Funerals began Wednesday morning in Australia for the victims of the terrorist attack at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. The first to be laid to rest was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a father of five whose two-month-old son was wounded in the attack and remains hospitalized. The synagogue where his funeral procession began was filled to capacity, and his father-in-law, Rabbi Yehoram Ullman, broke down in uncontrollable tears as the coffin was brought in, vowing that Jews would not allow “these animals that look like human beings” to defeat them.
Hours after the funeral, New South Wales Police announced that they had filed a formal indictment against terrorist Naveed Akram, the only one of the two attackers who survived. Akram, who emerged from a coma on Tuesday, has been charged with 59 terrorism-related offenses.
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Family members bid final farewell to Rabbi Eli Schlanger
(Photo: Kate Geraghty/Pool via Reuters)
Schlanger, who was buried Wednesday morning, served as the local Chabad rabbi and was a well-known figure in the Jewish community. He was known for dedicating long hours to visiting prisoners in jail and Jews living in public housing, quietly checking on their welfare and speaking with them. Relatives said he preferred to act modestly and disliked being photographed. He was among the organizers of the “Hanukkah by the Sea” event, the candle-lighting celebration where the terrorists carried out the massacre. Schlanger was killed while protecting his family. His two-month-old son was struck by shrapnel in the leg and remains hospitalized, while his wife, Chaya, who suffered a grazing gunshot wound to the head, was released from the hospital on Monday.
At the funeral, Ullman spoke through tears. “We are crying in unbearable pain and mourning the loss of life,” he said. “Eli was torn from us while doing what he did best, spreading love and joy, caring for his people with boundless self-sacrifice. In his life and in his death, he rose above as one of the holiest souls. This is an enormous loss for the entire Jewish people, but for us the loss is beyond comprehension.” He said the attack on Sunday was the October 7 of Sydney’s Jewish community. “In terms of proportion, that is what this is for us.”
Ullman also urged Australia’s Jews not to yield to terror. “When these animals that look like human beings try to destroy us, they are trying to break us,” he said. “They want us never to return to Bondi Beach because of what happened, but that is not the answer. Eli lived and breathed this idea, not only that we must never allow them to succeed, but that every time they try something, we must become bigger and stronger.”
Early Wednesday, the name of another victim was released, Boris Tatleroid, whose son was also wounded in the attack. Tatleroid’s niece said the moments his family is enduring are unimaginable and thanked the Australian public for its support. “Our family is mourning the sudden and violent death of our beloved husband and father in the Bondi Beach attack,” she said.
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11 victims of the Bondi Beach attack, a 12th was announced last night
(Photos: Section 27A of the Copyright Law, ABC)
Tatleroid brings the number of identified victims to 12. Eleven had been named earlier: Chabad emissary Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41; Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, 87, whose wife said he was killed while trying to protect her; Tibor Weitzman, reportedly shot while defending his wife, who survived; Dan Elkayam, 27, a Jewish French citizen who immigrated to Sydney about a year ago; Rabbi Yaakov Halevi Levitin, also a Chabad emissary; Reuben Morrison, 62, originally from the former Soviet Union and a member of Sydney’s Chabad community; the Jewish couple Boris and Sophia Gurman, who struggled with attacker Sajid Akram at the outset of the attack in an effort to stop the massacre and were then shot dead at point-blank range, found lying embraced; former police officer Peter Meagher, who served nearly 40 years with the New South Wales Police and was working as a freelance photographer at the Chabad Hanukkah event; Marika Pogny, 82; and 10-year-old Matilda.
Twenty-two of the wounded remain hospitalized, some in serious condition, after what was the deadliest attack in Australia in 30 years.
The attack took place Monday during the “Hanukkah by the Sea” event organized by Chabad near the famous Bondi Beach. About 1,000 people attended, including many families with children. The attackers, Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24, arrived armed with four rifles that the father had legally purchased and opened fire from a nearby bridge. The massacre reportedly began at 6:40 p.m. local time and ended eight minutes later when police neutralized the attackers. Sajid was killed, and Navid was critically wounded. ISIS flags and improvised explosive devices were found in their vehicle.
