{"id":90773,"date":"2025-12-17T01:21:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/90773\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T01:21:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:21:20","slug":"bondi-beach-survivor-with-san-antonio-ties-recalls-dodging-bullets-to-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/90773\/","title":{"rendered":"Bondi Beach survivor with San Antonio ties recalls dodging bullets to survive"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 As more details are released about the mass shooting at an Australian beach<\/a> Saturday, stories of survival are coming out too.<\/p>\n

One haunting account came from a survivor with a connection to San Antonio. Her uncle is Rabbi Chaim Block of Chabad Center San Antonio, who spoke to KSAT<\/a> about the shooting on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was there with my baby, my little baby who\u2019s 7 months old,\u201d said Chavi, who did not want to use her last name for this story. <\/p>\n

Chavi was there on Bondi Beach when two terrorists opened fire on her favorite Hanukkah celebration. <\/p>\n

>> San Antonio Jewish community mourns family members, victims of Hanukkah shooting in Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns from being this beautiful peaceful event into absolute terror and chaos and people are screaming, \u2018Down, down!\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re on the ground and there\u2019s shooting going on, \u2018da da da,\u2019 all around us. I am on top of my baby trying to shield my baby. He\u2019s crying. He is screaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she turned to run, she looked back at her baby\u2019s stroller.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see my pram right in front of people they\u2019re doing CPR on. I mean, the people that were 1 meter away from me got shot,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Her friend, who was there with young kids, lost her husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was there holding their little 8-week-old baby,\u201d Chavi said. \u201cThe little boy was still holding his hotdog from the carnival. He was still holding his hot dog. We had no idea and he had no idea that his father wasn\u2019t alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She knows almost all of the people who died that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey killed my friend\u2019s grandfather. They killed a Holocaust survivor. They killed my friend\u2019s father. And my other friend\u2019s brother-in-law. I know these people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Chavi\u2019s voice trembled as she talked about the shooters\u2019 motives. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were there to target Jewish people, to kill Jewish children. They killed a 10-year-old girl, Matilda, who I also know,\u201d Chavi said. <\/p>\n

Though she was close to being shot and lost people she knew, Chavi still gathered with family that night to light Hanukkah candles. <\/p>\n

\u201cI got to my in-laws and yeah, we lit the menorah because that\u2019s what us Jews do,\u201d Chavi said. \u201cOur history is entrenched in Jewish bloodshed, and yet we still light the menorah. We still show up. We still pray for peace for the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

Since then, Chavi said another source of light has come from the supportive people around her who are not Jewish. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you know anyone that is Jewish, tell them that you love them, that you support them, that you\u2019re here for them. If you see a Jewish person on the street, tell them. That to me, I think is one of the most important things. It has made me feel less alone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As antisemitism spikes globally, she said the show of love and humanity proves the only thing that lifts the darkness is light. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe increase in light. I mean that\u2019s the whole Festival of Lights, the festival of Hanukkah,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The Jewish community in San Antonio has confirmed they will not cancel any Hanukkah events this week. There are public events every night through Monday, Dec. 22. The Jewish Federation of San Antonio has a full list<\/a> of those Hanukkah events. <\/p>\n

The San Antonio Police Department confirmed there will be increased security at each event as a precaution. <\/p>\n

Read also: <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 As more details are released about the mass shooting at an Australian beach Saturday, stories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30771,28885,41896,28519,82,84,83,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-90773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bondi-beach","11":"tag-hanukkah","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","14":"tag-san-antonio-news","15":"tag-shooting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}