Hundreds of mourners bearing bright bouquets and clutching each other in grief gathered at a funeral in Sydney on Thursday for a 10-year-old girl who was gunned down in an antisemitic massacre during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach.
Matilda, whose last name is being withheld at the request of her family, was enjoying a petting zoo at the festivities on Sunday, just before she was killed along with 14 other people in a mass shooting targeting Jews. The suspects, a father and son, were inspired by the Isis group, Australian authorities have said.
Beaming photos of Matilda have become a focal point for Australia’s grief at one of the worst hate-fuelled attacks ever committed in the country. The massacre has prompted a national reckoning about antisemitism and questions about whether the country’s leaders took seriously enough the threat to Australian Jews.
As the ceremony got underway, the girl’s mother was surrounded by supporters, while mourners paid tribute to the child who “loved the outdoors and animals”.
A large plush bumblebee rested atop the casket, and attendees wore matching bee stickers in recognition of her middle name, Bee.
NSW premier Chris Minns was asked to read a poem during the service. “She’s waltzing with the angels,” he said as he read the verses.
Those present also included governor-general Sam Mostyn, federal opposition leader Sussan Ley, NSW opposition leader Kellie Sloane, and federal Labor minister Tanya Plibersek.
This was 10 year old Matilda.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) December 17, 2025
Happy, care free and enjoying a day out at Bondi Beach with her family for Hanukkah.
Shortly after this video was taken, terrorist Naveed Akram aimed his rifle at her and shot her dead as she tried to run to hug her father. pic.twitter.com/QE33Y1ueCX
Matilda’s parents, who arrived in Australia from Ukraine, “moved away from war-torn Eastern Europe to come here for a good life”, Rabbi Dovid Slavin told the Associated Press as he entered the service.
“They did something that a parent is OK to do, take their child to a family event at Bondi Beach,” he added. “If it ended this way, it’s something for collective responsibility for every adult in this country.”
At the funeral, the rabbi read a tribute from teachers at the 10-year-old’s school, who described her as “our little ray of sunshine”.
Matilda, who had been delighted to win a national literacy prize two days before she died, “had an incredible gift to bring joy to those around her”, her school’s tribute said.
Grief overflowed as the coffin was carried out of the hall. Around the mourners, bumblebee balloons bobbed in the afternoon breeze.
Mourners and reporters alike were handed stickers featuring a smiling cartoon bumblebee holding a menorah. Above the image was Matilda’s name printed in purple, her favourite colour.
“I don't want to sound selfish,” Rabbi Slavin said. “But I and many others are thinking, this could have been my child.”
A sign inside the Bondi pavilion bearing the words “Waltzing Matilda” served as a poignant reference to her Ukrainian parents, who chose what they believed was the most distinctly Australian name.
At Sydney’s Chevra Kadisha funeral home in Woollahra, grieving attendees spoke through tears of a friendly, happy child.
They said she enjoyed maths and dreamed of becoming a teacher. One speaker recounted a moment from just a week earlier at her school’s end-of-year presentation, when she squeezed her best friend’s hand, convinced the award was meant for her. Moments later, it was Matilda’s name that was announced.
As Matilda’s coffin was borne outside, the sorrow flowed onto the street that was full of hundreds of mourners. Her family members held one another in tears while the hearse paused, hemmed in by the gathered crowd.
“A child who passes away young, even due to illness, is a huge tragedy because they never got the opportunity to live out their lives and to be what they were, what they could have been,” Rabbi Slavin said.
“Matilda’s only crime was trying to come to one of the most iconic places in this country and perhaps around the world, for an event that wasn’t an extreme sport of some sort, but this is a family get-together in the most pristine, beautiful, loving, inclusive way, and for it to finish this way – heartbreaking, the family, beyond words,” he said.
Rabbi Slavin spoke of how Matilda’s parents, Valentyna and Michael, had been compelled to conceal their Jewish identity while living under the Soviet Union. Both later moved from Ukraine, with Valentyna arriving with her young son and spending four years in Melbourne before moving to Sydney, where she met Michael.
“We see things that we can touch, feel, weigh, but there’s much more that doesn’t meet the eye,” he said. “And the spirit is here and stays here and will never be taken away. It becomes the obligation of each of us who have been touched by Matilda, to see how can we allow her life to be lived and not allow those who robbed her of that.”
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Matilda’s aunt, Lina Chernykh, remembered her as a joyous child who spread love everywhere she went. She told the gathering: “Take your anger and… just spread happiness and love and memory for my lovely niece.
“I hope maybe she’s an angel now. Maybe she [will] send some good vibes to the world.”
Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, who led the service, said: “The tragic, so totally cruel, unfathomable murder of young Matilda is something to all of us as if our own daughter was taken from us.”
“The Jewish ... believe that death is not eternal … it is not because we are naive,” Rabbi Ulman said.
“I’m telling you with absolute conviction that the separation with Matilda is not forever.”
He told Matilda’s grieving parents: “You give me strength at a time when you need strength yourselves. And I try to do the same.”
The day before, Rabbi Ulman had addressed mourners at the funeral of his son-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was among those killed in the Bondi Beach attack.
Earlier, Ms Chernykh said Matilda’s youngest sister “doesn't have enough tears to cry”. She told the BBC she doesn’t believe Matilda’s parents will get over this grief: “I look at their faces [and] I don’t know if they will be ever happy again.”
On Thursday, prime minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a tranche of legislative plans he said would curb radicalisation and hate.
Among his proposals were measures to broaden the definition of hate speech offences for preachers and leaders who promote violence, to bolster punishments for such crimes, to designate some groups as hateful, and to allow judges to consider hate as an aggravating factor in cases of online threats and harassment.
(Additional inputs from agencies)
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