Nation’s Innocence Stolen by Barbaric Hatred

There were no words goodbye. In a moment she was gone. She was not afraid to die; no one so young has reason to think of it. Cruelly, she was killed by someone afraid of life.

Matilda Bee Britvan was born in Australia in November 2015. Her family had left Odesa in Ukraine for a peaceful life in the New World. They had reason to do so. On Dec. 14, 2025, the day Sydney’s Jewish families gathered at Bondi Beach for the first evening of Hanukkah, marking a time when Jews finally threw off yet another oppressor, Odesa came under attack.

The hours-long assault included killer drones and guided missiles dispatched by Vladimir Putin’s barbarian forces and was designed to claim lives and damage infrastructure.

Across the world, in their homeland, and this month in Australia, once but no longer a southern hemisphere haven, Jews are under attack again. It used to be that the ancient hatreds of those who came here were parked at portside passport-control desks on the piers where we welcomed the boats that surfed in on the tidal waves of Arthur Calwell’s post-war immigration revolution.

But today, imported spite and contempt fester in nests of hateful racism in our suburbs. It danced in untamed riotous threat and glee on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on Oct. 9, 2023. It mingled with the wilfully naive marchers across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Aug. 3, 2025, when the short winter shadows of al-Qaida and Islamic State flags and a poster of women-hating Iranian mass murderer Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pictured with one of the tools of his trade, a rifle, were noted only by those looking for them. The following day NSW police expressed relief that no one was injured or killed during the “perilous” demonstration. That would come.

Enemies of the Australian project had claimed the famous Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Where next? In hindsight it seems so obvious.

 Lost on or in the days after the shootings at Bondi Beach were some of our most valuable and loved people. Fourteen men and women whose sacrifice, goodwill and simple neighborliness raised the prospect of a better Australia. And one child called Matilda, because Jewish Australians wish to fit in and that was the most Australian name her parents could think of for their beautiful daughter, their firstborn Australian child.

The dead were:

Tania Tretiak, a Randwick grandmother whose Jewish husband was badly injured at Bondi. Tania died trying to protect a child.

Boris Tetleroyd was listed as missing for some days. A son posted on social media: “Please help me find my father.” A talented musician, the hard worker was popular on his street and in his community.

Adam Smyth, 50, lived at Bondi and was walking that night with his wife, Katrina. They had four children. He loved the English Premier League, the Sydney Swans and the NRL’s Manly Sea Eagles.

No one knew Sofia and Boris Gurman were heroes. They appeared to be normal locals walking the street of Bondi when they spotted men unfurling a homemade Islamic State flag in a car parked on Campbell Parade. Boris saw Sajid Akram remove a gun from the vehicle. He was smart enough to know what that meant and tackled the killer. He wrested the gun away from the assassin but, as we now know, the terrorist had others and shot dead both Gurmans.

Edith Brutman was another local and may well have known the Gurmans. She was clever, devoted and helped run an anti-prejudice and anti-discrimination committee.

Grandmother Marika Pogany also lived locally and was sitting in the front row of the Hanukkah celebrations. She had arrived in Australia from Czechoslovakia in 1968 after the Prague Spring, in which Soviet Union boss Leonid Brezhnev crushed the idea of a human face on communism. She became an Australian four years later. Her family’s statement noted: “Deeply devoted to her community, she gave her time and heart in service to others, delivering meals and helping people in need, embodying love in action.”

 Peter Meagher served four decades as a NSW policeman and had retired to photograph social events, which is what brought him to the Hanukkah event. His family said he also spent “countless hours doing volunteer work in retirement including in various roles for his beloved Randwick Rugby Union Football Club”.

Tibor Weitzen died protecting a family friend from the gunmen.

So did Ukrainian-born engineer Alex Kleytman. He and his wife Larisa had been married 50 years. They were parents to two and grandparents to 11. Theirs had been a hard life of challenges, world war and resilience. Alex had helped build the 2000 Olympic Games stadium.

Gentle young Frenchman Dan Elkayam, an IT engineer aged 27, was shot in the back after playing football on the beach with friends and staying for the lighting of the Hanukkah candles. His partner was Australian and the keen scuba diver had chosen to spend his life here.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, was known by everyone in Bondi, and he was known around the world. Weeks earlier he had witnessed the birth of his fifth child, a boy. No Australian who witnessed his weeping and shaking but brave father-in-law, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, speaking of him at his funeral, will forget that epitome of courageous resilience at which there was no hate expressed for anyone.

Reuven Morrison was a friend of Melbourne Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann who, of course, also knew Rabbi Schlanger. Kaltmann said: “I am heartbroken that Reuven Morrison, the most incredibly generous, beautiful father and grandfather, has now passed.”

Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, 39, had a wife and four children. His death was big news in Israel. His friend Michoel Gourarie said: “He was such a good husband, an amazing and caring father, and a great friend, my friend, your friend and so many people’s friends.”

And then there was the beautiful Matilda. She was photographed with her younger sister, Summer, reaching for giant bubbles minutes before she was shot by an assassin’s heavy-gauge bullet. Summer, once asked what she wanted to do in life, replied “to be like Matilda.” The girls had their faces painted, Matilda with a blue dolphin rising from her left cheek and around her left eye. They had been petting animals on the beach, surrounded by the families casually celebrating Hanukkah by the sea, the little girl dressed in yellow for the occasion.

“It happened in front of Summer, all in front of her eyes, she saw it all,” her aunt Lina said through tears. “We are beyond understanding that this happened.”

Her parents and friends did everything they could to stop the bleeding from Matilda’s limp body before she was rushed to hospital after suffering a gunshot wound to her stomach. As friends queued to donate blood in a bid to save her life, Matilda slipped away.

“Her sister was with her grandmother, and she was asking: ‘Is my sister dead?’” Lina said. “She couldn’t sleep. How do you explain that to a little girl? We thought she would be OK. You never think this will happen in Australia; now we will never be happy again.”

You wonder if her killer and the like-minded who live among us, are even aware of such innocence; if, balanced on the edge of sleep at night, they might think of Matilda’s painted face – the face of an angel they will never meet.

Alan Howe is the history and obituaries editor at The Australian and has been a senior journalist on London’s The Times and Sunday Times, and the New York Post. 

Originally published in The Australian. Reprinted with permission.