Dan Elkayam, French national, laid to rest in Ashdod
Semi-professional soccer player lived in Sydney suburbs, loved to travel and wanted to teach poor kids abroad; his mother mourns: ‘You are gone because you were Jewish’
TIMES OF ISRAEL – Dan Elkayam, a French national who was one of 15 people killed when two gunmen opened fire at the Chanukah by the Sea gathering at Bondi Beach on December 14, was laid to rest on Thursday in Ashdod, Israel.
A 27-year-old IT engineer and semi-professional soccer player, Elkayam had moved to Australia around a year before he was killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack.
A memorial event was also held in Sydney earlier this week, after which his body was flown to Israel for burial.
His mother, Annie, said at the funeral: “My son, my love, my life. My heart is in a thousand pieces.” She added, “You are gone because you were Jewish, even though you were open to all communities.”
Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasry delivered a eulogy for Elkayam, in which he said that Dan, amid the attack, had jumped on 10-year-old Matilda, who was also killed, to save her from the terrorists’ bullets. Lasry’s words appeared to be the first time it was suggested that Elkayam had died trying to save the girl. The account could not immediately be corroborated.
The mayor also praised Elkayam’s “joy and love of life – a life that was cut off, cruelly, by antisemites, terrorists.”
“Dan loved everyone as they were, but he was deeply rooted in his own Jewish tradition,” he said, paying tribute to the slain soccer player’s “love and modesty,” and noting that he volunteered with at-risk youth.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi was also present at the funeral to represent the government.
Elkayam’s partner, Krystal Troyano, said of Dan: “You were shy, but you had so [many] friends, more than anyone has. You were so quiet, but suddenly, you would open your life and be so honest to anyone.”
“We were living a dream – we knew it, that’s the best part. Thank you for choosing me instead of anyone else, thank you for never giving up on me, thank you for accepting me the way I am and never letting me down,” she said, speaking in English.
Elkayam, who was originally from France, worked in Australia as an IT engineer for NBC Universal, but frequently traveled to France and Israel to spend Jewish holidays with his family.
He and Troyano lived together in the suburbs of Sydney, but frequently traveled throughout Australia and in Southeast Asia.
On a recent trip to Indonesia, the two decided to start a charity to deliver education to poor children, centred around soccer, and had started discussing how to raise funds for it.
“Dan was friendly to everyone,” Krystal told The New York Times earlier this week. “It didn’t matter to him their religion, colour of skin or what they earned. Since he died, our friends came together, Catholics, Muslims, people without religion. He never differentiated and he had the ability to unite people.”
A lifelong soccer player, Elkayam played for France in the Maccabiah Games, the worldwide Jewish sporting competition, and was planning to compete on the national team in next summer’s games as well.