Balloons and bumblebee stickers: Matilda, 10, remembered as funerals held for Bondi victims

Matilda had been enjoying the petting zoo at the Chabad-organised “Chanukah by the Sea” event on Sunday when she was shot and killed in the deadliest terror attack in Australia this century. Fourteen other people were killed, with around 40 injured.

Matilda was remembered by her school as a “little ray of sunshine” who spread joy to those around her, and by her aunt, Lina Chernykh, as “full of life and happy”.

Speaking to the BBC, Chernykh urged the public to “spread happiness” in her niece’s memory.

"Take your anger and … just spread happiness and love [in] memory for my lovely niece," Ms Chernykh said.

"I hope maybe she's an angel now. Maybe she [will] send some good vibes to the world."

Her parents who met in Australia, were forced to hide their Jewish identity previously when they were living in the Soviet Union. Her father, Michael, who migrated to Australia from Ukraine, told reporters at a floral tribute that he named her Matilda because he thought it was “the most Australian name that could ever exist.”

“Remember her name,” he said.

Matilda’s mother, Valentyna, told mourners during the funeral that her family came to Australia more than a decade ago thinking that the country would be a safe place for them.

The funeral house was not big enough to accommodate all the mourners so guests congregated outside too. 

Speaking outside the funeral, Rabbi Dovid Slavin told reporters the shooting was every parent's "worst nightmare".

Matilda "never got to live the life that was really hers" that was so "brutally taken away", he said.

"Somehow, we have to find the joy, we have to find the positivity, and continue to move, but never forget this precious child.”

He added: “Matilda’s only crime was trying to come to one of the most iconic places in this country and perhaps around the world, for an event that wasn’t an extreme sport of some sort, but this is a family get-together in the most pristine, beautiful, loving, inclusive way, and for it to finish this way – [it is] heartbreaking”.

Matilda’s funeral took place on Thursday shortly after Holocaust-survivor Alex Kleytman’s.

Family and friends said Kleytman, who was killed while trying to protect his wife, was “incredibly loving”. With two children and 11 grandchildren, he is said to have tightly preserved his Jewish heritage. His daughter, Sabina, told reporters he died “doing what he loved most – protecting my mother, probably saving her life, and standing up and being a proud Jew.”

Tibor Weitzen, a great-grandfather who moved to Australia from Israel in 1988, was also laid to on Thursday. He was killed as he tried to protect his family from gunfire, according to Chabad.

Weitzen was affectionately known as “the lollipop man” due to his habit of handing out sweets to children at shul. He was a “beloved” member of the Bondi Chabad Synagogue, and his granddaughter, Leor, said of him that he was “truly the best you could ask for.”

The funeral for another Jewish victim, Reuven Morrison, 62, took place in Melbourne, also on Thursday, with thousands of people turning up to pay their respects. He has been identified by his daughter, Sheina, as the man seen in widely circulated footage throwing bricks at one of the gunmen.
The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann as saying Morrison was a modern “Judah Maccabee”.