{"id":348820,"date":"2025-12-15T04:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T04:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348820\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T04:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T04:26:14","slug":"beloved-rugby-volunteer-killed-at-bondi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/348820\/","title":{"rendered":"Beloved rugby volunteer killed at Bondi"},"content":{"rendered":"

A beloved rugby volunteer and photographer was on assignment when he was killed during the Bondi terror attack.<\/p>\n

Peter Meagher is one of at least 15 people killed when Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed Akram, 24, opened fire on a Hanukkah event on Sunday night, sparking chaotic scenes as hundreds of people fled the beach, screaming and running, as gunshots rang out. Sajid was also shot dead by police.<\/p>\n

Mr Meagher is understood to have been on assignment at Bondi Beach when the shooting took place.<\/p>\n

A stalwart volunteer of the Randwick Rugby Club, Mr Meagher\u2019s death is understood to have \u201crocked the community\u201d.<\/p>\n

In a post, the Support Grassroots Rugby page remembered Mr Meagher as someone who \u201cserved our country up holding our safety and laws\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA former police officer who gave his time and loyalty to the club,\u201d the account said.<\/p>\n

\"Beloved<\/p>\n

Beloved photographer and rugby volunteer Peter Meagher is among the 16 people killed. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter had made a career out of his hobby photography after retirement and was on assignment at Bondi.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe actively gave back to society through his love of our sport, giving tirelessly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Elkayam <\/p>\n

A French soccer player killed during the Bondi massacre has been remembered by his Sydney team as \u201cextremely talented\u201d and popular among his teammates.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old was remembered in a heartfelt tribute from his inner-city Sydney football club, Rockdale Ilinden FC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with extreme shock and sadness to discover our Premier League 1 player \u2013 Dan Elkayam \u2013 was a victim of the horrendous, tragic, and senseless events at Bondi Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cDan was an integral member of our PL1 Squad in 2025 \u2013 who was an extremely talented and popular figure among teammates.<\/p>\n

\"Dan<\/p>\n

Dan Elkayam was identified as one of the victims of the attack. Picture: X<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Mr Elkayam was a Premier League 1 player with Rockdale Ilinden FC. Picture: Rockdale Ilinden FC \/ Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cOur deepest and sincerest condolences to Dan\u2019s family, friends and all that knew him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Elkayam was earlier named by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot as a victim of the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe mourn with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and the bereaved Australian people,\u201d Mr Barrot wrote on social media, vowing France would \u201croot out\u201d anti-Semitism \u201cwherever\u201d it emerged.<\/p>\n

French President Emmanuel Macron said his thoughts were with Mr Elkayam\u2019s loved ones, saying they had \u201cthe fullest solidarity of the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Eli Schlanger<\/p>\n

Eli Schlanger, a beloved rabbi killed in the Bondi Beach terror attack, has also been remembered as a dear friend who \u201cpersonified goodness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Schlanger was the head of the Chabad mission in Bondi.<\/p>\n

An emotional Australian Council of Jewry chief executive Alex Ryvchin, a close friend of the rabbi\u2019s, returned to the scene on Monday just hours after the tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe lived to do acts of kindness. He actually drove around in a car, which I think, said, just do good on it and he would help people light candles, and he would help old people and prisoners and jailers in remote parts of the state. That\u2019s all he did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 and without him we can say that we\u2019ll go on and we\u2019ll rebuild, but you don\u2019t get people like that often, and we\u2019ll be poorer for it. We\u2019ll be weaker for we\u2019ll be worse for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He revealed that the rabbi had welcomed another child into his family just one month ago.<\/p>\n

\"Haus<\/p>\n

The mass shooting targeted Jewish Australians. Picture: NewsWire \/ Christian Gilles<\/p>\n

The rabbi\u2019s family are reeling from the loss, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery happy occasion will now be tinged with our sorrow, because he was a part of every good moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Ryvchin said that his own daughter was \u201cterrified\u201d after the attack, which his family have attended every year with the exception of yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what do you say to kids now? How do you tell them not to be afraid when there\u2019s people at Bondi Beach with weapons, massacring children and women in the elderly?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you not be afraid?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mourners have been told to stay away from not just Rabbi Schlanger\u2019s synagogue in Bondi, but all Jewish institutions, out of fears for the community\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n

The \u201cunprecedented and extremely difficult decision to recommend that all communal institutions are closed until further notice\u201d was announced by the Jewish Board of Deputies on Monday.<\/p>\n

The rabbi\u2019s cousin Zalman Lewis remembered his relative as an \u201cincredible guy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The loss felt \u201cconfusing\u201d and like a \u201cpiece of (their) world (was) just \u2026 missing,\u201d he wrote online.<\/p>\n

