The Maccabees of Bondi Beach
Nicole Wizman
On Hanukkah night, amid terror and confusion, the true story was written by Jews who ran toward danger to protect one another
Gefen Bitton / Cayli Barr / gofundme.org
On the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish community was thrust into another nightmare, when at least 15 people were killed and more than 40 wounded in a mass shooting by a father-son duo at a Chabad event in Bondi Beach. Those killed in the attack included a 10-year-old named Matilda Bee Britvan, whose family moved to Australia to escape the war in Ukraine, and Alex Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor killed while trying to shield his wife. Australian authorities later confirmed that the gathering had been deliberately targeted and meticulously planned, marking one of the deadliest antisemitic attacks in the country’s history.
In the hours and days that followed, one story quickly rose above the rest. Footage circulating online showed a heroic bystander, later identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed, rushing toward one of the attackers and wrestling a gun out of the terrorist’s hands.
As the footage spread rapidly across social media and news broadcasts, it soon came to dominate the public conversation, increasingly framing the attack as a story of Muslim-Jewish reconciliation rather than an act of antisemitic violence, with Ahmed al-Ahmed becoming the central figure through which the massacre was understood. This reframing allows Australia to look away from its deeper failures that made the attack possible. It also obscures another critical fact: that there were many Jews at the event who also behaved with unbelievable heroism and bravery, whose names have been largely absent from the narrative.
It is obvious that the Australian state failed in its fundamental responsibility to protect its people. For one, the attack was perpetuated by an Indian national and his son who had documented ties to ISIS and were on Australia’s intelligence agency radar since 2019—yet had somehow been allowed to stay in the country. For another, missing from most of the coverage is the past two years of increasingly explicit antisemitic rhetoric in Australia, including pro-Palestinian demonstrations featuring chants such as “Gas the Jews” and “Long live the intifada,” alongside repeated acts of vandalism against Jewish places of worship. There are also allegations that the police failed to act with adequate haste to protect the Jews at the event.
Hanukkah commemorates that insistence on Jewish strength and dignity. We are not victims waiting in the dark for someone else to save us.
Survivor Vanessa Miller recalled that as gunfire rained down, police were “standing there, listening, and watching this all happen, holding me back” as she tried to convince them to let her take the gun off the wounded officer and shoot at the terrorists. Miller was not alone in her impulse to defend the community, acting on the understanding that no meaningful protection was forthcoming from the authorities.
Reuven Morrison, a member of the local Chabad known for his generosity and for donating earnings to charity, lost his life while confronting the gunmen in his own bid to protect the Jewish community. According to his daughter, Sheina Gutnick, in an interview with CBS, Morrison ran toward the danger as soon as the shots rang out, hurling bricks at one of the attackers in an attempt to disrupt the assault and slow the carnage. “I believe after Ahmed managed to get the gun off the terrorist, my father had then gone to try and unjam the gun, to try and attempt shooting. He was screaming at the terrorist,” she said. Originally from the former Soviet Union, Morrison had come to Australia to seek safety from antisemitism and to be able to afford a better life for his family. One year earlier (almost to the day), Morrison had warned in an ABC interview that antisemitism was rising and that Jewish vigilance was becoming a way of life again.
Chaya Mushka Dadon, 14, daughter of Chabad Rabbi Menachem and Shterny Dadon, was shot protecting young girls stranded beside their wounded parents, leaving her own hiding place to get to them. She dragged the children to cover and then lay over them, taking a bullet to her thigh while she recited prayers. Chaya refused to move a limb until help came and her father found her. Her surgeons later removed the bullet, and she is expected to make a full recovery. The little girls she flung herself over also are safe thanks to Chaya’s bravery.
Boris and Sudia Gurman, a couple in the area when the shooting started, were incredible heroes, with dashcam footage showing Boris exiting his vehicle, running at the terrorist, wrestling with him on the ground, and briefly gaining control of the gun while Sofia rushed close behind. Both were shot during the struggle and pronounced dead at the scene.
Leibel Lazaroff, 20, amid the shooting, rushed to aid a wounded police officer, tore off his shirt to fashion into a tourniquet, pressing it against the officer’s wound. As the attack unfolded, Lazaroff heard his rabbi and mentor, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, screaming that one of the terrorists was advancing toward a van filled with people. Lazaroff pleaded with the wounded officer to act, asking for the officer’s weapon, and telling him he was licensed, trained, and knew how to use it. Before anything further could happen, Lazaroff was shot and wounded. He survived, but watched his rabbi and mentor be murdered feet away. Lazaroff is currently recovering in the ICU. Those who know him say he understood the risk he was taking and accepted it anyway.
Geffen Bitton, 30, an Israeli who had been living in Australia for roughly three years, has recently been identified as the man in the red T-shirt who ran behind Ahmed al-Ahmed to confront and disarm the terrorist. Bitton initially escaped to safety, but when he saw one of the attackers advancing near the footbridge, he turned back. In the moments that followed, Bitton was shot, fell to the ground, and was shot again. He remains in intensive care, unresponsive, after undergoing multiple surgeries for severe internal injuries caused by shattered pelvic bone fragments. Friends say his decision to run back was instinctive, a reflection of who he is. His father has since flown to Sydney to be by his bedside as friends and family keep vigil.
These are the stories that deserve recognition. All who intervened, Ahmed al-Ahmed and the Jewish community members who rushed toward danger, are heroes. But their stories hold a message for the Jewish community specifically: We must remember who we are. We are lions. The Maccabees understood this when they faced impossible odds and refused to submit. Hanukkah commemorates that refusal, that insistence on Jewish strength and dignity in a world that has never guaranteed our safety.
In an antisemitic climate where leaders offer empty platitudes in lieu of protection, we cannot afford to forget our own power. We must tell these stories of Jewish heroism because, evidently, no one else will. The murdered and wounded of Bondi Beach were defended by those who understood that Jewish survival demands Jewish courage. To be proud, celebrate without fear, and take up space. As we light the final Hanukkah candles this year, these heroes remind us: We are not victims waiting in the dark for someone else to save us. We are the light that pushes back.
Nicole Wizman is The Scroll’s editorial intern.
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