{"id":90876,"date":"2025-12-19T16:53:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T21:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=90876"},"modified":"2025-12-20T20:47:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T01:47:27","slug":"the-most-australian-name-matilda-the-youngest-victim-of-the-bondi-beach-attack-embodies-a-nations-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/the-most-australian-name-matilda-the-youngest-victim-of-the-bondi-beach-attack-embodies-a-nations-grief\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The most Australian name\u2019: Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack, embodies a nation\u2019s grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

By GRACE GILSON<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 The youngest victim of the Bondi Beach Chanukah massacre is known by just one name \u2014 but it\u2019s all that\u2019s needed to make her a symbol for her fellow Australians.<\/p>\n

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A portrait of 10-year-old Matilda, victim of the Bondi Beach shooting, sits on a flower memorial beside Bondi Pavilion on December 17, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (James D. Morgan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI named her Matilda because she was our firstborn in Australia. And I thought that Matilda was the most Australian name that could ever exist,\u201d her father Michael, a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine, said at a vigil earlier in the week. \u201cSo just remember \u2013 remember her name.\u201d<\/p>\n

The poem and song \u201cWaltzing Matilda,\u201d written in 1895, is considered an unofficial anthem in Australia, which has been rocked by the terror attack on Bondi Beach that killed 15 people attending a Chanukah celebration.<\/p>\n

At a vigil on Thursday night at Bondi Pavilion \u2014 a public space now transformed into a memorial flooded with flowers and displays of solidarity \u2014 hundreds of mourners gathered and sang the song to memorialize Matilda, who at 10 was the youngest among the dead.<\/p>\n