Chabad rabbis, Holocaust survivor, 10-year-old among victims of Sydney terror attack

At least 15 people were killed when two gunmen opened fire on ‘Chanukah by the Sea’ event at Bondi Beach. These are some of their stories

Two Chabad rabbis, a Holocaust survivor, a recent immigrant and a 10-year-old girl were among the 15 people confirmed to have been killed on Sunday when two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, in one of the deadliest terror attacks targeting Jews outside of Israel in decades.

The attackers targeted “Chanukah by the Sea,” an event organized by the Chabad Hasidic movement to mark the first night of the eight-day Jewish festival of lights.

They fired some 50 shots at the 1,000-strong crowd and wounded an estimated 38 people, including two police officers.

It was the second-worst mass shooting in Australian history and the deadliest attack targeting Jews outside of Israel since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

These are the stories of the victims who have been identified.

This article will be updated as more information emerges.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41

Rabbi Eli Schlanger was the assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi in Sydney, Australia.

The 41-year-old rabbi was born in London and studied at Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Brunoy, France, Chabad said. He received his rabbinic ordination at the central Lubavitch yeshiva in Crown Heights, New York City.

His cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis, told the BBC that Schlanger and his family moved to New York when he was a child, and that he relocated again after marrying an Australian woman.

He is survived by his wife and five children, the youngest of whom, a boy, was born just two months ago.

Schlanger was outspoken in the face of rising antisemitism in Australia. In an interview on the Chabad website in March, he encouraged Jews to stand proudly in the face of hatred.

“My car — emblazoned with mitzvah symbols — is a living example of pride and resilience,” he said then.

He encouraged others to embrace their Jewish identities more strongly as a response to growing hate.

“Be more Jewish, act more Jewish and appear more Jewish,” he said at the time.

Lewis described Schlanger to BBC News as “vivacious, energetic, full of life and a very warm outgoing person who loved to help people.”

He told the news outlet that his cousin’s answer to the Bondi Beach massacre would have been to tell people to “keep spreading light” and to do acts of charity.

“The world is a positive place and we need to show that and I know Eli would be saying that,” he said.

Alex Kleytman, 87

Alex Kleytman, an 87-year-old Ukrainian Holocaust survivor, was celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach with his wife of 57 years, Larisa Kleytman, also a Holocaust survivor, when the attack began.

He was killed while shielding Larisa from the bullets with his own body, his wife told the Daily Mail.

“I think he was shot because he raised himself up to protect me, in the back of the head,” she said in brief remarks outside of St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney.

She told The Australian news outlet that Alex, a retired civil engineer, was at the beach to celebrate Hanukkah, a holiday which she said “was always a very, very good celebration, for many, many years.”

“Today in the middle of the celebrations [there were] shots, and unfortunately my husband was killed,” she recounted. “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 body is still there and I am sitting there and don’t know what I have to do,” she said, surrounded by family. “I have no husband. I don’t know… nobody can give me any answers.”

In its 2022-2023 annual report, Australia’s Jewish Care charity published a feature on Alex and Larisa, in which it recounted the “unspeakable terror of the Holocaust” that Alex had endured as a child in Siberia.

“He, along with his mother and younger brother, struggled for survival,” read the report. “The scars of the past, ­however, did not deter [Alex and Larisa] from seeking a brighter future. They later made the move to Australia, immigrating from Ukraine.”

Dan Elkayam, 27

Dan Elkayam, 27, immigrated to Sydney from France last year for work.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed that Elkayam was among those killed, writing on X that the country felt “immense sadness” at the news, and was mourning “with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and the bereaved Australian people.”

Elkayam, a Paris native, moved to Australia last December, according to the Le Parisien newspaper. His LinkedIn account showed that he had been working as an IT analyst at NBCUniversal.

He was a voracious traveler and had posted hundreds of images and videos on his social media accounts of his travels, including a multi-day hike through Indonesia’s Sumatra jungle, a visit to temples in Kyoto, Japan, and an encounter with elephants at a sanctuary in Thailand.

“Dan was out celebrating Chanukah with his fellow Jews in Sydney when his promising young life was snuffed out,” wrote Chabad on X.

