Powerful message delivered at USYD vigil

The University of Sydney, led by its Jewish staff and students, held a moving National Day of Mourning event at midday on January 22, with speakers including staff member Sabina Kleitman, whose 87-year-old father, Alex Kleytman, was murdered in last month’s Bondi Chanukah terror attack.

Fifteen memorial candles were lit, the audience of more than 100 observed a minute’s silence, the uni’s Jewish chaplain Rabbi Eli Feldman and staff member Dr Joseph Toltz recited memorial prayers, and concluded the ceremony by singing Oseh Shalom and Waltzing Matilda.

Sabina Kleitman showed the last photo ever taken of her parents together – smiling at the Chanukah by the Sea event moments before the gunfire began – a photo that was taken by Peter Meagher, who like Alex, was murdered at the event, along with 13 others.

“We immigrated to Australia in 1992 from the former Soviet Union,” she said.

“My father survived the Nazis, and survived persecution [in Russia and Ukraine]. His present to us was to live in a country which was a safe haven for us, which it was for many years. But his life was taken in a bloodbath at Bondi Beach.

“In the past two years, I was telling him the story of what was happening here – the antisemitism – and he was very distressed.

“I’m very grateful to you all for coming today.

“My dad loved Australia with all his heart.

“He was a civil engineer here for 25 years . . . he documented ways to make the Sydney Harbour Bridge safer, he gave that to the authorities, and it was fixed, making the bridge safer for everyone – even for the people who chanted “Intifada” in their march on it a few months ago.”

She then delivered a very powerful message.

“Please don’t be silent when you see antisemitism, [as] we are a very vulnerable community.

“I have a very simple rule: If somebody tries to tell you, in whatever way – allegorical, metaphorical, or directly – that they want to kill us, that is hate speech.

“That’s [chants of] Intifada, and it doesn’t matter what that word means to you – the only thing which matters is what it means for [when used by] the people who killed my dad, and to us [Jewish people], who know what it means.”You’ve now seen it in real life – so stand up against it.

“Don’t allow hate speech to be a free speech, because it is not – it’s not free from consequences.”

Arielle Melamed, the president of the USYD branch of the Australasian Union of Jewish Students, recalled her experience of the shock, panic, horror and trauma of the night of December 14, as a Jewish resident of Bondi Beach.

“My story pales in comparison to many, but I started hearing reports of shots fired, and then called friends and family, and then a friend in the police, who said, right now, take your menorah from your window.

“We were in fear, in shock, in mourning, and we didn’t yet know how many we would mourn.

“I fell asleep with the lights on, and I woke up in a living nightmare.

“Fifteen were dead, friends were traumatised from running from gunfire, and people I knew were fighting for their lives in hospitals.”

But she also emphasised how from that point, “solidarity from fellow Australians” really started to show, thousands participated in a paddle-out at the beach, visited the memorial site, and donated blood in record numbers.

“And members of the Jewish community became “louder, prouder, and more Jewish than ever before.”

She added, “The memories of those we’ve lost are a blessing, but blessing is not a ‘feel good’ thing, it must be productive and constructive.

“We must cement the light of their memories, as remembrance for the scourge of antisemitism . . . of the scourge of our synagogues on fire repeatedly in 2025 alone, of our schools vandalised with swastikas, of university staff and students harrassed, our daycare centres and cars firebombed, and eventually blood running in our streets.

“We must cement the light of 10-year-old Matilda Britvan, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, Alex Kleytman, and all the previous lives we lost – their laughter, their joy, and their sweetness – so that it will never happen again.

“May their memories continue to be a blessing.”

USYD Hebrew and Jewish Studies chair, Professor Michael Abrahams-Sprod, noted how after October 7, Australian Jews and Israelis on campus started to make themselves known to each other, gather, communicate, and support each other, “and the genesis of today’s event here was very quick, and it came from that group, because it was felt that it would be meaningful.

“People are feeling connected, and there is that sense of solidarity.

“Judaism is about doing good, and this is why the state government is supporting the mitzvah campaign, and why it’s so important.

“People have been talking about what they will do to bring meaning to this day – an act of charity, an act of kindness.”

Reflecting on the past two years leading up to December 14, he added, “Like many of the Jewish and Israeli staff here on campus, I too have witnessed shocking events [of antisemitism] for too long.

“And I simply want you all to reflect on the fact that – and we should know this anyway because we’re at an academic institution – that words matter, and words can kill.

“And we’ve seen it in action.”

USYD chancellor David Thodey reiterated that “the university will stand with the Jewish community, we will not abide hate, we will not abide bigotry.

“We will not allow any bias to come on this campus as we go forward.

“Now, we cannot guarantee that, but we want to be very clear that that’s what we stand for as a university.”

And USYD vice-chancellor Mark Scott told the gathering, “Our hearts go out with this terrible loss, for the grief and the trauma in the community.

“We stand with our Jewish colleagues, our Jewish staff, our Jewish students. [Know] our rejection of the hatred, and the antisemitism, that underpinned this atrocity, and the recognition that as a community here – as a big, vast, complex community of 100,000 people – we not only have to do better, but we have to be a model of all that is good in modern Australia.

“Where no-one should be frightened of gathering, of celebrating their faith, of being part of an active community.

“We need to have this in modern Australia, but we also need to have this here at the University of Sydney – as a complex, dynamic ecosystem like this, where we will have divergence of views, and we will have debate.

“We need to find a way to be able to do that respectfully, civically and civilly, in a way that makes all feel part of this community, respected, and welcome.”