Shloshim held at Bondi

Thousands gathered in the rain for a moving shloshim service at Bondi Pavilion last Sunday, four weeks after 15 people were murdered by terrorists at Chanukah by the Sea.

Reading the names of those killed as he has done thrice daily since the massacre, Rabbi Yossi Friedman said he would not call them victims.

“They were heroes. They were beacons and ambassadors of light, that is how each and every one of them lived their lives,” he said.

“And whilst their lives were taken away from us, their light can never be taken away.”

Massacre survivor Jessica Kahn gave a harrowing account of facing her own mortality.

“The last thing I remember seeing before the terror is the sky full of rainbows, of bubbles, and children everywhere trying to catch them,” she said. “And then the shots began.”

She told of running for cover to a small picnic area, and shielding her daughter’s body with her own. Then, hearing a gunman approaching, she said, “It was time for me to prepare how to die and prepare her for her last moments.

“I said, ‘My darling, go inside yourself. Go inside, into your heart where all the love is, and stay there’,” Kahn said.

“And we lay there for what felt like an eternity, and then, by some stroke of miracle, we survived.”

Michael Britvan, father of 10-year-old Matilda, remembered her as “a typical 10-year-old girl”.

“She loved to laugh, dance, sing, lots of dancing, lots of singing with her sister Summer,” he said.

He thanked everyone who had come to pay their respects at the pavilion and who had contacted his family “with all the kind words and all the support”.

“Also, we would like to thank all the first responders that were there on that day, and we saw that they did everything they could,” he said.

An especially poignant moment was a rendition of a rewritten Waltzing Matilda by singer Ilan Kidron.

NSW Governor Margaret Beazley also spoke, while Bondi lifeguard Anthony Glick recited a blessing.

Noting, “This isn’t the Australia I grew up in,” Holocaust survivor Mark Spiegelman declared, “I want my Australia back” to applause.

Concluding the service, Rabbi Friedman said, “This is only the beginning. It’s the journey of healing that we are now on together.”

On Monday night, a shloshim service was held at Caulfield Shule in Melbourne. Speakers included Perele Goldhirsch, the sister of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, and Sheina Gutnick, the daughter of Reuven Morrison.