Dan Elkayam, a French national who was one of 15 people killed when two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah gathering last week in Sydney, Australia, was laid to rest Thursday in Ashdod.
A 27-year-old IT engineer and semi-professional soccer player, Elkayam had moved to Australia some six months before he was killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack.
A memorial event was also held in his adopted home earlier this week, after which his body was flown to Israel for burial.
His mother, Annie, said at the funeral: “My son, my love, my life. My heart is in a thousand pieces.” She added, “You are gone because you were Jewish, even though you were open to all communities.”
Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasry delivered a eulogy for Elkayam, in which he said that Dan, amid the attack, had jumped on 10-year-old Matilda, who was also killed, to save her from the terrorists’ bullets. Lasry’s words appeared to be the first time it was suggested that Elkayam had died trying to save the girl. The account could not immediately be corroborated.
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The mayor also praised Elkayam’s “joy and love of life – a life that was cut off, cruelly, by antisemites, terrorists.”
Annie, center, is comforted during the funeral of her son Dan Elkayam, who was killed in the mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach in Australia, in Ashdod, December 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
“Dan loved everyone as they were, but he was deeply rooted in his own Jewish tradition,” he said, paying tribute to the slain soccer player’s “love and modesty,” and noting that he volunteered with at-risk youth.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi was also present at the funeral to represent the government.
Friends and family attend the funeral of Dan Elkayam, who was murdered in a the Sydney Hanukkah terror attack, at a cemetery in Ashdod, December 25, 2025. (Tal Gal/Flash90)
Elkayam’s partner, Krystal Troyano, said of Dan: “You were shy, but you had so [many] friends, more than anyone has. You were so quiet, but suddenly, you would open your life and be so honest to anyone.”
“We were living a dream – we knew it, that’s the best part. Thank you for choosing me instead of anyone else, thank you for never giving up on me, thank you for accepting me the way I am and never letting me down,” she said, speaking in English.
באשדוד הובא למנוחות דן אלקיים, מהנדס תוכנה בן 27 שנרצח בפיגוע בסידני. בצילום: בת זוגו pic.twitter.com/tC3fCa1K8b
— אסף פוזיילוב (@pozailov1) December 25, 2025
Elkayam, who was originally from France, worked in Australia as an IT engineer for NBC Universal, but frequently traveled to France and Israel to spend Jewish holidays with his family.
He and Troyano lived together in the suburbs of Sydney, but frequently traveled throughout Australia and in Southeast Asia.
On a recent trip to Indonesia, the two decided to start a charity to deliver education to poor children, centered around soccer, and had started discussing how to raise funds for it.
Dan Elkayam (Instagram, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
“Dan was friendly to everyone,” Krystal told The New York Times earlier this week. “It didn’t matter to him their religion, color of skin or what they earned. Since he died, our friends came together, Catholics, Muslims, people without religion. He never differentiated and he had the ability to unite people.”
A lifelong soccer player, Elkayam played for France in the Maccabiah Games, the worldwide Jewish sporting competition, and was planning to compete on the national team in next summer’s games as well.
On December 14, a father and son opened fire on the Chabad Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach, killing 15 people.
Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the attack, and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram, are accused of targeting a gathering of some 1,000 Jews at the event, in Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996. Police say they both followed the Islamic State terror group ideology, and the younger Akram was recorded saying he was motivated by the Islamic text, the Quran.
Over the past year, Jews in Australia have seen synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital; a trailer filled with explosives was also said to have been intended to cause a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue, but the police later said that was a hoax by organized crime to divert resources.
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