Jewish woman ‘lucky to be alive’
Yvonne Wineberg was stabbed by the attacker and it is understood she was helped by another member of the Jewish community, who pulled her into the Chanel store.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel was one of many members of the Jewish community to visit the growing floral tribute in Bondi Junction, honouring the six people senselessly killed in Westfield shopping centre on Saturday afternoon in what many initially feared could be a terror attack.
The tragic stabbing incident that claimed the lives of Ashlee Good, Dawn Singleton, Faraz Tahir, Jade Young, Pikria Darchia and Yixuan Cheng has shocked the country and the community, having taken place in the heart of Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
With Westfield closed, people have been laying flowers, lighting candles and leaving condolence messages in a designated area just outside the shopping centre.
“I was called out to support the community at the tribute,” Rabbi Kastel told The AJN.
“It was a very special place where people of all backgrounds came together to mourn and support each other. We comforted each other and shared our hopes for a better world. While we are shocked, we also paid tribute to all those who responded.
“Many people were very shaken and just wanted to be with others to share and feel a sense of togetherness and community. I also met many people from the Jewish community who wanted to be there and show solidarity.”
A number of Jewish community members were caught up in the horror that began to unfold just after 3pm on Saturday. Yvonne Wineberg was stabbed by the attacker and it is understood she was helped by another member of the Jewish community, who pulled her into the Chanel store.
Wineberg’s daughter Bella later released a statement, saying: “On behalf of my family, I’m grateful to update everyone that our mum has been discharged from the hospital and is doing well with a smile on her face. We appreciate the outpouring of support and well wishes. She just left now, but she’s in good spirits, which is good.”
He husband, Isaac Wineberg, told Sky News she was “lucky to be alive”.
“She felt someone had punched her very hard in the back,” he said. “She didn’t even see the guy. She didn’t know she was stabbed until she turned around and saw the guy with the knife and then she touched her back and there was blood everywhere.”
The killer was named as 40-year-old Joel Cauchi of Queensland, but not before innocent Jewish man Benjamin Cohen was wrongly accused of being the attacker.
Cohen’s name began circulating on X late on Saturday night, leading Channel 7 to incorrectly name him on-air and in an online video. Channel 7 blamed “human error” for the stunning blunder, while Cohen, a first-year UTS student, said the mistake was “highly distressing” for him and his family.
“It’s extremely disappointing to me to see people mindlessly propagating misinformation like this without even the slightest thought put into fact checking,” he told The Australian.
“But what’s even more disappointing to me is a major news network doing this, using my name without waiting for a statement from police to verify this or going out to try and verify it themselves.”
Sydney was rocked by another stabbing incident on Monday night, when a teenager’s alleged attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley sparked a riot by a furious mob of about 2000 people. NSW Police declared it a terrorism act.
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