The parents of Matilda, the 10-year-old youngest victim of Sunday’s terrorist attack in Bondi, have spoken of their devastation as a crowd of more than 2,000 gathered to honour her and the other 14 people killed.
Valentyna and Michael, Ukrainian immigrants who came to Australia before the Russian invasion, named their firstborn child Matilda because they believed it was “the most Australian name that could ever exist”. Speaking at the Bondi Pavilion memorial, her father fought back tears: “I couldn’t imagine I would lose my daughter here.”
Her mother described the moment of the attack, saying she could not comprehend what kind of monster would shoot a little girl running to her father for safety. “It wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t just a bullet fired from a hill,” she said, pressing her hand to her heart. “It just stays here.”
Rabbi Yossi Friedman read the names of nine victims so far identified, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, retired detective Peter Meagher, Tibor Weitzen, Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, Dan Elkayam, Marika Pogany, Reuven Morrison, Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, and Matilda. Later, the name of Edith Brutman, a vice-president of B’nai B’rith’s anti-prejudice committee, was revealed to the crowd.
Among the mourners was a woman whose cousin escaped narrowly with her two children, dodging bullets on her birthday. She said she had kept her religion private for business reasons, but added: “Not today. It’s time to stand up to those bastards.”
At the entrance to the memorial site, Rivky Shuchat, from Jewish Education Matters, had been collecting donations for the families of the two slain rabbis, who each leave five young children. Nearly $600,000 has been raised in 48 hours. “All we can do now is kindness,” she said. “That’s the only thing we can do.”