The rabbi\u2019s friend Eliezer Tewel also paid tribute online.<\/p>\n

\"OCTOBER<\/p>\n

Alex Ryvchin revealed many of those killed in the attack were his \u2018dearest friends\u2019. Picture: NewsWire \/ John Appleyard<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just doing his job. Showing up. Being the constant, reliable presence for his community,\u201d Mr Tewel wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s where the gut punch lands: He was killed while doing the most basic, kindest, most normal part of our lives. It wasn\u2019t a battlefield. It was a Chanukah party.\u201d<\/p>\n

As authorities work to investigate the horror attack, the list of named victims \u2013 many remembered by community members \u2013 continues to grow.<\/p>\n

Tibor Weitzen<\/p>\n

Grandfather Tibor Weitzen has been identified as the latest victim of the horror attack.<\/p>\n

He was another member of the Bondi Chabad Synagogue and died trying to shield a family friend from the gunfire, who tragically also lost their life, The Australian reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very involved in the family, we saw him as recently as yesterday he was watching our daughter swim in the pool. I didn\u2019t realise that would be the last time we would see him,\u201d grandson Mendy Amzalak said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw his dead body at the park. I was one of the first responders, my family were there for the event and my wife called me so I ran down to the beach with my defibrillator and the shooting was still going. I started treating people and then I came across his body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Levitan<\/p>\n

Rabbi Yaakov Levitan was identified as another victim gunned down in Sunday\u2019s massacre.<\/p>\n

He was a secretary of the Sydney Beth Din and \u201cdeeply involved\u201d in Chabad operations in Sydney, the organisation said in a statement online.<\/p>\n

\"Haus<\/p>\n

Australians are reeling in the aftermath of the horrific attack. Picture: NewsWire \/ Christian Gilles<\/p>\n

Alex Kleytman<\/p>\n

Holocaust survivor and Ukrainian-Australian grandfather Alex Kleytman was also killed in the massacre.<\/p>\n

His wife, Larisa, told the Daily Mail she watched her husband of five decades be gunned down trying to protect her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he was shot because he raised himself up to protect me, in the back of the head,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mr Kleytman was fondly remembered by Mr Ryvchin as an enthusiastic community member.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of my very dearest friends are dead. Their families are now destroyed, their worlds are gone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd some of the people that were killed are just the most gracious, kind, hearted, beautiful human beings.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, there was a man in his 90s, a Holocaust survivor who would always seek me out at every communal event and shake my hand and give me some word of wisdom about media or government and how to handle things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reuven Morrison<\/p>\n

Religious institution Chabad also identified grandfather Reuven Morrison, a member of the community who lived between Melbourne and Sydney, who died in the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a longtime resident of Melbourne, where he and his wife moved to afford themselves a superior education for their daughter, Shaina,\u201d the organisation wrote online.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe remained deeply connected to Sydney, where he continued to do business. A successful businessman whose main goal was to give away his earnings to charities dear to his heart, notably Chabad of Bondi, which organised the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Reuven<\/p>\n

Reuven Morrison was gunned down in the Bondi terror attack. Picture: Stand with Us\/Instagram<\/p>\n

The death of a 12-year-old girl was confirmed by Mr Ryvchin on CNN.<\/p>\n

He told the network a friend had \u201clost his 12-year-old daughter, who succumbed to her wounds in hospital\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know everyone who was (at the festival),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an event where I attend with my family every single year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victim family visas to be fast-tracked: Burke<\/p>\n

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed his department would be fast-tracking visas for relatives of the victims of the attack, ahead of a national cabinet meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the additional things that the community have raised directly with me is because of the number of people who will have family members overseas, not only in Israel, but in other parts of the world, who will want to be able to get them here rapidly for funerals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have set up a specific section of the department rapidly dealing with visa processing at a pace that would not ordinarily be there, to make sure that, given the often speedy nature of funerals in terms of the timeline in the Jewish tradition, to make sure that we maximise the chance for family members to be able to reunited here at the worst of times.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy department will stand ready for any of the outcomes that come out of meeting of national cabinet today with respect to the work that needs to be done on gun laws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved rugby volunteer and photographer was on assignment when he was killed during the Bondi terror attack.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[92041,64,63,27931,89155,192378,192382,192380,192376,192377,192379,760,192381,192383,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-348820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-alex-ryvchin","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-bondi","12":"tag-bondi-beach","13":"tag-dan-elkayam","14":"tag-eli-schlanger","15":"tag-mr-meagher","16":"tag-peter-meagher","17":"tag-rabbi-eli-schlanger","18":"tag-rockdale-ilinden","19":"tag-rugby","20":"tag-sajid-akram","21":"tag-soccer-player-killed","22":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}