A 10-year-old girl, two rabbis and a Holocaust survivor: They are the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting that left 15 people dead

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences go out to his family, friends and everyone affected by this tragic event…His memory will remain in our hearts and we honor his life and the time he spent as part of our school family.”

Likewise, her aunt spoke to ABC News and said that Matilda’s sister, who was with her when she was shot, was struggling to cope with the loss.

“They were like twins; they were never apart,” she told ABC.

Eli Snaker, 41, known as the “Rabbi of Bondi,” was one of the main organizers of Sunday’s event.

He led the local mission of Chabad, an international Hasidic Jewish organization based in Brooklyn.

The British-born father of five’s death was confirmed by his cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis.

“My beloved cousin, Rabbi Eli Snaker @bondirabbi, was murdered in today’s terrorist attack in Sydney,” Zalman wrote on Instagram.

“He leaves behind his wife and young children, as well as my uncle, aunt and siblings… He was truly an incredible person.”

In a post on its website, Chabad noted that Schnurr’s youngest child is just two months old.

“He was the most devout, humane, kind and generous person I have ever met,” Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Judaism told reporters in Bondi on Monday.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed the death of French citizen Dan Elkayam.

“It is with great sadness that we learned that our compatriot Dan Elkayam was among the victims of the terrorist attack that affected Jewish families in Bondi Beach, Sydney,” he wrote on social networks.

“We mourn with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and the Australian people.”

According to his LinkedIn profile, Elkayam worked as an IT analyst for NBCUniversal and moved to Australia last year.

He was also a passionate football fan and “an essential member of our Premier League team,” the Rockdale Ilindin Football Club in western Sydney wrote on its Facebook page.

He was “an extremely talented and popular figure among his teammates. Our deepest condolences go out to the family, friends and everyone who knew him. He will be missed,” the club wrote.

Alexander Kleytman was a Holocaust survivor who came to Australia from Ukraine.

“I don’t have a husband. I don’t know where his body is. Nobody can give me an answer,” his wife Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside a Sydney hospital on Sunday evening.

“We were standing and suddenly there was a ‘boom boom’ and everyone fell to the ground. At that moment he was behind me and at some point he decided to come closer. He pushed his body up because he wanted to be close to me,” he told The Australian newspaper.

Chabad wrote in

The couple shared part of their life story with the health organization Jewish Care in 2023.

“As children, both Larisa and Alexander faced the unspeakable horror of the Holocaust,” the organization wrote in its annual report.

“Alex’s memories are particularly harrowing; they recall the terrible conditions in Siberia, where he struggled to survive alongside his mother and younger brother.”

Former police officer Peter Meagher was working as a freelance photographer at the Hanukkah event when he was murdered, his rugby club has confirmed.

“For him it was simply a disaster – being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Randwick Rugby Club general manager Mark Harrison wrote on his website.

“March, as he was known to everyone, was a popular figure and an absolute legend at our club. With decades of volunteer work, he was one of Randwick Rugby’s most important figures.”

The club said he spent almost four decades with the New South Wales Police Force, where he was “highly respected by his colleagues”.

“The tragic irony is that after spending so much time as a police officer on the dangerous front lines, he died after his retirement while taking photographs, which was his passion. This is really difficult to understand,” the club explained.

Reuven Morrison emigrated to Australia from the former Soviet Union as a teenager in the 1970s, according to an interview he gave to the ABC exactly a year ago.

“We came here with the belief that Australia is the safest country in the world and that if we can raise our children in a safe environment, Jews will not face as much anti-Semitism in the future,” he told the national broadcaster.

In confirming his death, the Chabad organization said he was a long-time resident of Melbourne but “discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney”.

“A successful businessman whose main goal was to donate his profits to charities close to his heart, particularly Chabad of Bondi,” the organization wrote in X.

Rabbi Yaakov Levitan’s death was confirmed by Chabad, which described him as the “popular coordinator” of its activities in Sydney.

He was also a clerk at the Sydney Beth Din (a rabbinical court) and worked at the BINA Center, which describes itself as a Jewish learning center.

Tibor Weitzen was at the event with his wife and grandchildren when he died while trying to protect a family friend, Chabad reported.

According to the organization, the 78-year-old was a popular member of the Bondi Chabad Synagogue.

His granddaughter Leor Amzalak told ABC it was “the best thing you could ask for”. He added that Weitzen emigrated from Israel to Australia in 1988.

“He only saw the best in people and we will miss him very much,” he told the station.

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