her as an "amazing person".
- Man "put his own life at risk" -
Reuven Morrison, reportedly a 62-year-old businessman who migrated from the Soviet Union in the 1970s, has been praised for trying to distract the gunmen.
"From my sources and understanding, he had jumped up the second the shooting started. He managed to throw bricks at the terrorist," his daughter Sheina Gutnick told CBS News in Sydney.
"My dear father, Reuven Morrison was shot dead for being Jewish at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach while protecting lives, while jumping up, putting his own life at risk to save his fellow Jewish community members."
- "I came across his body" -
Tibor Weitzen, 78, was killed while protecting a friend at the event, which he had reportedly joined with his wife and grandchildren.
His grandson Mendy Amzalak told The Australian that he had rushed to the scene on the beach as a first responder.
"My wife called me so I ran down to the beach with my defibrillator and the shooting was still going. I started treating people and then I came across his body. He had been shielding a long-time friend of his wife."
- French amateur footballer -
French President Emmanuel Macron led tributes to Dan Elkayam, a budding amateur footballer and French citizen building a new life in Sydney.
"It is with profound sadness that I learned of the death of our compatriot Dan Elkayam in the anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Sydney," he wrote on social media.
Sydney"s Rockdale Ilinden football club remembered Elkayam as an "extremely talented and popular figure amongst team mates".
- Ex-policeman, rugby fan -
Retired police detective sergeant Peter Meagher and local rugby club member was on a freelance photographic assignment at the Hanukkah festival.
"The tragic irony is that he spent so long in the dangerous front line as a Police Officer and was struck down in retirement while taking photos in his passion role is really hard to comprehend," Randwick Rugby said in a statement.
In a statement to Australian media, his family said they were "heartbroken" by his death.
"He was a cherished brother, husband and uncle whose kindness, generosity and love touched everyone who knew him. Our lives have been changed forever."
- Dad known for kindness -
Rabbi Yaakov Levitan was a 39-year-old father of four renowned for his work for others, the Chabad movement said.
He founded an initiative helping charities to raise funds and was "known for his kindness and tireless work in assisting others".
The married man had four children aged six to 16, it said.
- Rabbi "the very best of us" -
Local Jewish bodies named 41-year-old rabbi Eli Schlanger -- known as the "Bondi Rabbi" -- as one of the dead, mourning a community leader and father of five who helped to organise the gathering.
"Anyone who knew him knew that he was the very best of us," said Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Schlanger served as a chaplain for the New South Wales correctional service and a major hospital, Chabad said.
Friends described him as "just full of light".
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