Survived Hitler, died in Bondi Beach shooting: Holocaust survivor among 15 killed in terror attack
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Survived Hitler, died in Bondi Beach shooting: Holocaust survivor among 15 killed in terror attack")
Mourners gather by floral tributes at the Bondi Pavillion in memory of the victims of a shooting at Bondi Beach, in Sydney on December 15, 2025. Photograph: (AFP)
According to the local Jewish bodies, 41-year-old rabbi Eli Schlanger, a community leader who helped organise the event, was also among those killed in the attack.
A Holocaust survivor and a local rabbi were among the 15 people who were killed in the deadly terrorist attack in Australia’s Bondi Beach. On Sunday (Dec 14), two gunmen opened fire at people gathered at the iconic tourist location for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The attack, which targeted the Jewish community, also injured more than 40 people.
The international Chabad organisation, which represents a branch of Hasidic Jews, said that a Holocaust survivor, identified as Alex Kleytman, was killed in the attack. In a statement, the group said that he lost his life while trying to shield his wife from the bullets.
“A native of Ukraine and Holocaust survivor, he was attending his wife Larisa,” the body said in a statement. “He died shielding her from the gunman’s bullets.”
According to the local Jewish bodies, 41-year-old rabbi Eli Schlanger, a community leader who helped organise the event, was also among those killed in the attack.
“Anyone who knew him knew that he was the very best of us,” Alex Ryvchin from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said. “This was a person who rose each day with a simple mission of doing good. Whatever good he could find, whatever kind deeds he could perform.”
A French citizen, Dan Elkayam, was also killed in the terror attack. French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his sadness for the victim, who was an amateur footballer building a new life in Sydney.
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“It is with profound sadness that I learned of the death of our compatriot Dan Elkayam in the anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Sydney,” Macron wrote on social media. Sydney’s Rockdale Ilinden football club said that Elkayam was an “extremely talented and popular figure amongst team mates.”
The youngest victim who died at Bondi Beach during the shooting was a 10-year-old girl who died in a children’s hospital, police said. The oldest victim who was killed by the gunmen was 87-years-old.
Another 42 people, including two police officers, were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.