Australian authorities continue to investigate the attack amid difficult questions about the response time and the fact that Naveed Akram had been questioned by intelligence services in 2019 over suspected links to extremist Islamist figures. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said authorities believe the father and son did not act as part of a broader terror cell, but it emerged Tuesday that there is suspicion the two underwent “military training” during a month-long visit to the Philippines in November, where they traveled to Davao on the island of Mindanao, a long-standing hub of Islamist extremist activity.
Sajid Akram, an Indian Muslim, arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998 and later obtained citizenship. Navid was born in Australia. Navid was previously questioned by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in 2019 over suspected ISIS ties, though authorities later said no “extremist tendencies” were found at the time. “In the years since, that has changed,” Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Tuesday.
Australian media have reported that Naveed had longstanding ties to Islamist figures. His case reportedly came under scrutiny after the July 2019 arrest of ISIS supporter Isaak al-Matari, who had proclaimed himself “ISIS commander in Australia” and was later sentenced to seven years in prison. An Australian security source told the BBC that Naveed had a “close relationship” with al-Matari. Footage from 2019 shows Naveed, then 17, preaching at a Sydney train station, urging people to “spread the message that Allah is one, wherever you can, under rain, hail or clear skies.”
In recent hours, authorities disclosed that they recovered an ISIS-style propaganda video filmed by the attackers shortly before the attack, apparently recorded at an Airbnb apartment they rented near the scene. The video reportedly lays out their extremist views.
It also emerged that last year, months after the Hamas-led attack that triggered the war in Gaza, Sajid Akram transferred ownership of the family’s house in the Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg to his wife, Verna. Investigators suspect the move was intended to shield the property, valued at about $1 million, from potential civil claims by future victims.
Stories of the victims continue to resonate across Australia. Particular attention has focused on 10-year-old Matilda Poltavchenko. Her parents, Valentina and Michael, who emigrated from Ukraine before the war there, said they believed Australia would be a safe place for their family. At a memorial event, Michael asked that his daughter’s memory endure. “We came here from Ukraine and I thought Matilda was the most Australian name there is,” he said. “So just remember that name. Remember her.
Her mother, Valentina, told Australian media: “I don’t understand what kind of monster can stand on a bridge, see a little girl running toward her father to hide, and pull the trigger and shoot her. This was not an accident. It was not a stray bullet. It was aimed at her.” Matilda’s six-year-old sister, Summer, witnessed the shooting and repeatedly asked afterward, “Is my sister dead?”
In the aftermath, Jewish American billionaire Bill Ackman donated $37,624 to Matilda’s family to help them cope with the challenges ahead, after earlier donating $100,000 to Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian Muslim immigrant who tackled one of the attackers during the assault, wrestled away his weapon and was himself shot five times.
Two other wounded individuals have been widely praised for acts of bravery. One is a 14-year-old girl who was injured but remained at the scene, shielding two small children whose mother had been killed nearby. She remains hospitalized. Another is 22-year-old police officer Jaker Hibbert, who had joined the force just four days before the attack. According to his family, he continued protecting others even after being wounded, until he could no longer do so. He was shot twice and lost sight in one eye and faces a long rehabilitation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also paid tribute to Boris and Sophia Gurman, the Jewish couple in their 60s who were captured on dashcam footage struggling with Sajid Akram at the start of the attack. “They are Australian heroes,” Albanese said of the couple, who were ultimately killed and were likely the first victims.
The massacre also featured prominently at a Hanukkah event hosted overnight by U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House with Jewish community leaders. “Let me take a moment to send love and prayers to all the people of Australia, and especially to those impacted by this horrific antisemitic terror attack, which is exactly what it was, antisemitic,” Trump said. He added that the world must unite against “the forces of evil of Islamist terror.”
Trump pledged, “I will always be a friend of the Jewish people,” but offered a grim assessment of Jewish influence in the United States. He said that in the past, the strongest lobby in Washington had been the Jewish and pro-Israel lobby, “but that’s no longer true. You have to be careful. You have a Congress, especially, that has become antisemitic.”
He singled out Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Ilhan Omar, a frequent critic of Israel who has previously accused “Jewish money” of influencing U.S. politics. “She hates the Jewish people,” Trump said of Omar.