He played soccer with the Rockdale Ilinden Football Club premier league squad, where he was “an extremely talented and popular figure,” the club said on social media.

Rabbi Yaakov Halevi Levitan

Rabbi Yaakov Halevi Levitan was a Chabad emissary and the secretary of the Sydney Beth Din religious court. He worked at the BINA Center, a Jewish educational institution in Sydney.

According to a Jewish news site, Levitan distributed tefillin to those committed to performing the Jewish rite.

The Chabad news site COLlive said that Levitan hailed from Johannesburg, South Africa, had a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of South Africa, and also later studied at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

He also founded a company called tapNgive, which provided donation kiosk solutions for charities and nonprofits, it said.

He was described on the site as “a dedicated, behind-the-scenes worker whose quiet professionalism and commitment were essential to the functioning of Sydney’s Jewish institutions.”

Reuven Morrison, 62

Reuven Morrison, 62, an immigrant to Australia from the former Soviet Union, “discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney,” Chabad said, and remained deeply connected to the Jewish community there even after moving to Melbourne.

Morrison’s family relocated to Melbourne for his daughter’s schooling, Chabad said, but he continued to split his time between the two cities and worked primarily in Sydney.

Morrison was a “successful businessman,” Chabad recounted, and he donated generously to charitable causes, including Chabad of Bondi.

The COLlive site said Morrison moved to Sydney in the 1970s as a teenager, and “was known as a kind and generous activist and philanthropist.” He is survived by his wife, Leah, and daughter, Shaina Gutnick.

Matilda Britvan, 10

The youngest victim of the attack was identified as a 10-year-old girl.

Local outlets named the girl as Matilda Britvan. She was a student at the Harmony Russian School in Sydney and had been attending the Chanukah by the Sea event.

“Her memory will remain in our hearts, and we honor her life and the time she spent as part of our school family,” the school posted on Facebook, saying it will remember her “with love, grief, and deep sorrow, and we honor her memory by standing together in compassion.”

A GoFundMe page set up by one of Matilda’s teachers, Irina Goodhew, aims to raise money for her mother.

“I knew her as a bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to everyone around her,” Goodhew wrote. “Yesterday, while celebrating Hanukkah, her young life was tragically taken. Her memory will live on in our hearts.”

Tibor Weitzen, 78

Tibor Weitzen, 78, was a father, grandfather and great-grandfather who was a beloved member of the local Jewish community and Chabad.

His granddaughter, Leor Amzalak, told the Australian ABC news outlet that “my grandfather was truly the best you could ask for.” She said that he “was so proud of us… and loved us more than life itself.”

She said that he moved to Australia from Israel in 1988.

“He only saw the best in people and will be dearly missed,” she added.

He was killed as he tried to protect a family friend from gunfire, according to COLlive, a Chabad-focused publication.

The publication said he was a “sweet grandpa” who served as the “lollipop man” in synagogue, giving sweets to children.

Peter Meagher

A retired policeman and long-time rugby volunteer, Peter Meagher was struck down while working as a freelance photographer at the Hanukkah event, Randwick Rugby Club said in a statement.

“‘Marzo’ as he was universally known, was a much loved figure and absolute legend in our club, with decades of voluntary involvement, he was one of the heart and soul figures of Randwick Rugby,” the club said.

“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,” it said.

“For him, it was simply a catastrophic case of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”

Marika Pogany, 82

Marika Pogany, 82, a grandmother, was named on Monday as another victim in the Hanukkah shooting.

According to Kidma, a Hungarian Jewish organization, Pogany had roots in Hungary and stayed connected to her heritage.

In 2019, she was honored with the Jewish Communal Appeal’s “Mensch Award” for delivering more than 12,000 kosher “Meals on Wheels” over more than 20 years.

She was also a longtime member of the Harbour View Bridge Club.

“She was a terrific person, excellent bridge player, and an even better friend. Incredibly loyal. I knew her for 40 years,” Matt Mullamphy, director of the Harbour View Bridge Club, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Pogany was seen in photos at the Hanukkah event sitting and smiling in the front row.

The Jewish community of Komárno, in present-day Slovakia, wrote on Facebook that Pogany would attend a Holocaust memorial event with the community every year.