Bondi shooting: Matilda’s family gives thanks for 10 years of joy at heartbreaking funeral

A week before she died at Bondi Beach, 10-year-old Matilda won a writing prize at her primary school’s end-of-year presentation day she expected would go to a friend — a sign the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants was thriving in the city of beaches and sun.

Matilda’s classmates shared the story in a letter they co-wrote that was read out by the family’s rabbi at her funeral on Thursday, describing a warm and happy girl who loved to dance and always welcomed strangers.

As some 300 mourners listened, many quietly crying, Rabbi Yoram Ulman described her as the “genuinely the most caring, kind, compassionate young girl, who brightened everyone’s day”.

“Matilda had a strength and joy for life we will always cherish and remember,” Rabbi Ulman said. “That joy overcame the sorrow that she left because it was still better to have her for those ten years.”

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns read a poem provided by her family, Ode to Matilda, inspired by the unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda. Parents Michael and Valentyna were so grateful to have found refuge from the Soviet Union in their new country, where they felt safe and free, they took their daughter’s name from the song.

“She bore the name Matilda to honour this great land,” Mr Minns said. “Australia’s heart and spirit, forever hand in hand.

“Now angels gather softly, their wings a silken shroud. And Heaven holds her closely, far above the cloud.

“A spirit like a swagman’s will never fade away. She’s waltzing with the angels, where love will always stay.”

Happy accident

With an older son from an earlier marriage, Valentyna did not plan to have Matilda, according to Rabbi Ulman. Once the baby arrived, the couple were so happy they decided to have a second child, a girl, who was born three years later. That sister had one ambition in life: to be like her older sister.

As she left the Jewish memorial hall in Woollahra, a suburb near Bondi, holding her husband’s hand, Valentyna clutched a child’s teddy bear.

Many mourners, including her parents and some of the police officers protecting them, wore stickers with the image of a bee, a name often substituted for Matilda’s surname, which the family asked be kept private.

Governor-General Sam Mostyn consoled relatives after the short service. Other politicians present included Liberal leader Sussan Ley, NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloan and Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Matilda’s body was taken in a small white coffin to Botany Cemetery in southern Sydney, the sixth, and youngest, of the 15 victims of Australia’s worst terrorist attack laid to rest. The first funeral, held Wednesday morning, was for Rabbi Ulman’s son-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger.

Grief and anger

Among the grief, there was anger. Several mourners expressed fury about the violence that has built up towards Jews since October 8, 2023, when a large group of men marched to the Sydney Opera House and chanted, according to the police: “Where are the Jews!”

“This is globalise the intifada: burying a 10-year-old child,” said Chana Friedman, a mother-of-five who knew several of the victims.

An online appeal has raised $782,304 for Matilda’s family. A short video clip from Sunday afternoon showed the ten-year-old at the ill-fated Channukah by the Sea event watching Rabbi Schlanger wrap a leader strap around her father’s arm seven times, a ceremonial religious act known as Tefillin. She dances, seeming completely carefree.

A funeral was held in the same hall earlier Thursday for 87-year-old grandfather Alexander Kleytman, who was shielding his wife Larisa when shot.

At the nearby Chabad in Bondi synagogue on Thursday afternoon a service was held for 78-year-old victim Tibor Weitzen, who emigrated from Israel in 1988. Mr Minns and other mourners were frisked as they entered the synagogue for his service.

Reuven Morrison, the 61-year-old man videoed throwing an object at shooter Sajid Akram after his shotgun was take away, was buried in Melbourne on Thursday.