Sacred Jewish devotion met murderous antisemitism, exposing moral chasm between life-affirming faith and terror ideology.
A newly released video from Bondi Beach has captured a moment that now stands as a searing testament to Jewish faith—and to the barbarity that seeks to extinguish it.
In the footage, Rabbi Eli Schlanger is seen gently helping a man wrap tefillin on the beach, continuing the Chabad movement’s global mission of bringing Torah and mitzvot to Jews everywhere, openly and without fear. To the side, ten-year-old Matilda watches quietly, absorbing a moment of living Judaism—simple, peaceful, and pure.
Minutes later, both were murdered.
They were among more than a dozen Jews slaughtered in the antisemitic terror attack at the Chanukah festival—killed not for politics, not for land, but for being Jewish and living Jewishly.
This was not a battlefield.
This was not a provocation.
This was a mitzvah on a beach.
The contrast could not be starker:
- Judaism: wrapping tefillin, lighting Chanukah candles, affirming life
- Islamist terror: bullets, hatred, and the deliberate targeting of Jews
- Palestinian and allied Arab incitement ecosystems: years of glorifying violence against Jews, exported far beyond the Middle East
Those who excuse, contextualize, or sanitize this ideology—whether through Palestinian statehood rewards after October 7, or silence from Arab governments—share responsibility for the consequences. Terror does not remain local. It travels. And Jews pay the price.
Chanukah teaches that light persists even when darkness attacks. Rabbi Schlanger and Matilda were lighting that light—unarmed, unafraid, faithful. Their final moments expose the truth the world must face: there is no moral equivalence between Jewish life and terror that targets it.
We remember them not only as victims—but as bearers of light.
